Sell-side M&A advisory · Texas
Know what your company is worth before a buyer determines it for you.
Wild Rose Advisors advises the owners of licensed Texas businesses, from the contracting trades to insurance agencies and home health, on valuation, exit preparation and the sale of the company: 8 practices, 13 markets under research coverage, and 63,250 licensed businesses on file. For owners one to three years from a transaction, we prepare the business so that it commands a higher value. For owners ready to proceed, we provide full sell-side representation: valuation, buyer identification, a structured process, and the negotiation of terms through closing.
Confidential, at no cost, and without a listing or engagement agreement.
Fire & life safety
Sprinkler, alarm, extinguisher and suppression contractors. Inspection work is contracted and code-mandated, which is precisely what a buyer pays a multiple for.
Value drivers in this tradeTowing & storage
Rotation lists, motor club contracts and impound storage. Operators holding both a tow license and a storage facility own the most valuable combination in the trade.
Value drivers in this tradePest control
Recurring treatment routes with genuinely contracted revenue, in a trade the national platforms have been acquiring continuously for years.
Value drivers in this tradeHVAC
Service agreements and replacement work in the most heavily acquired trade in the country. In Texas the buyers arrived years ago; most owners have still not received a credible valuation.
Value drivers in this tradeElectrical
Service, testing and maintenance work riding the same acquisition cycle as HVAC and plumbing, in a trade with nearly fourteen thousand licensed Texas businesses.
Value drivers in this tradePlumbing
Every operating plumbing company in Texas must have a Responsible Master Plumber on the state rolls, which makes this the one trade in which the seller universe is identifiable to the individual.
Value drivers in this tradeInsurance agencies
Commission books with renewal revenue a buyer can underwrite. We measured the Houston market from the state's own appointment records, agency by agency.
Value drivers in this tradeHome health
Licensed agencies with state-reported client census, in the market where Texas-based buyers are currently acquiring most actively.
Value drivers in this tradeTwo points of engagement
Considering a sale
Whether the timeline is this year or several years out, consolidators are actively acquiring in Texas. An owner who negotiates only with the first party to make an approach has no basis for judging whether the offer is competitive.
The sale process ↗Preparing for a sale
Most businesses are not yet positioned for the price they could achieve. The gap between current value and attainable value is often material, and most of it is closed through deliberate preparation rather than growth.
Exit readiness ↗Every engagement begins with a written assessment
A request for a valuation is answered with a written, confidential assessment of the business rather than a sales call. It comprises:
- An estimated value range, grounded in current published transaction data for your trade, with the underlying assumptions stated.
- The buyer universe: the consolidators and platforms actively acquiring in your trade, and how your business is likely to be viewed by them.
- An exit-readiness and market-presence review: what a buyer sees when researching the company, scored, with the gaps identified.
- The actions that would move the number, in priority order, so that the assessment is useful whether a sale is one year away or five.
The assessment is directional rather than a formal appraisal, and it is provided at no cost. No agreement is required, and a work email address and company name are sufficient to begin.
63,250
licensed Texas businesses on file
13
licensed markets under research coverage
4
metropolitan markets mapped
0
figures cited without a named source
Research coverage
13 licensed Texas markets, 63,250 businesses on file. Each is a trade in which the customer is required to purchase the work on a schedule, and each figure below was measured from the state’s own license file rather than estimated.
Marker size reflects the number of licensed firms on file for each metro. Harris County carries the largest concentration in every trade measured.
| Trade | Texas firms | Basis for coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Air conditioning & refrigeration ↗ | 18,662 | Service agreements and scheduled maintenance, in the most heavily acquired trade in the state. |
| Electrical contracting ↗ | 13,946 | Testing, maintenance and service contracts alongside project work. |
| Plumbing ↗ | 8,349 | Service and repair revenue behind a named Responsible Master Plumber at every company. |
| Home health & hospice ↗ | 7,726 | Licensed agencies with state-reported client census, in the most actively acquired market we cover. |
| Independent insurance agencies ↗ | 2,100 | Renewal commission books, segmented by carrier appointments. Houston area measured to date. |
| Towing & vehicle storage ↗ | 3,644 | Rotation lists, motor club contracts and daily-accruing impound storage. |
| Structural pest control ↗ | 3,620 | Scheduled recurring routes, largely non-discretionary once a customer is on one. |
| Fire protection & life safety ↗ | 1,819 | Code-mandated inspection cycles on sprinkler, alarm, extinguisher and suppression systems. |
| Water well drilling & pump installation | 1,664 | Pump service and repair on an installed base to which the driller already holds the relationship. |
| Used auto parts recycling | 688 | Licensed yards with recurring parts supply, consolidating steadily for a decade. |
| Electrical sign contracting | 615 | Sign maintenance contracts across multi-site retail and restaurant estates. |
| Elevator service | 329 | State-mandated annual inspection of every unit, and already the most consolidated trade on this list. |
| Motor fuel metering & quality | 88 | Mandated calibration and testing of fuel dispensers: compliance revenue almost by definition. |
The linked markets are those in which the firm runs full practices. The remainder are mapped and counted. If you operate in one of them, we can already state how many competitors hold your license and where they are located, which is generally a more useful first conversation than a presentation.
Market intelligence built from public records
Before the first conversation, we have already mapped your market: which firms hold which licenses, for how long, at what address, and which of your apparent competitors have already been acquired. Texas publishes the records. We compiled and maintain the analysis.
- Every figure we cite is measured, dated and re-verified, rather than repeated from a secondary source.
- The first conversation includes intelligence on your own market that is not otherwise available to you.
- None of it requires you to disclose anything first.