M&A Advisory · Nassau and Suffolk

Business Broker & M&A Advisor on
Long Island

If you own an established business in Nassau or Suffolk and you are starting to think about an exit, I work with you directly from the first valuation conversation through the closing. A managed sale process, not a listing.

The practice sits in the New York metropolitan market, so the buyers who work this market are already in reach, and the search extends nationally when a business would attract buyers from further out.

The local market

Selling a business on
Long Island.

Long Island is its own market, and it is worth saying that plainly, because a great deal of advice written for New York City owners does not transfer. Many Long Island businesses serve Long Island customers. When a buyer evaluates one, they are evaluating a customer base rooted in a specific geography, with the density, the commuting patterns and in some cases the seasonality that come with it. That is a different analysis from a business whose customers happen to be in Manhattan.

Geography here runs east and west, and where a business sits along that line changes the conversation. A business in western Nassau operates within easy reach of the city and of the buyers who work there. A business in central or eastern Suffolk is a longer drive, and a buyer who intends to run it personally will weigh that drive honestly. On the East End, where revenue can follow the season, a buyer will want the full year presented clearly and early. None of this makes a business harder to sell. It makes it a business that should be presented accurately, by someone who has thought about how a buyer will read it.

The other thing worth saying to a Long Island owner is that the buyer for your business is not necessarily on Long Island. Buyers active in the New York metropolitan market look at Nassau and Suffolk as part of that market, and depending on your industry the right buyer may be a strategic acquirer or a private equity backed platform with no connection to the region at all. Outreach on a Long Island engagement goes to whoever is genuinely qualified, locally and nationally. That is the advantage of running a managed process rather than posting a listing and waiting to see who finds it. Knowledge of the Island, a buyer search that is not confined to it, and a principal who carries both are what a boutique practice is for.

What a buyer will examine is consistent wherever the business sits. How dependent the operation is on you. How concentrated the customer base is. Whether the books will tie out. What the lease looks like and whether it can be assigned. Whether the key people stay. Those are all answerable, and answering them before going to market is most of what separates a sale that closes on the original terms from one that gets renegotiated in diligence.

The engagement follows the same five stages as any other: a defensible valuation from recast financials and comparable transactions, preparation of the business and its documentation, direct and confidential approaches to qualified buyers, offers evaluated on structure and certainty as well as price, and continued involvement through diligence and closing alongside your attorney and accountant.

How Archveo works on Long Island

  • Principal-led. Eric Mendelsohn runs your sale himself, from valuation through closing. Not a junior associate, not a franchise representative.
  • Local knowledge, national buyer reach. Your business is prepared for its local market and marketed confidentially to qualified buyers wherever they are, not only nearby ones.
  • A managed process, not a listing. Buyers are approached directly, screened, and put under a non-disclosure agreement before they see anything that identifies the company.
  • No branch office needed. The same disciplined process runs wherever your business is based.

Backed by more than two decades across finance, real estate, and business brokerage, and more than 25 completed transactions.

Selling is not listing

Selling a business is different
from listing one.

A listing publishes a business and waits. A managed process prepares it, decides which buyers should see it, and controls what they learn and when. Most of what determines the outcome of a Long Island sale happens before a buyer is ever contacted.

01
Sellers go to market before they are ready
Financial documentation is incomplete, ownership dependencies are not addressed, and the business is not positioned for due diligence scrutiny. Buyers discount what they cannot verify, and serious buyers walk away entirely.
02
Valuation is treated as a guess, not a discipline
We do not rely on rule of thumb multiples. We build a defensible valuation narrative, grounded in recast financials, industry comparables, and buyer specific value drivers, that holds up under scrutiny.
03
The wrong buyers are in the room
Broad listing syndication attracts volume, not quality. Strategic positioning and targeted outreach brings qualified buyers who understand the value and compete for it. Competition drives price. Activity does not.
  • Financial quality: whether the earnings a buyer is asked to pay for can be tied back to the records.
  • Customer concentration: how much of the revenue sits with the largest few accounts, and how durable those relationships are.
  • Owner dependence: how much of the business runs through you personally, and what happens to it when you step back.
  • Employees: who is essential, what they know, and whether they are likely to stay through a change of ownership.
  • The lease: how much term is left, what it costs, and whether assigning it needs a landlord's consent.
  • Working capital: how much the business needs to keep running, which is negotiated far more often than owners expect.
  • Diligence readiness: whether the answers exist in documents before a buyer asks for them, or get assembled under time pressure afterwards.
The process

How a sale
actually runs.

Every business is different, but a well run sale generally follows five stages, each actively managed from the first conversation to the closing wire.

