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M&A Advisory Built For Business Owners

The sale of a business is both financial and personal. We bring an enterprise quality sell-side process combined with the care that owner-led companies deserve.

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Our Approach

What Makes C&A Dealmakers Different

1We Understand Owner Reality

You’re not selling a spreadsheet. You’re making a decision that impacts family, employees, customers, and legacy. We understand what’s at stake and build a process that respects it.

2-1We Know Your Business 

Closely held businesses often have:

  • Multiple owners with different goals

  • Active vs. non-active shareholders

  • Succession questions alongside transaction options

  • Nuanced family considerations

3-1We Eliminate Friction

A transaction can create pressure and tension, especially when roles, timelines, and expectations aren’t clear. We bring structure, communication, and clear decision-making so the process feels controlled, not chaotic.

We help business owners evaluate, create, and execute equitable paths. Whether that means a full sale, a recapitalization, or a staged transition.

Eliminating Fragmentation

Continuity Improves Outcomes

Our approach to sell-side M&A is a direct response to the fragmentation common in traditional business brokerage. At C&A you work directly with senior partners and experienced advisors from initial strategy through closing, you will not be handed off to junior resources. This eliminates miscommunication, ensures informed decision-making, and keeps the process coordinated at every touchpoint. This is how value is protected, terms are optimized and owners achieve better outcomes.

Why Sell Side Advisory Is Better For Business Owners
continuity improves outcomes for owners

Traditional Business Brokerage

Sell-Side Advisory

Designed to drive a quick close.
Built to align with goals and maximize overall outcome, not just speed.
Emphasizes headline price over total outcome.
Prioritizes net proceeds, protections, and key terms.
Commonly run day-to-day by junior team members.
Led by senior advisors with specialized expertise.
Marketed broadly through wide list distribution.
Targeted, confidential outreach to best-fit buyers.
Keeps deal structure simple, sometimes oversimplified.
Manages structure deliberately to improve results.
Limited integration with the owner’s broader financial and like goals.
Integrates with tax, estate, and long-term planning.
Greater chance of re-trading, weaker structure, and mismatched buyers.
Stronger terms, higher certainty, and better buyer fit.
Optimizing Outcomes

After Tax Returns Over Headline Price

A rush to close and a big headline price will produce a disappointing result if:

  • Structure shifts risk back to the seller
  • Diligence surprises trigger a re-trade
  • Tax planning is handled late
  • Terms erode economics (escrows, holdbacks, earnouts, working capital)

Our focus:

  • Value + terms + certainty
  • Confidentiality and legacy considerations
  • After-tax proceeds, not vanity metrics
Why Headline Price Is The Wrong Metric
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How We Work

Our Sell Side Advisory Process

Clarify the right path, full sale, recapitalization, or strategic partnership, based on your goals, timing, and what the best buyers will pay for.

Define

Create a defendable valuation narrative by packaging performance into buyer-ready financials and addressing red flags before they become renegotiation points.

Build

Confidentially map and engage the highest-fit strategic buyers and private equity-backed platforms to create real options without disrupting your business.

Indentify

Manage a structured, disciplined process. Controlling information flow, timeline, and access, to drive competition and stronger offers.

Run

Protect seller economics by negotiating LOIs and definitive terms that balance price, structure, and risk, so value doesn’t leak through earnouts, holdbacks, or shifting goalposts.

Negotiate

Quarterback diligence across legal, financial, and operational workstreams to keep momentum, reduce surprises, and prevent process friction from becoming leverage for the buyer.

Coordinate

Pull tax and wealth planning into the deal early so decisions optimize after-tax proceeds and align with your long-term goals.

Integrate

Drive the deal from LOI through closing. Prepping for buyer meetings, aligning stakeholders, and managing details so the transaction closes cleanly on the terms you negotiated.

Execute

Finding The Right Partner

Built For Business Owners Like You

C&A Dealmakers represents owners of closely held businesses where the company is a major part of your net worth, and the exit outcome truly matters. Our  most successful clients:

  • Want a premium outcome, not a rushed “quick close”

  • Care about confidentiality, employees, and legacy, along with price

  • Want a process that stands up to strategic buyers and private equity scrutiny

  • Want to optimize after-tax proceeds, not just headline valuation

The first step is understanding your value.

We offer a no-cost, no-obligation estimate of business value to help you understand where you stand today and what to improve before going to market.

 

 
Our Work

Recent Transactions

Our Clients

What Our Clients Say About Working With C&A

"The Cunningham team has a very unique approach…more than anything else, they listened. The team really wanted to understand where I saw challenges and gaps. It’s much more consultive and detailed."


Warren Dietel, Owner

Puff N' Stuff Catering

"They coach business owners to really implement critical strategies…they can look at your operation, figure out your returns, and then figure out the efficiencies that you can implement in order to save money."

Jonas Angus, President

TPE Solutions

"There’s a peace of mind that comes from knowing that the person that is making the advisory recommendations is also going to be the hub to communicate with other entities that I’m working with."

Brian Sump, Owner

Urban Autocare

Maximize Your Value

Preparation, communication, and transparency are critical in any business sale. Set up a time to talk with our team and learn how C&A does business brokerage the right way for business owners.
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