Florida businesses are sold quietly every day — employees, customers, and competitors never hear a word until the owner decides they should. The tools are blind marketing, NDAs before any identifying detail, and buyer screening before access. Here is how a confidential business sale actually works, who has to know and when, and what to do if a rumor starts.

Add-backs are the expenses on your books a new owner would never pay — and every documented add-back dollar gets multiplied when your business is priced. This guide covers the legitimate categories, how buyers and lenders verify every line, and the seven add-back mistakes that quietly destroy buyer trust in Florida deals.

Your tax return is built to show as little profit as possible. Seller's discretionary earnings (SDE) reverses that — it's the number buyers actually price your business on. Here's how SDE is calculated, how it differs from EBITDA, and a self-audit to run before any buyer runs it for you.