Architecture Firm Ownership Transitions

Allen Business Advisors specializes in ownership transitions for architecture, engineering, and land surveying (A/E/LS) firms. We help architecture firm principals sell to their own people using SBA 7(a) financing so they get paid at closing.

Our target client is an A/E/LS firm with $1 million to $10 million in sales whose owner is ready to plan their exit. We first explore selling to your employees. If that is not viable, we run a structured process to sell to an outside buyer.

If you are weighing an internal sale, start here: selling your architecture firm to your own staff. That page covers the licensure question, what a design practice is worth, how the financing is structured, and what to fix in the years before you leave.

The short version

Licensure narrows the field of buyers. In many states the people who can hold ownership in an architecture practice are licensed architects, which rules out a large share of outside financial buyers before a process even starts. Your senior staff are already licensed and already run the work.

Value in a design practice sits with people rather than equipment, so an outside buyer discounts the price for the risk that those relationships leave. Your own team does not. The obstacle is almost never willingness, it is that most architects assume they cannot afford to buy the practice. With SBA bank financing arranged, employees come in with as little as 5% down and the firm's cash flow repays the loan.

Where to go next

Schedule a Confidential Consultation to discuss your situation.