Tidewater Business Brokerage is the business broker Illinois owners hire when the goal is the highest value, not the fastest sale. We sell businesses in Chicago, Arlington Heights, Skokie, and Gurnee, backed by a buyer network 27 years in the making.
Wherever you are in Illinois, there is a Tidewater team that knows your buyers. Find yours below.
Serving Cook County and the greater Chicagoland metro
Serving the Northwest suburbs and the I-90 corridor
Serving the North Shore and northern Cook County
Serving Lake County and the I-94 corridor to the Wisconsin border
Most Illinois businesses sell to a buyer who was never on the owner’s radar. Our job is to find that buyer, substantiate them, and bring a real offer to the table before your competitors or employees even know you are selling.
Selling a business in Illinois comes with a trap. There are more potential buyers in the Chicago metro than almost anywhere else in the country, so owners assume a local broker already has access to them all. What a local broker cannot do is get those buyers bidding against each other. When only one buyer is at the table, that buyer sets the price. When five qualified buyers want the same company, you do. The difference between those two outcomes can be hundreds of thousands of dollars, and on a larger deal, millions.
Getting buyers to compete is our job, and it is what we do well. We know the Illinois market firsthand, from Cook County manufacturers to Lake County service businesses, and we put your company in front of a national and global buyer network plus 2,100+ private equity firms looking to acquire businesses like yours. Because we also sell businesses across the Wisconsin border, Illinois owners reach buyers in two states, not just one.
Virtually every sale follows the same path we have used since 1997, from valuation and marketing through buyer screening, negotiation, due diligence, and close, all handled with best efforts to protect your confidentiality. Whether your company does $1 million or $50 million in revenue, the majority of your market will not know you sold until after closing.
International Business Brokers Association, so you know the team handling your sale meets the highest bar in the industry
Affiliated with the premier alliance of middle market M&A intermediaries
Accredited with the Better Business Bureau with top marks for trust and transparency
Hundreds of thousands of national and international prospective buyers and 2,100+ PE firm relationships providing maximum market exposure
Your Illinois business broker backed by global networks
You only sell a company once, which means there is no practice run and no second attempt to get the price right. The owners who do best are not the ones who happen to find a buyer. They are the ones who started planning a year or two before they sold, with someone who could tell them what the business was worth and what would make it worth more. That is the conversation we have with Illinois owners every week, whether they are ready to sell right away or just starting to think about it. Once you know what your business is actually worth, you run it differently between now and the day you sell.
Answers to common questions from Illinois business owners considering a sale, valuation, or confidential consultation.
An Illinois business broker manages your sale from start to finish so you can keep running your company. That means setting the right price, finding and vetting buyers, handling negotiations, managing due diligence, and coordinating the closing. Unlike selling real estate, there is no public listing and no sign in the window. The whole process stays confidential, so your employees, your customers, and your competitors do not find out until the deal is done.
Hire a brokerage if you want the highest possible value and a clean exit. The owners who try to sell alone usually reach fewer buyers, accept the first offer that comes in, and give up months of their own time managing a process they have never run before. We handle all of it, from finding multiple qualified buyers to managing due diligence, while keeping the sale confidential. And because we work on a success fee, we only earn when your deal closes on terms you accept.
Owners who sell independently typically close at 20 to 40 percent below full market value. A broker brings pricing accuracy, qualified buyer outreach, and negotiation expertise that consistently produces a stronger outcome and more favorable terms. The likelihood of a transaction closing also improves significantly when an experienced expert manages the process.
Tidewater works on a success fee with no upfront cost. Our compensation structure is designed to align our interests with those of our clients, with the majority of compensation tied to a successful transaction outcome rather than upfront fees or monthly retainers.
Business brokerage typically covers companies under $5M in revenue, while M&A advisory handles larger, more complex transactions. Tidewater offers both under one roof, matching the right level of expertise and attention to each engagement regardless of size.
You find out by getting a real valuation, not a number from an online calculator. We start with the last four years of your books, because that track record is what buyers and lenders trust when they decide what to offer. The final price is about more than the math, though.
