03 Mar Business Roll Up Strategy
Ask Me Anything: The Nuts and Bolts of Selling a Business in 2025
Question:
My client has been approached by competitor who wants to roll up others in the industry. Their offer is reasonable, but not outstanding. What should they do?
Answer:
When a private equity-backed competitor invades your space, I ask owners one simple question: Do you want to be rolled up, rolled over, or reinvest?
You essentially have three choices:
- Sell (Roll Up): Join them, play ball, and cash out.
- Hold (Roll Over): Try to compete as-is. This is highly risky against a massive new player with deep pockets.
- Buy (Reinvest): Double down and innovate to keep a sharp, competitive edge that your customers value.
This is a deeply emotional choice after a lifetime of building a business. To make the right call, treat your company like a stock in your portfolio. If you read a news story about a giant competitor attacking a company you owned shares in, would you Sell, Hold, or Buy more? You need to evaluate your own business the exact same way.
Takeaway:
When a private equity-backed competitor begins a market roll-up, business owners face a critical choice: sell the company, attempt to maintain the status quo (and risk being overpowered), or double down by reinvesting to create a distinct competitive advantage. Ultimately, owners must look past the emotional attachment to their business and evaluate it objectively—just like a stock portfolio—to decide whether it is time to sell, hold, or “buy” back into their own growth.
During the 2024 Managing and Accounting Practice (MAP) Conference hosted by the Massachusetts Society of CPAs (MassCPAs), Beacon Equity Advisors presented an AMA (Ask Me Anything) to the CPA firm partners attending. We thought we would share some of their questions and our answers.