NBTBA Meetup · September 2026
De-Risking Your Business: What buyers pay a premium for.
Due diligence from both sides of the table. What a buyer’s team looks for, what a lender has to see, and the seven things a seller can fix first. Whether you plan to sell someday or buy next year, this is the evening to see your company through a buyer’s eyes.
Appetizers, wine & beer provided · Limited to 40 seats
The premise
Two people decide what your business is worth. Neither of them is you.
Every business owner is a seller someday, and more than a few of you are buyers right now. Either way, the same two people decide what a business is really worth: the buyer’s lender, and the person who runs the employment audit. Most owners never see their own company the way those two see it.
On September 30, you will. Join North Bay Trusted Business Advice for an evening built as a walkthrough of the buyer’s due diligence, run by the two advisors who do that work every week: a commercial banker on what a lender has to see before a deal gets financed, and an HR consultant on the audit that kills more California deals than any other.
This is not a lecture. You sit at a table, work one pointed question with the owners around you after each block, and then put your own situation in front of the diligence team and hear what they would find.
See the checklist before the buyer does.
A buyer’s team runs the same seven checks on every business. Owners who know the list fix what they can in 90 days and walk in with a stronger number.
- Which of the seven levers is dragging your price right now
- What a lender needs to see in your financials in the first ten minutes
- The wage-and-hour file a buyer’s attorney opens first
Know where the price hides.
Concentration, recurring revenue, clean books, and compliance are where a deal gets repriced or refinanced. Learn to read them the way your bank and your counsel will.
- The questions that move an offer up or down
- What the buyer’s bank underwrites, and what it will not
- The compliance gaps that turn into price adjustments
Same seven levers. Two seats at the table. Bring the question you would ask from the other side.
The evening’s arc
Two audits decide whether a California deal closes. We run both, live.
The HR and process audit
Classification, timekeeping, break records, final pay, the handbook, the org chart, and whether the business runs on paper without you. The audit that kills more California deals than any other, walked by the consultant who runs it.
“If a buyer’s attorney asked for your last two years of timekeeping and final-pay records tomorrow, what would they find?”
The financial audit
Clean statements, add-backs that survive, customer concentration, recurring revenue, and the discipline a covenant package forces on an owner. Everything a lender underwrites is what a buyer pays for, walked by the banker who underwrites it.
“What share of last year’s revenue came from your three biggest customers, and could you tell a lender that number right now?”
Your situation, in front of the diligence team
On the way in you write your situation on a card. In the last block the advisors work the cards live, table by table. You leave with the one-page Premium Checklist: seven levers, scored by you, your first move circled.
“What would you fix first?”
The Premium Checklist
Seven levers move your number. You score yourself on every one.
Clean financials
Accrual statements closed monthly, reviewed by a CPA, with add-backs a buyer will actually accept.
Customer concentration
What share of revenue rides on your top three customers, and what “too concentrated” means to a lender.
Recurring revenue
Contracted or recurring revenue versus repeat-but-uncommitted, and why the difference changes the multiple.
Banking discipline
The covenant package as free management training: what tracking it monthly does to an owner.
Documented processes
Job descriptions, an org chart that shows who decides without you, onboarding that runs the same way every time.
Wage-and-hour compliance
Classification, break records, timekeeping, final pay, and a 33-day plan if a PAGA notice arrives.
Risk transfer
The exposures you cannot fix, you insure. What a buyer’s diligence expects to find in cyber and employment practices coverage.
The diligence team
A commercial banker and an HR consultant, with a wealth strategist leading the evening.
Karen Alary
SPHR® · SHRM-SCP® HR Consultant The Personnel Perspective
Karen advises North Bay employers on the HR infrastructure that holds up under scrutiny: classification, timekeeping, handbooks, and the documented processes that let a business run without its owner. She walks you through the audit a buyer’s counsel opens first, and what to fix before they do.
Ramsay Brown
MBA Commercial Banker Exchange Bank
Ramsay finances North Bay businesses and sees every deal the way a buyer’s lender does: clean statements, concentration, recurring revenue, and the covenants that keep an owner disciplined. He walks you through what a bank has to see before the money moves, and why that is exactly what a buyer pays for.
Josh Sterling
CLU® · AEP® · CEPA® · CLTC® Wealth Strategist Unified Advice
Josh helps business owners plan for the exits they choose and the ones they don’t. He leads the evening, ties the seven levers to the journey from no plan to fully planned, and closes with the one question that matters: what would you fix first?
What you’ll leave with
Your business, seen through a buyer’s eyes.
- The checklist a buyer’s team runs on your business, and how you score on it today
- The two audits that decide whether a California deal closes: the lender’s and the employment auditor’s
- A clear read on which of the seven levers is dragging your number, and the first move to make
- Straight answers to your own situation from the advisors who do this work every week
- A one-page Premium Checklist to take back to your team
Wednesday, September 30 · Windsor
Every owner is a seller someday.
See the checklist before the buyer does.
Appetizers, wine, and beer are on us. Bring a fellow owner, or the partner who would be sitting across the table from you.
This event is educational and general in nature and is not legal, tax, accounting, insurance, or financial advice. Please consult your own advisors about your specific situation.
Registration
Save your seat. It takes 30 seconds.
One date, one time: tap the 4:00 PM slot, hit Select, and enter your details. Doors and appetizers from 4:00, program at 4:30. Arrive any time before 4:30 and you won’t miss a thing.