Beyond the Balance Sheet™ · For Brokers & M&A Advisors
The only exit advisor that stays after the wire hits. Give your listing a financed employee buyout in parallel with your buyer search—so sellers get full fair value at a real closing, you keep negotiating strength, and a deal that dies at the finish line does not wipe out your year. Roughly four months from engagement to funded close when the file is clean.
Representing an owner directly? Start the 2-Minute Check — or keep reading for how we work with intermediaries.
You are paid when transactions close. A credible ESOP track reduces last-minute failure, protects your fee, and gives your client a fair, bank-backed alternative—not a hollow listing story.
Parallel ESOP work means your seller is not hanging on a single buyer’s timeline. When diligence drags or a strategic walks, the employee track is already financed and moving—so you are less likely to lose the fee to “no deal.”
The structure is built around an independent valuation and bank-backed financing—cash to the seller at closing, not a vague earn-out story. Your client gets a real number and a real wire, aligned with how ESOP purchases are typically funded.
We are not shopping the business on the buy side. We quarterback ESOP execution—lender, trustee, appraiser, ERISA counsel—while you keep the relationship and a standard success fee when the transaction closes.
You should know upfront how we use your time—before you screen a listing for fit.
Answer
No. We are not asking you to run two separate sell-side processes. You keep marketing the business your way; we build and run the ESOP track—lender, trustee, appraiser, ESOP counsel, and document flow—alongside what you already do. Most incremental effort sits with our team and the seller's advisors, not with re-inventing your book.
No duplicate auction. Same data room discipline, aligned timelines, and one story to the seller. The ESOP path is parallel execution, not a competing broker process.
Closing Certainty. You can be confident there is still a path to close when there are no outside buyers—or when a buyer fails late. The parallel ESOP track is real financing and real milestones, not a placeholder—so you are not rebuilding a deal from scratch.
Negotiating Strength. Your seller gains negotiating leverage: a credible Plan B means they can reject a weak private offer or push back on a bad re-trade without bluffing. Buyers treat a funded employee path differently than an empty threat.
Mostly coordination and access—not a second book of work:
A clear broker-of-record relationship and permission for us to engage the seller under your NDA (or a tri-party letter)—so nothing happens behind your back.
Access to the same financial narrative you are already using for buyers: P&Ls, balance sheets, cap table, and data-room materials. We only ask for ESOP- or lender-specific items when underwriting needs them—not a second full QoE by default.
A single coordination point: typically you, unless you want us copied with the seller on ESOP-only topics. Short syncs (often weekly early on, then at checkpoints) instead of ad-hoc chaos.
Visibility into your process calendar—IOIs, management meetings, LOI targets—so we never blind-side a buyer or break a process letter.
Help getting the seller’s attention for signatures and quick decisions at standard milestones (engagement, bank, trustee). That is usually minutes, not new projects for you.
Toggle what applies to the business you have in mind. These are practical signals for SBA-style ESOP financing and a ~90–120 day execution—not a legal test.
Forhemit does not acquire companies. The ESOP trust purchases stock for the benefit of employees; financing comes from lender capital structured for that purchase. You keep running your sell-side process—we build the parallel path and coordinate with bank, trustee, independent appraiser, and ERISA counsel so it can actually close.
Plain English: Your client sells to the trust (on behalf of employees). We facilitate transition and execution so that path is real—not a slide deck, not a competing bid from us.
Dual-track is not “pick ESOP or M&A.” It is run the market while a financed employee purchase is ready if the market disappoints—or while you use it as leverage while buyers behave.
Best-case for a strategic/PE offer you love
ESOP as leverage, not chaos
The ESOP completes
Same phased rhythm we use with sellers—written so you can see where your listing sits relative to lender, trustee, and documentation work.
Dual-track should make you faster and safer—not add chaos. Here is how we talk about it with intermediaries.
One interactive roadmap your client (and their attorney or CPA) can open in-browser with all milestones, checkpoints, and professional roles spelled out.
No surprises at the wire: these are the same gates we use with sellers—expressed for how you manage buyer expectations in parallel.
Independent appraisal supports a fair price to the ESOP—credible with lenders and defensible for your seller.
Lender commitment in view so you are not selling a fantasy—your parallel buyer conversations sit on real financing.
Trailing performance still supports the deal—reduces eleventh-hour reprices that kill M&A and ESOP alike.
Evidence the business runs without the owner in the chair—what banks and trustees need for a clean close.
We are not asking you to pause marketing. We ask for coordination—shared NDAs, aligned data requests, and one honest timeline so your seller is not torn between two sloppy processes.
You introduce the seller (or we align under your NDA). We confirm headcount, profitability, and whether dual-track is worth the effort.
You run your buyer process; we build lender, trustee, and appraiser workstreams. Status updates stay coordinated so the seller is not double-booked.
Same rhythm as our four-month path: valuation, bank, financials, operations—no surprise failures at the closing table.
If a buyer wins, you close M&A. If not, we close the ESOP—you are still the intermediary on the transaction that funds.
Setting up a serious employee path has a cost. Relative to a blown fee from a buyer that ghosts after nine months—or a brutal last-minute re-trade—that cost is often modest. You are buying optionality: a shorter path to a funded closing if the market does not cooperate, and leverage if it does.
If a private buyer wins, some ESOP-specific spend may not be recovered (similar to other broken-deal costs in M&A). Many teams still take that trade because the alternative is no close at all—or a weaker price because the seller had nowhere else to go.
Short, practical, and confidential. We are not here to pitch your listing to “our buyers.”
Revenue band, EBITDA or net income range, employee count, entity type, and where you are in market. If you already have a data room, we align on what we need in parallel.
Bankability, timing, and whether dual-track is worth the effort for this seller. If it is not, we will say so—your credibility with the client matters.
NDAs, who joins the next call (owner, CFO), and how we keep your buyer process and our ESOP build from stepping on each other.
Have handy
High-level financials, headcount, ownership cap table summary, and your timeline with buyers—if any.
Want a prep list you can forward to your seller before the call?
Open first-call preparation checklist (PDF)Want to pre-qualify your client before reaching out?
This is the same checklist Forhemit uses internally to evaluate every deal submission. Work through it with your client's listing in front of you — no personal information is collected or stored. Use this for transparency and clarity on what we look for.