Agency founders thinking about exit usually hire the wrong professional first.

An introduction to an M&A firm lands on the desk. The firm wants to “explore strategic options.” The founder takes the call without a clear sense of who they are supposed to be talking to, or when. Three months later they realise they were trying to hire the wrong kind of professional for where the business actually sat.

I’ve seen this pattern in agencies I advise and I made versions of the same mistake myself in the run-up to selling my agency in 2020. The three categories of professional who sit around an agency exit (exit advisor, M&A advisor, broker) do different jobs at different times. Hiring the wrong one at the wrong time wastes twelve months and fees in the tens of thousands.

This article is the map I wish I’d had earlier.

The three roles, in plain English

1. The Exit Advisor

The exit advisor is the person who prepares the business for exit. Not the transaction. The preparation.

They work with you for twelve to thirty-six months before any formal sale process. They assess your agency against what buyers actually pay for (the eight value levers: owner independence, recurring revenue, client concentration, profitability, delivery systems, leadership, sales engine, financial reporting). They map the gap between your current state and what a buyer would pay a strong multiple for. They build a twelve-month plan. They hold you accountable to executing it.

When the business is ready, they hand you off to the M&A advisor or broker.

Typical engagement: £30,000 to £75,000 per year, twelve-month retainers. Typical agency fit: £1.5M to £5M in revenue, 12-36 months from desired exit. What they do not do: They do not run the transaction. They do not introduce buyers. They do not negotiate the deal. That’s the next role’s job.

2. The M&A Advisor

The M&A advisor runs the transaction. They are engaged four to twelve months before the actual sale, once the business is ready.

Their job is to maximise the price and manage the process. They prepare the information memorandum (the sales document), identify and approach a curated list of buyers (often 15-40 names), run the bidding process, handle the diligence, negotiate the headline terms and the deal structure, and guide you through to completion.

They typically charge a success fee of 3% to 8% of the transaction value, sometimes with a small retainer upfront. A deal in the £2M-£10M range usually involves fees of £60K to £500K.

Typical engagement: Four to twelve months, success fee based on transaction value. Typical agency fit: £1M+ in revenue at point of sale, ready to transact. What they do not do: They do not fix the business. If your agency is founder-dependent, concentration-heavy, or unsystematised, a good M&A advisor will tell you to come back in eighteen months.

3. The Broker

The broker is the mass-market version of the M&A advisor. For smaller agencies (£100K to £1M in revenue), full M&A advisory is overkill and uneconomic. The broker fills that gap.

Brokers list your agency on their platform (businessesforsale.com and similar), handle inbound enquiries, and qualify interest. They charge smaller success fees (typically 5% to 10%) and often a small upfront listing fee. Some offer structured processes closer to what M&A advisors do, at lower price points.

Typical engagement: Three to nine months, success fee usually on completion. Typical agency fit: £100K to £1M in revenue, exit timeline six months to two years. What they do not do: They rarely run competitive processes with multiple bidders. They do not typically curate strategic buyers. They are more reactive than proactive in finding buyers.

The timing mistake founders make

Here’s the pattern I see most often.

A founder decides they want to exit in eighteen months. They call an M&A firm. The M&A firm sends a brochure. They go to market. Due diligence reveals what was always there: founder-dependent, client-concentrated, no recurring revenue, weak systems. The multiple comes in at 3x EBITDA instead of the 5x they were expecting. The deal closes at £1.2M instead of £2M. Or worse, the deal falls through entirely and the agency sits in “we tried to sell” purgatory for years afterwards.

The failure happened at the beginning. They engaged the M&A advisor when they needed the exit advisor. The M&A firm’s job was to maximise the sale of what existed. The exit advisor’s job was to build what should exist before going to market.

Twelve to thirty-six months earlier, the conversation looked different. The exit advisor says “here are the six things that need to be true before you go to market.” You spend eighteen months working through them. You engage the M&A advisor at month nineteen. The business transacts at 5x-6x multiple because the diligence goes clean.

The difference between those two outcomes, on a £400K EBITDA business, is £800K to £1.2M of additional enterprise value. That’s where the money lives.

When to engage each one

Three to five years before exit: Read, plan, educate yourself. No professional needed yet. Start with the agency succession planning guide and work out which of the eight value levers you need to move. Take the Agency Valuation Calculator to get a baseline.

Twelve to thirty-six months before exit: Engage an exit advisor. They will help you prioritise the right operational work, build the 12-month plan, and keep you accountable. The eight value levers framework is the substance of this engagement. See how to value a creative agency for the valuation maths that drives every priority.

Four to twelve months before exit: Engage the M&A advisor (or broker, for smaller agencies). At this point the operational work is done, the diligence pack is 80% assembled, and the business is ready to withstand buyer scrutiny. Now you want someone to run the process and maximise the transaction.

Last three months: Add the legal and tax specialists. Your accountant should already be involved. Add an M&A lawyer at this stage.

Who I am in this picture

I run Exit Advisory at Move at Pace. Twelve-month engagements, £50,000 per year, four clients at a time. The focus is the 12-36 month preparation window specifically for creative agency founders doing £1.5M to £5M.

I do not run transactions. When an Exit Advisory client reaches the point of going to market, I refer them to M&A firms I trust and step into a secondary advisory role. My job finishes when you’re ready; their job starts there.

For agencies earlier in the journey, the Strategic Growth Programme is the seven-month operational programme for £300K-£2.5M agencies. That’s the work that turns a job into a business. Exit Advisory builds on that foundation if exit becomes the goal.

For agencies at £100K+ wanting ongoing monthly advisory support without a structured programme, the Scale programme is the rolling monthly option at £1,000-£1,500 a month.

None of these replace the M&A advisor or the broker when transaction time comes. They build the business that’s worth selling. Someone else runs the sale.

The question to ask yourself

If you’re two or more years from wanting to exit, the question isn’t “who should I hire to sell my agency.” It’s “who will help me build the agency that’s worth selling.” That’s the exit advisor. That’s the work that actually moves the multiple.

If you’re less than twelve months from wanting to exit, and the business is already ready, the question is “who runs the transaction best for a business of my size.” That’s the M&A advisor or broker.

Most founders hire the second professional when they needed the first. The cost of that mistake is twenty-five to fifty percent of your enterprise value, disappearing at the closing table.

Start with the Agency Valuation Calculator. Ten minutes. You’ll know within the hour which side of that timeline you sit on, and which professional you actually need.