Tidewater Business Brokerage is the business broker Gurnee owners call when it is time to sell. Our reach spans both sides of the Illinois and Wisconsin line, so your Lake County company goes in front of Chicago buyers, Milwaukee buyers, and a national network we have built since 1997.
Your message reaches our deal team directly and stays private.
Seen only by our team.
When a buyer names a price before you know your own, every negotiation that follows starts from their number. A confidential valuation flips that order. You learn what your company is worth before anyone else gets to tell you.
Selling a company is its own full-time project, and it should be ours, not yours. From the first valuation to the closing wire, we lead the process while you keep the business running at full strength.
Eight steps, each one owned by our team. This is the sequence a good broker should walk you through on day one, and we have run it on both sides of the state line since 1997.
We base your valuation on four years of your financials, your assets, and what buyers in both states pay for companies like yours.
Your blind profile runs in two states at once, through listing platforms, direct buyer outreach, targeted mailers, and calls into our Illinois and Wisconsin networks.
We vet every buyer for funding and genuine intent before they see anything that identifies you.
We work multiple offers against each other on price, terms, and structure, so you choose from a position of strength instead of reacting to a single bid.
We coordinate the review among the buyer, lenders, accountants, attorneys, and your landlord, resolving open items before they slow the closing calendar.
We match your buyer to the right lender from 30+ SBA and conventional relationships, each with a different appetite for asset coverage and cash flow, so a funding gap never costs you the sale.
While your attorney drafts, we manage the moving pieces: the financing paperwork, the lease or property transfer, and the vendor agreements that follow the business.
We coordinate the closing sequence, confirm funds and signatures, and stay through the transition so the new owner takes over without disruption to your team.
Gurnee sits on I-94 with Chicago to the south and Milwaukee to the north. Gurnee Mills and Six Flags Great America pull constant traffic through the Grand Avenue corridor, and manufacturing runs deep across Lake County, from Waukegan’s industrial base to the pharmaceutical and device plants nearby. A business here can sell to a buyer from either metro. Most never get shown to both.
Here is what makes Gurnee different from anywhere else we work. Most brokers run a Gurnee sale as an Illinois deal and stop at the state line, which means your company is only ever shown to half the buyers who might want it. We market it to both states and our national network at the same time, so the buyers who want it most have to compete to win it.
Your Gurnee business broker, backed by the networks buyers and lenders recognize
Between the shoppers Grand Avenue pulls in and the manufacturers spread across Lake County, Gurnee businesses come in every shape. Whatever you have built, our job is the same: find the buyers who want your company most, then make them compete for it.
Owner, Plastics Manufacturing | Verified Seller, Google
"As a woman founder in the tech space, I was nervous about selling my company. Tidewater Business Brokerage handled everything with professionalism and care from start to close."
Founder, Technology | Verified Seller, Google
"The deal nearly fell apart three separate times, but this team never wavered. Their dedication, calm approach, and buyer relationships kept everything on track to a successful close."
Principal | Verified Seller, Google
What Lake County owners ask business brokers in Gurnee, answered from valuation through closing on either side of the state line.
A Gurnee business broker runs your sale from valuation to closing. That covers pricing the company, marketing a blind profile, vetting buyers, negotiating terms, and managing due diligence. You stay focused on running the business day to day. We run the transaction alongside you, quietly, until the day the wire clears.
Hiring a broker makes the most sense when the outcome matters more than the effort you save, and here it changes the outcome. One owner negotiating with one buyer takes whatever that buyer offers. A broker who brings Chicago, Milwaukee, and national buyers into the same process gets them bidding, and bidding moves the price up.
Fee structures vary from broker to broker. Ours is tied to the outcome: no retainer, no listing fee, and nothing owed while the work happens. We are paid a success fee only when your deal closes, so our priorities stay aligned with yours from the first conversation to the last document.
We give you a confidential valuation based on the most likely sale price of the company. For a Lake County business, that also depends on which buyer pool is looking. It could be an operator from either metro, a competitor consolidating the corridor, or a private equity group with a platform to build on. We price your company against all three.
A Broker Opinion of Value is a formal read on what your company would most likely bring, produced without listing anything. Owners use a BOV every few years to see how their decisions are moving the value of the company, not only as a pre-sale step. It costs $1,695 for the business alone and up to $3,500 with real estate, and the fee credits toward your engagement if you later list with us.
Start with one confidential conversation. Our team will then produce the valuation, build the prospectus, and take a blind profile into both state networks and our national channels. We vet every interested party before they see anything sensitive, then manage offers, due diligence, and closing while your company keeps running at full strength.
A realistic window is 7 to 16 months from listing to close. Where you fall in that range depends on your industry, the strength of your financials, how the business is priced, and the deal terms, which are not always about price. Marketing into two metros at once widens the pool of buyers we can bring to the table.
Being near the border effectively doubles your geography. Because we sell businesses on both sides of the state line, we work a Gurnee listing as an Illinois deal and a Wisconsin deal at the same time. More qualified buyers in the process means more competition for your company.
We sell businesses across Gurnee, Waukegan, Zion, Beach Park, Wadsworth, Lindenhurst, Grayslake, Gages Lake, Park City, and Libertyville, and north to the Wisconsin line. Companies anywhere on the I-94 corridor fit naturally into our two-state coverage, and the same team handles your deal wherever it sits.
Seasonality that repeats is a pattern, and buyers can price a pattern. What matters is that your books show the cycle clearly across several years, with cash management that carries the slower months. We present your trailing and multi-year numbers together, so the buyer sees a predictable revenue stream rather than a risk.
Buyers from the Milwaukee side buy in this area regularly, and some strong offers come from businesses there looking to expand south. Because we work in both states, it does not matter which metro your buyer comes from. The deal team and the process stay the same.
Manufacturing and machining companies lead, followed by commercial services and hospitality operations at $1M+ in annual sales, plus construction and professional services firms. In Gurnee we work with owners of companies between $1M and $50M in revenue. If the business produces consistent cash flow and could run without you someday, it likely is a good fit for our brokerage to represent your interests.
The precise answer comes from your CPA, since structure, entity type, and asset mix drive the bill. In general, the profit on the sale is subject to federal capital gains treatment plus Illinois state income tax. A buyer relocating the operation to Wisconsin changes their own tax picture, not your Illinois obligations. We keep your CPA and attorney involved at every structural decision so the deal supports the best after-tax result for you.
We protect your confidentiality at every stage of the sale. Buyers see only a blind profile, and we release identifying details only after a signed NDA is in place and the buyer has cleared our vetting. In most cases, your employees, customers, and competitors do not find out until the deal has closed, and even site visits happen on your terms and your schedule.
An owner-operator with SBA financing, a competitor folding you into their operation, and a private equity group each pay differently and each treat your team differently. We ask what you want out of the sale first, then market to the buyer types who can deliver it. The right offer is the one that fits what you want after the sale, not just the biggest number.
Find out with a confidential valuation built on what Illinois and Wisconsin buyers are paying for Lake County companies right now. One conversation, no obligation, and the decision stays entirely yours.
Or call now: (773) 733-3387 | 
Confidential Process
Thinking about selling your business?
Talk to someone who has done it before.
"As the owner of a large plastics manufacturing company, I had high expectations when it came time to sell. Tidewater exceeded every one of them with their process and network."