This page is for owners of professional, technical and service firms in Boston and the wider metro, which stretches into New Hampshire. Professional, scientific and technical services is the metro's largest sector by business locations, with 17,803 of them. In companies like these the main asset is people and client relationships, and that's where a valuation here starts.
Fixed fees. No exclusives. No success fees.
A metro of 4.95 million, with professional and technical firms at the top of the sector list and a very large health care workforce. There are 21,131 mid-size locations, which means a crowded field of comparable companies for any buyer to choose from.
The City of Boston's principal-employer list is mostly medicine and higher education. Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston Children's Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Medical Center and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute account for six of the ten names. Boston University, Northeastern University and Harvard University Graduate Schools add three more. Fidelity Investments is the one financial firm.
Across the metro, health care and social assistance employs 444,538 people. Professional, scientific and technical services employs 328,542. Construction ranks fourth by locations, with 14,628, and supports 125,263 jobs.
That makes for a particular kind of small company. Many are engineering, IT, consulting, lab support, design or specialized staffing firms that sell to the hospitals, the universities and the companies around them. Others are contractors and building-services firms working on the same campuses. In both, revenue rests on contracts, master service agreements and the people who hold the client relationships. A buyer's first questions are about those people and those agreements.
U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns (share computed)2023
Boston produces buyers of every kind, which helps a seller and also raises the bar.
Larger professional-services and engineering firms buy smaller ones for talent, credentials and client access. A firm with an established position at a hospital or university can be worth more to a buyer already selling into the same institution.
Private-equity platforms in IT services, testing and inspection, facilities and specialty contracting are active buyers of add-ons. They pay for recurring revenue, documented processes and a second tier of managers.
Individual and search-fund buyers look for stable service businesses they can run, often ones with repeat commercial customers.
Internal sales to partners or senior staff are common in professional firms, where the buyers already know the clients. They're usually paid out over time.
Because there are so many comparable firms, buyers can walk away from one with loose records or a single key client. The ones that come prepared get more serious attention.
In a professional firm, revenue follows the people who do the work. Buyers ask who holds each major client and whether they've agreed to stay. Employment agreements and a retention plan in place before a sale often decide whether the price is paid up front or through an earnout.
Firms serving the hospitals and universities often work under master service agreements. Assignable, multi-year agreements with a renewal record carry more weight than a stream of one-off purchase orders, even at the same revenue.
With so much spending tied to a few large institutions, a firm can end up with one client making up much of its revenue. Buyers price that risk directly. A spread of clients across several institutions supports a higher number.
For people businesses, billable utilization and rate history show whether earnings will hold. Clean time and billing data let a buyer test the margin instead of discounting for uncertainty.
The metro crosses into New Hampshire, but a company based in Boston sells under Massachusetts rules. These statements come from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.
Massachusetts taxable income above $1,000,000 is taxed at the regular rates plus an additional 4%. The $1,000,000 threshold is adjusted each year for the cost of living.
What it changes in a sale
A sale can turn one year's income into the largest an owner ever reports. Gain that lifts taxable income past the threshold picks up the surtax, so the year and form of payment can change what an owner keeps.
When a Massachusetts vendor that owes sales or use tax (Chapters 64H and 64I) sells the business or its stock of goods, the purchaser must withhold enough of the price to cover it until the seller produces a certificate from the Commissioner of Revenue. A purchaser who does not withhold becomes personally liable up to the purchase price; the Commissioner has 90 days to answer a written request, and the certificate does not cover Employment Security Fund obligations.
What it changes in a sale
A buyer protects itself by holding back part of the price until the certificate arrives. The Commissioner can take the full answer period, so when the request goes in can decide whether money sits in a holdback after closing.
A Massachusetts resident who holds shares in an S corporation pays Massachusetts income tax on their distributive share of the corporation's items of income, loss or deduction.
What it changes in a sale
For a resident owner of an S corporation, sale gain flows to the personal return. That's why the structure of the deal and the surtax are usually looked at together.
The Massachusetts corporate excise on business corporations is 8% of net income for taxable years beginning in 2012 or later, plus $2.60 per $1,000 of taxable tangible property or net worth. The minimum excise is $456.
What it changes in a sale
A C corporation selling assets owes the excise on the gain before cash reaches the shareholders. Buyers often prefer an asset deal, so this is a common point of negotiation on price or structure.
This is general information, not tax or legal advice. Your attorney and CPA should confirm how it applies to your sale.
A people-based firm is easy to overvalue from the inside. A fixed-fee range shows how a buyer will weigh key-person risk and client concentration before anyone outside sees the numbers.
Professional-services deals lean on earnouts, retention terms and deferred payments. A review of each offer separates the cash at closing from money that depends on future results.
A sale here touches employment agreements, the surtax and the state certificate. This module assembles the attorney and CPA a deal of this size needs, without committing to anything else.
Buyers start with earnings and then weigh how much of the revenue depends on a few people and a few clients. Assignable master agreements, a spread of institutional clients, and staff who have agreed to stay all support the price. Saltaire's range of value opinion costs a fixed $1,000 and shows where your firm lands.
It can. Massachusetts taxes taxable income above $1,000,000 at an additional 4%, and that threshold is adjusted each year. A large gain in a single year can cross it. How the gain is timed and structured matters. This is general information, not tax or legal advice. Ask your CPA to model it.
When a business owing sales or use tax is sold, the buyer must hold back enough of the price to cover it until the seller gets a certificate from the Commissioner of Revenue. The Commissioner has 90 days to answer a written request. This is general information, not tax or legal advice.
Yes. Saltaire works with owners in the Boston metro from the New York metropolitan area, and each step is a separate module with a fixed fee agreed in writing. You can buy only the valuation, or only an offer review. There's no exclusive and no success fee.
That's what the call is for.
Saltaire Partners works with owners in Boston and across Massachusetts from the New York metropolitan area. Calls are by video or phone.
By video or phone, at a time you pick.
Which module fits, if any. Sometimes the answer is none yet.
If a module fits, you'll know its fixed fee before you decide anything.
