Is this suitable if I have never sold a business before?

Yes. Most attendees are first-time sellers. The session walks through how a sale actually unfolds, what buyers look at, and the decisions that set your price two or three years before you go to market.

What happens after the session?

You get a confidential 30-minute one-to-one with Tommy within two weeks, applied to your business and your likely valuation. It is not a sales call for other services.

I am not selling for another five years. Is it too early?

It is the right time. What you walk away with is largely decided in the two to three years before a sale, particularly around owner dependence and clean financials. Owners who come late have fewer levers left.

How confidential is the room?

Numbers are capped at 20 owners and what is said in the session stays in the session. If you would rather not discuss your own figures in front of others, hold them for the private one-to-one.

Can I send two people?

Yes. Two seats from the same business are €254 plus VAT each, 15% off both. Bringing your finance lead usually makes the follow-up work faster.

Two directors reviewing sale documents across a boardroom table

Selling Up · Two hours. Twenty owners. Plus your own one to one.

A live Selling Up session for Irish business owners weighing a future sale

Buyers price what they find, not what you intended. In one confidential session Tommy Boyle walks you through what a buyer pays a premium for, what they quietly discount, and the levers still open to you before you go to market.

See what the two hours cover

When: Tuesday 23 February 2027; 11am to 1pm Irish time
Where: Live on Microsoft Teams; Two hours, live, cameras on
The room: 20 seats, first cohort; Small enough that everyone gets airtime

Four reasons owners come to this session

Common reasons Irish owners book a Selling Up session

Owners come to this session for all sorts of reasons. These are a few of the common ones we hear from established Irish businesses when a sale is possible, but the timing, value and process are still unclear.

Owner dependence

The single biggest reason sale prices disappoint, because a business that needs its owner in the room is worth less and the discount is larger than owners expect.

Unclean financial records

Clean financials do more for a valuation than any pitch deck, and every unexplained line in the accounts costs real money at the table.

The sale process itself

Most owners lose money after the price is agreed, in the questions they answer badly during buyer diligence.

Acting too late in the cycle

Come to this session two years out and you still have levers to pull, but come with three months to go and you are taking whatever is offered.

Take a seat if

Who the Selling Up session is for

You own an established, profitable Irish business worth somewhere between €1m and €10m.
You are seriously weighing an exit in the next one to five years.
You are a first-time seller, or you tried a sale before and want it done properly this time.
You want a straight answer on what your business is worth today, and the gap to what you want.

Leave it if

Who should leave this session for now

Owners who want a broker pitch or a valuation certificate.
Businesses with no trading history or no profit.
Anyone unwilling to keep the room confidential.

The room is capped at 20 because airtime is the product. Once the seats are gone, the next date is months away.

The two hours, in order

What the Selling Up session works through

01
What your business is likely worth today, and how a buyer arrives at that number.
02
Owner dependence, how it is measured and how to reduce it before you go to market.
03
Clean financials, the numbers a buyer checks first and the ones that raise doubts.
04
The levers that move a valuation, ranked by what actually pays back.
05
Types of buyer, trade, competitor, private equity, management, and what each pays for.
06
How a sale unfolds, from first approach to heads of terms to diligence to close.
07
Where owners lose money after the price is agreed.
08
Timing, what to do in the next 90 days, the next 12 months, and the year before market.
09
Life after the sale, earn-outs, hand-over and what you are agreeing to stay for.

What €299 (plus VAT) buys

Four things, and none of them are a slide deck.

A 2-hour live working session

Tuesday 23 February 2027, 11am to 1pm Irish time, on Teams. Practical examples from Irish deal work, including what can go wrong.

A confidential room capped at 20 owners

What is said in the session stays in the session. If you would rather hold your own numbers back, keep them for the one-to-one.

A confidential 30-minute one-to-one with Tommy

Inside two weeks, on your business, your likely valuation and the levers worth pulling first. Not a sales call for anything else.

One price, no extras

€299 plus VAT. Two seats from one business is 15% off both. No commission, no success fee attached to this.

The morning after

What you walk away with

Book your seat

01An honest view of what your business is likely worth today, and the gap to the number you want.
02The three or four levers most likely to move that valuation between now and a sale.
03How a sale process actually unfolds, and the points where owners typically lose money in it.
04A sense of timing you can act on: the next 90 days, the next 12 months, and the year before market.
05A confidential 30-minute one-to-one with Tommy, applied to your business.

Tommy Boyle, founder of Business Answers

Who is in the chair

Tommy Boyle brings 30 years of owner conversations to the room

Thirty years advising Irish owner-managers, and over twenty years working on the sale of private companies.
He has sat on both sides of the table, and will tell you what buyers say about a business when the owner leaves the room.
Owners arrive through referral from other owners who have been through it.

Anonymous client examples

Building materials distributor
Major multi-year growth
Insulation and building materials, trading nationwide · 16 years
Homebuilder
Loss-making → profitable
Residential developer, Leinster · 2 years
Aluminium fabricator
Larger, more profitable business
Fabrication and manufacturing for the construction trade · 5 years
Professional services practice
Stronger annual run rate
Partner-led practice, Dublin · 5 years

Over 200 companies advised since 1995, with roughly 95% reaching a good outcome. A few have not worked out.

In their words

What owners say afterwards

The same directness you get in the session is what people describe after working with Tommy.

Brave enough to say what nobody else in the room is willing to say.

Tommy is an indispensable business advisor. He brings a refreshing no-nonsense approach and is brave enough to say what nobody else in the room is willing to say, but could be the most important thing that needs to be said. He can instantly move from a broad, macro approach on sales and marketing strategy, to giving excellent guidance on the nitty gritty and spotting a small, but critical detail on a financial report. Before working with Tommy a friend said to me, if you don't have Tommy advising your business, you're losing out. He is highly insightful and has an ability to quickly get to the crux of the issue. Very highly recommended. The proof is in the pudding and Tommy was instrumental in helping to more than double the level of business.

Niall Wogan

Founder and CEO, VERVE Fitness

A real knack for seeing to the heart of an issue.

Tommy has a real knack for seeing to the heart of an issue and for helping the teams he works with arrive at solutions they may never have otherwise considered. He is an absolute pleasure to work with and if you get the chance to do so, you should jump at it!

Jay Reid

Group Strategy Director, Core

He gives unbiased advice, and excellent value.

Tommy has worked as a business advisor for our company now for a couple of years. He gives unbiased advice. He has provided excellent value to us in helping us grow our business both from a sales point of view and from a financial point of view.

Cathal Hanratty

Business owner, investor and mentor

The session before this one

Selling Up assumes the business already stands on its own. Scaling Up is how it gets there.

Scaling Up

Tuesday 16 February 2027 · 20 seats only

The constraints that stall a business between €1m and €10m.

See Scaling Up Compare both sessions

Tuesday 23 February 2027, 11am to 1pm Irish time

Twenty owners, live with Tommy Boyle

€299 (plus VAT), capped at 20 owners, with the private one-to-one included. Two seats from one business, 15% off both.