A strategic buyer who wants what your company does, your customers, your team, your contracts, will often pay more than the business looks worth on paper. Finding that buyer and what they would pay is where the Tidewater team comes in. We give you a confidential valuation based on what your business is actually worth to the buyers most likely to pay the most for it.
Before you commit to a sale, consider a Broker Opinion of Value. Plenty of Illinois owners request one every few years simply to see how the moves they are making affect what the company is worth, well before any exit is on the table. Tidewater charges $1,695 for a BOV on the business itself and up to $3,500 when real estate is included, where the going market rate runs closer to $2,200. Should you decide to list with us down the road, that fee applies toward your engagement, so nothing is wasted. For an owner who is not ready yet, it is the most grounded way to plan the years ahead.
We start with a confidential consultation. We evaluate your business, prepare a valuation, and put together a professional prospectus that tells the company’s story to qualified buyers before you go to market. From there, we run a multi-channel campaign across our national and global buyer network and our 2,100+ private equity relationships, substantiating every interested party before any sensitive information changes hands.
Most Illinois transactions take seven to 16 months from listing to close. Your industry, your financial strength, your price, and the terms of the transaction all influence where you land. Terms tend to matter more than owners expect; it’s not always the price. Well-kept books and a realistic valuation keep momentum on your side.
We hold your confidentiality to best efforts at every stage of the sale. Until a buyer signs an NDA with Tidewater, all they receive is a blind profile, with no name, address, or financials attached. For the majority of your marketplace, the first they hear of a sale is after it has closed. Protecting your position in the market is part of how we work, not something bolted on at the end.
Illinois and Chicagoland, in particular, is one of the best buyer markets in the country, which works in your favor if you have the right representation. The Chicago metro has more potential acquirers than almost anywhere else in the Midwest, from strategic buyers looking to expand into the region to private equity firms actively acquiring profitable companies.
There are active buyers across the industries that fill this region, including manufacturing and machining, healthcare and professional services, the trades, and hospitality. The opportunity is real, but all those buyers only work in your favor when they compete for your company instead of negotiating against you one at a time. That is the part we handle.
If you are anywhere in the Chicago metro or the surrounding suburbs, yes. We sell businesses across Cook County and the city of Chicago, the Northwest suburbs along the I-90 corridor through Arlington Heights, the North Shore through Skokie, and Lake County up to the Wisconsin border through Gurnee. In any of these areas, you get a team that knows your local market and a buyer network that reaches well beyond it.
Yes, and owners near the border have an advantage many do not realize. Because we sell businesses in both Illinois and Wisconsin, your company reaches buyers in two states instead of one. For owners in Gurnee, Lake County, and the rest of northern Illinois, that means a wider pool of qualified acquirers and more competition for your business than a broker working in a single state can deliver.
Tidewater represents owners across manufacturing and machining, healthcare and professional services, construction and the trades, commercial and residential services, hospitality and restaurants, and strong retail environments, all at $1M+ in annual sales. Our Illinois practice handles companies from $1M to $50M in revenue across all four markets we serve.
That depends on how the sale is structured and how the business is set up, so the honest answer is that your exact tax bill comes from your accountant, not from us. In broad terms, the profit on the sale is generally subject to federal capital gains treatment plus Illinois state income tax, and the way the deal is structured can change what you owe significantly. We work alongside your CPA and attorney throughout the process so the structure supports the best after-tax outcome for you, rather than leaving money on the table at closing.
There is also a lever most sellers never hear about: the allocation of purchase price. The way the sale price is divided across the assets shapes the tax rate you pay on the proceeds, and Tidewater works to keep that allocation of purchase price weighted in your favor. We do this alongside your CPA and attorney so that the structure stands up to scrutiny. Owners of businesses under $10 million rarely know a broker negotiates this point at all, which is precisely why it is worth having handled.
The owners who get the most are the ones who start the conversation early. Get a confidential valuation built on what real buyers across Illinois are paying right now, not a generic online estimate. This could change how you think about your next move.
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Strictly Confidential
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