After years of hard work, long hours and dedication to growing your business, you have decided to sell. Perhaps you have been contemplating selling for awhile and were waiting for the right time. Perhaps you are hearing from more and more peers who have sold over the past few years. Maybe the latest potential buyer to call you seems like a great fit to grow the company from here. Regardless of the reason, selling a business is a significant milestone, requiring not only preparing the business for sale, but also ensuring personal financial readiness before you close (and ideally before you sign that Letter of Intent).
And while you may be ready, just as importantly, there are likely quite a few interested buyers looking to talk to you. While other industries experienced a slowdown in closed deals since 2022, which is just now starting to reverse, the environmental services and waste management industries largely dodged the broader trends and continued to see ongoing consolidation. As we head into 2025, the major players continue to signal aggressive M&A intentions. With significant liquidity available to pursue these strategies and a positive macroeconomic backdrop, the coming years could continue to represent an attractive opportunity for businesses in this space ready to transition to new ownership.
At the same time, it’s wise to take a thoughtful approach to sale readiness before jumping into discussions with potential buyers. With time and the right team and process, buyers can optimize outcomes for themselves as well as the business and its other stakeholders.
