Insights
How good CIMs get written, shared, and read.
Practical notes for business brokers and sellers on the document a buyer decides from, and on keeping a sale confidential while it is out in the world.
CIM basics · 2 min read
What a CIM is, and what belongs in one
The confidential information memorandum is the document a buyer decides from. Here is what it is for, who reads it, and the sections a good one always has.
Read the articleCIM basics · 2 min read
Teaser, CIM, offering memorandum: which document does what
Brokers use several names for the documents that market a business. What each one is, when a buyer sees it, and how much it should reveal.
Read the articleFinancials · 2 min read
Recasting earnings: SDE, add-backs, and showing your work
Seller's discretionary earnings is the number most small-business prices are built on. How the recast works, which add-backs hold up, and why buyers need to see every line.
Read the articleConfidentiality · 2 min read
Keeping a sale confidential: what an NDA does and does not do
Word that a business is for sale can hurt it before any buyer shows up. Where leaks really come from, what the NDA covers, and the controls that matter more than the paperwork.
Read the articleDiligence · 2 min read
What goes in a small-business data room
A practical checklist of the documents buyers and lenders ask for, how to organize them, and what to hold back until there is an accepted offer.
Read the articleBuyers · 2 min read
The questions every buyer asks, and why to answer them first
Serious buyers arrive at nearly the same list of questions. Raising them in the CIM, with the answer and its source, builds more trust than waiting to be asked.
Read the articleBuyers · 2 min read
Reading buyer engagement: telling the serious from the curious
Most people who sign an NDA will never make an offer. What buyer behavior tells you, and how to spend your time on the ones who are actually working the deal.
Read the articleFinancials · 2 min read
Why the financing math belongs in the CIM
Most small-business buyers borrow. If the CIM shows whether the deal carries its debt, buyers and lenders reach a decision faster. A plain guide to payment, coverage and cash to close.
Read the articleTechnology · 2 min read
AI and the CIM: what it does well, and where the broker stays
AI can turn a pile of seller documents into a first draft in an afternoon. It cannot vouch for a number. A practical look at where it helps and where judgment is still the job.
Read the articleTechnology · 2 min read
The PDF CIM and its limits
The PDF has been the default format for the CIM for decades. What it cannot do, what an interactive memorandum changes, and when a PDF is still the right tool.
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