Operator diligence · Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana & nationwide remote
Operator-led diligence for people buying trades businesses.
Most buyers arrive with an MBA, a lender, and a broker's CIM. What they don't have is someone who has run the kind of company they're about to own. We read the deal the way an operator reads it — the WIP schedule, the job costs, the backlog, the licenses, the trucks, and the three techs who could leave in month two.
Where the money goes
Why trades deals break
Six failures account for most of the damage. Each one shows up in a specific document, which is where we start.
Project accounting
WIP, over and under billings, retainage, and job-cost reporting that was reconstructed at year end rather than kept.
Backlog quality
Work sold at last year's material and labor prices, carried on the schedule as if it were revenue instead of exposure.
Licenses and bonding
Whose license the company operates on, and whether surety capacity survives a change of ownership.
The people who hold it together
Key-tech flight risk, wages against market, and customer relationships that live on the seller's cell phone.
Fleet and equipment
Owned, leased, or titled to the seller personally — and the year-one capex hiding behind "well-maintained."
The working-capital peg
Set without regard for seasonality, retainage, and billing timing, which is how buyers close on an empty bank account.
Fixed fees · stated up front
Schedule of services
Every engagement is priced before it starts. You will not get an open-ended hourly bill from us on fixed-fee work.
| Service | Scope | Fee | Turnaround |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deal Screen | First read on a CIM or teaser — what we see, what we would ask next, and whether it is worth your time. | $1,250 flat | 48 hours |
| Operator Diligence | Full operator review of the business: project accounting, backlog, licensing and bonding, people, fleet, and the working-capital peg. | $7,500–$20,000+ | 2–3 weeks |
| Advisory hours | Call time on a live deal — structure, questions to ask, how to read what came back. | $250/hr · $2,250 block | Ongoing |
| First 100 Days | Post-close operator support while you learn the business and keep the crews and customers in place. | $3,500–5,000/mo | 3-month min. |
| Sourcing | Buy-side search against your thesis, with owner conversations run by someone who has been one. | $2,500/mo + 1–2% | Buy-side |
| Exit readiness | Sell-side preparation — clean up the schedule, the licensing, and the customer concentration before a buyer finds it. | $3,500–7,500/mo | 3–6 months |
Operator Diligence is tiered by enterprise value: $7,500 under $2M, $12,500 from $2–5M, $20,000+ above $5M. Fixed-fee work is 50% up front, balance on delivery. Hours are billed weekly. Quality of earnings, tax, and legal work are done by licensed firms under their own names and priced separately from our fees. We'll introduce you to firms we trust and coordinate their work with ours.
Founding enrollment · open through October 30
How to Buy a Trades Business
The whole process, start to finish, taught by operators who have done it with their own money. Eight modules over slides and screen recordings of sanitized deal documents, plus short tracks for HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and outdoor services.
Founding members buy it before it's finished, which is why it's half price. The first module releases in November and the rest follow as they're completed. What's included:
- Every module as it's released, plus the trade-specific tracks.
- The recorded deal teardown, where a full deal file gets walked line by line.
- The templates and document request lists we use on live engagements.
- The first year of the Tradeside toolkit, free from the day it opens — the self-serve tools we're building alongside the course, starting with a self-serve Deal Screen.
- A $250 credit toward a Deal Screen, so half the course price comes back the week you have a live deal.
Founding price through October 30. List price is $997 once the eight modules are complete.
If fewer than ten founding members join by October 30, everyone is refunded in full. Until the first module releases, you can ask for a full refund for any reason.
Modules, in order of release
- Why trades deals are different
- Pick your trade and thesis
- Finding deals
- The 48-hour first read
- Numbers that lie
- Real diligence
- Price, structure, and SBA
- First 100 days
Trade-specific tracks follow the core eight.
No charge
10 Questions Before You Buy a Trades Business
The ten questions we ask before getting serious about any trades company — and what a bad answer sounds like. Two pages, no charge.
We send the checklist and a short note when something worth reading comes up. Nothing else.
Who you're hiring
An operator, not an analyst
Tradeside is run by a working acquirer of skilled-trades companies — someone who has bought, integrated, operated, and in some cases sold mechanical, pool, landscaping, and concrete businesses, and who has run full data-room diligence on a dozen more across electrical, civil, and specialty contracting. Both sides of the table: the buyer reading the schedule, and the owner who had to produce it.
That's the whole thesis of this practice. Diligence on a trades business is not a spreadsheet exercise. It's knowing which questions produce a straight answer, which documents the seller has never been asked for, and what the business actually looks like on the first Monday you own it.
Tradeside Partners is an independent advisory practice, and our principals are active acquirers in this sector. Where a transaction could involve a company we have our own interest in, we disclose it in writing and step aside.
Start here
Tell us about the deal. We'll tell you what we see.
A Deal Screen comes back within 48 hours of getting the documents. If the deal is not worth your time, that is what the screen will say.
Based
Cincinnati, Ohio
Coverage
Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana
& nationwide remote