December 18, 2025
Tom Howard built Fetch-a-Tech from zero to a $6 million EBITDA company in roughly 16 months. The exit produced well over $50 million for the shareholders. But the path from “let’s sell this” to “funds are in the bank” was a grueling process that nearly came apart multiple times. This post is a complete guide to what he learned — and what every trades business owner planning an exit needs to know.
When to Start Thinking About Selling
The most important thing Tom learned about timing was that the market for business sales is not static. In the summer of 2022, he saw prices for trades businesses skyrocketing — reminiscent of the housing market in 2006. He flew to Phoenix to personally convince Tommy Mello to start prepping A1 Garage Door for sale. A few months later, multiples dropped. Tommy got out near the peak.
Tom’s lesson: do not wait until you are ready to sell to start thinking about selling. The conditions that create maximum value — healthy market multiples, clean financials, a strong and independent management team — take time to build. Start preparing at least 12 to 18 months before you plan to go to market.
Running the Process: The Complete Roadmap
Tom outlines the formal sale process in detail. It begins with selecting a broker who has done deals in your industry and at your size. He names Wayne Twardokus from League Park, Fred from SF&P Advisors, and Eric Van Dam from Piper Sandler as people he has worked with directly. Each serves different company sizes and offers different services — do your research and find the right fit.
Before you even engage a broker seriously, commission a Quality of Earnings (QoE) audit from an independent accounting firm. This is a pre-emptive due diligence — your own team finds the problems before buyers do. It costs $30,000 to $100,000 depending on the firm. It is worth every penny. The QoE surfaces anything that would reduce your purchase price during buyer due diligence. Fixing those issues on your own timeline, before buyers see them, is infinitely better than discovering them under pressure mid-process.
Once the QoE is clean, your broker builds the data room and the investor presentation. They market the company to qualified buyers. Interested parties request management meetings. Tom notably chose not to attend the management meetings himself — a tactical decision to demonstrate that the company ran without him. This is a signal buyers want to see: the business is not dependent on the founder.
After management meetings, buyers submit Letters of Intent. You typically receive multiple offers and choose the one that best balances price, buyer quality, and terms. Then comes a 60 to 90 day due diligence period that Tom colorfully describes as “the daily colonoscopy” — comprehensive, thorough, and not something you want to go through unprepared.
What Buyers Are Looking For — And What Kills Deals
Tom is candid about the objections buyers raised during the Fetch-a-Tech process. Two were significant:
First, they only had one year of strong earnings. Buyers prefer three or more years of consistent performance. There was nothing Tom could do about this — the business was only 16 months old. He could only present the two months of prior performance before CCE was acquired and the 12 months after. Some buyers were not interested regardless of the numbers.
Second, 50% of revenue was generated by a single salesperson — Brent Buckley. This is called key-man risk, and it is a significant red flag for buyers. Two firms would not even issue a letter of intent because of it. Tom’s lesson: if you have a star performer who generates a disproportionate share of revenue, invest in training others to reduce the dependency before you go to market.
Other common issues that reduce valuation or kill deals: customer concentration (one client representing more than 15 to 20% of revenue), a management team that cannot operate without the owner, and poor accounting that makes financials unreliable.
Choosing the Right Buyer
Tom and his partners agreed they would not simply take the highest offer. They narrowed to the top three and let the management team — the people who would actually have to work with the buyer — make the final call.
The highest bidder was a firm with no experience in home services. When Fetch’s management team asked about their operational plan, the answer was essentially “we were hoping you would have one.” They passed on the highest offer.
They chose Service Champions from Southern California, a company with a long, proven track record of acquiring, maintaining, and growing companies like Fetch-a-Tech. The choice was slightly less money in the short term and potentially much more in the long run — through earnouts, continued growth, and the employees’ ability to build careers in a company with real infrastructure.
Tom’s framing: choosing a buyer is like getting married. You are not just taking a price — you are choosing a partner.
The Bottom Line
If you are building a trades business with the eventual intention of selling, the decisions you make today determine the multiple you will command at exit. Clean financials. A team that runs without you. Multiple revenue contributors. A clear budget and documented processes. These are not just operational best practices — they are the features buyers pay a premium for. Start building them now, even if a sale is five years away.