01
Valuation and positioning
We recast the financials, benchmark against comparable transactions, and identify the factors that matter most to buyers. Before going to market, you should understand what your business is worth and how that value can be supported.
02
Deal preparation
We prepare the marketing materials, financial information, and data room so qualified buyers have what they need and the business is ready for diligence before the first conversation.
03
Buyer identification
Rather than relying on a public listing, we identify and approach qualified strategic buyers, financial buyers, and individual acquirers directly. Buyers are screened and confidentiality is protected throughout.
04
Offer management
We evaluate offers on more than headline price. Structure, financing, contingencies, timing, and certainty of close all determine which offer is actually the strongest.
05
Due diligence and closing
Once an offer is accepted, we stay involved through diligence, financing, and closing, coordinating with the buyer and with your attorneys, accountants, and lenders to keep the transaction moving.
State tax

How New York
taxes a business sale

Federally, a business sale can produce a mix of long-term capital gain and ordinary income. Most net long-term capital gain is currently taxed at rates up to 20%, and some sellers may also owe the 3.8% net investment income tax. The actual mix depends on the deal structure, the assets being sold, their tax basis, and items such as depreciation recapture and inventory. For a Long Island owner, New York does not provide a preferential state tax rate for long-term capital gains. Its graduated individual income-tax rates reach 10.9%, with that top bracket beginning above $25 million. New York also has supplemental-tax rules that can reduce the benefit of its lower tax brackets at higher income levels, so the actual state tax on a sale depends on the size of the gain and the owner's other income.

Sources: Tax Foundation, 2026 State Individual Income Tax Rates and Brackets (state rates); IRS (federal business-sale and capital-gains rules). Verified August 2026.

General information only, current as of the date shown. Archveo is not a tax advisor and this is not tax advice. The actual tax on a business sale depends on federal rules and on your deal structure, the assets being sold, entity type, residency, and cost basis, and can differ substantially from the general figures above. Confirm your own situation with your CPA or tax attorney.

FAQ

Questions owners in Long Island
ask first.

Do you represent businesses in both Nassau and Suffolk County?

Yes, across both counties, from the North Shore and the South Shore out to the East End. The process is the same in each.

What changes as you move east is the likely buyer pool. A business in western Nassau draws easily on buyers who work the New York metropolitan market, while a business further into Suffolk may draw more heavily on regional buyers and on buyers looking specifically for a business on the Island. That difference shapes the outreach plan rather than the quality of the outcome.

Do you work with buyers from New York City looking for Long Island businesses?

Regularly. Buyers who work the New York metropolitan market treat Nassau and Suffolk as part of it, and for an owner here that is an advantage worth using rather than an accident to be left to chance.

Outreach is not confined to city buyers. Depending on the industry, the strongest buyer may be a regional operator, a strategic acquirer, or a private equity backed platform based well outside the area. The search follows the business.

My business on the East End is seasonal. Does that make it harder to sell?

Not harder, but it does need to be presented properly. A buyer looking at a seasonal business wants to see the full annual cycle rather than a strong quarter: how the year actually runs, what the cash flow looks like through the slower months, and how staffing and working capital move with it.

When that is laid out clearly and early, seasonality is simply a characteristic of the business. When a buyer discovers it in the middle of diligence, it becomes a reason to renegotiate. The work is in the preparation, not in the season.

Where does the process start for a Long Island owner who is only considering a sale?

With a valuation conversation, and nothing more binding than that. Before anyone talks about going to market, it helps to know roughly what the business is worth today, what is driving that number, and what would move it.

From there the honest answer is sometimes that now is the right time, and sometimes that a few months of work on specific areas would put you in a materially better position. You do not need to have decided to sell for that conversation to be worth having.

How does New York tax the sale of a Long Island business?

Federally, a business sale can produce a mix of long-term capital gain and ordinary income. Most net long-term capital gain is currently taxed at rates up to 20%, and some sellers may also owe the 3.8% net investment income tax. The actual mix depends on the deal structure, the assets being sold, their tax basis, and items such as depreciation recapture and inventory. For a Long Island owner, New York does not provide a preferential state tax rate for long-term capital gains. Its graduated individual income-tax rates reach 10.9%, with that top bracket beginning above $25 million. New York also has supplemental-tax rules that can reduce the benefit of its lower tax brackets at higher income levels, so the actual state tax on a sale depends on the size of the gain and the owner's other income.

General information only, current as of the date shown. Archveo is not a tax advisor and this is not tax advice. The actual tax on a business sale depends on federal rules and on your deal structure, the assets being sold, entity type, residency, and cost basis, and can differ substantially from the general figures above. Confirm your own situation with your CPA or tax attorney.

Before you decide anything

What happens on the first call.

We will talk about the business, why you are considering a sale, your timing, financial performance, and what a realistic next step looks like. If you are early in the process, that is fine. You do not need to have decided to sell.

01
Understand your goals
Retirement timeline, what you need from the transaction, and what a successful outcome looks like for you.
02
High-level valuation range
Based on your financials and industry, what your business is likely worth and what could move that number.
03
What would increase value
Specific steps, if any, that would meaningfully improve your position before going to market.
04
Whether the timing is right
An honest assessment of whether it makes sense to move forward now, or how to prepare if not.

It is a working conversation, not a pitch. Nothing about it commits you to selling, to an engagement, or to a timeline, and it is held in confidence.

Get started

Sell your business on Long Island.

You do not need to have decided to sell before speaking with us. Whether you are considering a sale now or a few years out, we can have a confidential conversation about what your business may be worth, how prepared it is for a sale, what the likely buyer universe looks like, and whether now is the right time to go to market.

A no-obligation conversation, held in confidence and at your pace.

Schedule a Confidential Consultation →

Or call (646) 603-0594