Martin The Biz Broker

Martin The Biz Broker I help business owners prepare, value, and sell their businesses, and help buyers find and evaluate the right opportunities. Lic # 02372118

I work closely with owners to navigate the process with clarity, confidentiality, and professionalism.

09/16/2026

Do you need to sell your building to sell your business? No. You can sell the business and keep the property, signing a new lease with the buyer and earning rent, or you can sell both together. If you keep the building, a long lease term matters because lenders financing the buyer want the lease to cover the loan period.

09/16/2026

Appraisal: what your business is worth by the standard. Built for lenders, the IRS, and courts.

Market value opinion: what buyers will actually pay, on what terms, and what you keep after tax.

Planning to sell? Start with the market opinion. Anchoring to an appraisal number is how owners get blindsided by LOIs.

09/16/2026

Here is something most business owners do not know until it happens to them. Most businesses that get listed for sale do not actually sell.

I have seen it play out the same way more times than I can count. An owner lists too high, the financials are messy, or the business cannot run without them in the room every day. Buyers notice fast, and interest fades even faster.

The good news is that all of this is fixable if you start early. Clean up your financials. Get a real read on what your business is worth before you pick a number. Start documenting the processes only you know how to do.

Selling a business is not just about finding a buyer. It is about being ready when the right one shows up.

If you are even thinking about selling in the next year or two, now is the time to start preparing, not after you list.

What is holding you back from getting your business ready to sell? Comment below, I read every one.

09/15/2026

Buying a business is not just about the purchase price. One thing that trips up a lot of first time buyers is working capital.

Working capital is basically the fuel that keeps a business running day to day: inventory on the shelf, cash in the bank, money owed to you by customers, and money you owe to vendors. When you buy a business, you usually need enough of this in place on day one to operate normally without an immediate cash crunch.

The tricky part is that sellers price their business assuming a certain amount of working capital comes with it. If that amount is not spelled out clearly in the purchase agreement, buyers can end up short on inventory or cash right after closing, right when they need it most.

The fix is simple. Before you sign anything, make sure the deal includes a clear working capital target and a mechanism for adjusting the price if the actual number at closing is higher or lower than expected.

It is a detail that gets overlooked constantly, and it is one of the easiest ways to avoid a rough first few months as a new owner.

Thinking about buying a business and want to talk through what to watch for? Comment below or send me a message.

09/14/2026

Here is something I tell every business owner who asks about selling: your financials tell the story before you ever say a word to a buyer.

If your bookkeeping has been an afterthought, now is the time to fix that, not after you list. Buyers and their lenders want to see clean, consistent numbers going back three years. Personal expenses mixed into the business, inconsistent bookkeeping, or a P&L that does not match your tax return all raise red flags and slow deals down or kill them.

The good news is this is fixable, and it does not require starting over. It usually means separating personal costs, getting your books current, and documenting the add backs that show your true cash flow.

If you are thinking about selling in the next couple of years, what does your bookkeeping look like right now? Comment below or message me and I am happy to point you in the right direction.

09/14/2026

How do you read a P&L when buying a business? Look at the revenue trend across three years, check whether gross margin is holding, identify the owner salary and personal expenses that become add backs, and confirm rent reflects market rate rather than a below market arrangement that ends at closing. Then compare the P&L line by line to the tax returns. Any gap between the two needs an explanation before you make an offer.

09/14/2026

A buyer finding a problem does not kill your deal. A buyer finding a problem you did not disclose does.

The financial issues that actually cost sellers money:

Books that will not tie to the bank statements.
An unexplained gap between the tax return and the P&L.
Gross margin declining while revenue grows.
Personal expenses buried in cost of goods sold.
Receivables sitting in the 90 plus bucket.
Inventory that is a plug number, not a count.
Payroll or sales tax exposure nobody mentioned.
Related party rent with no documentation.

Almost all of that is survivable. What is not survivable is the buyer deciding, sixty days into exclusivity, that you are not a reliable narrator. That is when the retrade shows up, and it is never really about the dollar amount.

Fix what you can. Disclose the rest in week one.

09/13/2026

What lowers the value of a business? Messy or unverifiable books, heavy owner dependence, customer concentration, a short lease with no renewal option, declining revenue, and unreported cash all reduce the price. Each one raises risk for the buyer and the lender, which pulls the multiple down or kills the deal during due diligence.

09/13/2026

If you are a business owner even thinking about selling someday, here is one thing that will save you time, stress, and money when it happens: clean financials.

I have seen deals fall apart, not because the business was not good, but because the numbers were messy. Personal expenses mixed in with business expenses. Tax returns that do not match the P&L. Nobody could really tell what the business was earning.

Buyers do not just want a good story. They want numbers they can trust. A business with clean, consistent financials sells faster and for a stronger price than one where a buyer's accountant has to untangle things for three months.

If you are even considering selling in the next few years, start now. Get your last three years of financials reconciled. Separate personal expenses out. Work with a bookkeeper who can hand you clean monthly reports.

It is one of the simplest ways to protect the value of what you built.

Have you started organizing your financials with a future sale in mind? Curious how other owners are approaching this.

09/11/2026

Asking price is marketing. Sale price is negotiation. Net proceeds is what you keep.

Overprice and your business sits. Diligence trims earnings and the price follows. Earnouts and seller notes mean the headline is not the check.

Price to create competition. Two credible buyers at a fair ask beat one buyer at a fantasy number.

DM me if you want your number pressure tested.

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Los Angeles, CA

Telephone

+18186333254

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