Who can provide a confidential valuation for a North Texas business?

By Michael D. Rubin, CEO & Founder · September 2026 · 845 words

A confidential valuation for a North Texas business can come from an M&A advisory firm such as MDR & Associates, which is based in Frisco and gives owners a free, confidential opinion of value, or from a credentialed appraiser if you need a formal written report. Either can be done without your employees, customers or competitors learning about it. What keeps it confidential is less who you hire and more how the work is handled.

Most leaks during a valuation do not come from the valuer. They come from the steps around it: pulling records, answering questions, having someone walk through the plant or the office. This article covers who provides the service and the specific precautions that keep it quiet.

Your two options, and what each one gives you

The first option is an opinion of value from an M&A advisor. It is a low-to-high range of what the company would likely sell for, based on a review of three years of financials and a conversation with you. At MDR & Associates it is free and confidential, and it is the usual starting point for an owner who is thinking about a sale but has not decided.

The second option is a formal third-party valuation, a written report prepared under recognized appraisal standards. Owners use it when the number has to hold up for someone else: a partner buyout, a lender, an estate plan or a dispute. It costs money, takes longer and involves more people. MDR offers it as a separate, optional service with its own price; both are described on our business valuation page.

If your real question is what could I sell for, the opinion of value answers it with the fewest people involved.

Where valuations leak, and how to close each gap

In a close business community like Dallas–Fort Worth, a rumor that the owner is selling travels fast, and it can cost you a key employee or a customer before any buyer appears. These are the usual weak points:

• Your own office. Asking the bookkeeper or controller for three years of statements plus customer and payroll detail raises questions. Pull what you can yourself, or tell only the one person who must know and give them a plain reason.
• Outside CPAs and bankers. Your CPA may need to supply tax returns. Ask that the request stay with the partner you work with rather than passing through their staff.
• Site visits. An appraiser walking the shop floor with a clipboard gets noticed. Meet off-site or after hours, and schedule any walk-through so it looks like an ordinary visit.
• Email and shared drives. Use a personal email address for anything valuation-related, not the company server your IT person administers.
• Conversations with peers. Other owners, vendors and trade association friends are a common source of leaks. Keep the circle to your spouse and your professional advisors.

What a confidential valuer should offer without being asked

Any firm you consider should offer to sign a confidentiality agreement before you share financials, meet wherever you prefer, and never contact your employees, customers or suppliers without your permission. It should also tell you exactly who at the firm will see your numbers. If a valuer wants to interview managers or call customers to test the figures, that can be appropriate for some formal valuations, but it is not needed for an opinion of value, and the decision should be yours.

Ask as well what happens after the valuation. A confidential valuation is only useful if a confidential sale can follow it. How that works, from blind profiles to signed NDAs, is covered in how to sell your business confidentially.

What the valuation will look at

Expect questions about revenue and profit for the last three years, what you pay yourself, personal or one-time expenses running through the company, customer concentration, your key people and how much of the business depends on you. The valuer recasts the financials, meaning it restates them to show what a new owner would actually earn, and applies the range buyers pay for companies like yours.

For a business in the $3 million to $100 million revenue range, that is most often three to seven times adjusted EBITDA. EBITDA stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization; adjusted means after the recast. Where your company falls in that range depends on drivers the valuer should explain to you, line by line, so you can judge the result rather than simply accept it.

Where MDR & Associates fits

MDR & Associates is the local DFW firm for this. Our corporate office is in Frisco, at 1518 Legacy Dr., Suite 220, and we work with owners across Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, McKinney and the rest of North Texas, and we are glad to meet away from your office. Since 2008 the firm has closed more than 250 transactions, and every first conversation is treated as confidential from the start. You can reach the team through the Frisco contact page, or begin with the free, private valuation snapshot and take it from there.

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