Allan Taylor & Co Review

Allan Taylor & Co. is a business brokerage and M&A advisory firm based in Rogers, Arkansas, serving business owners across Northwest Arkansas and beyond.

Founded after the principals sold their own company in 2006, the firm has spent nearly two decades helping small and mid-sized business owners navigate what is, for most of them, the single largest financial transaction of their lives.

Their services cover three core areas: business valuation, sale preparation and planning, and the full execution of a business sale.

The firm has been referenced in outlets including Forbes, the New York Times, Inc., Fox Business, and CBS MoneyWatch, and holds a reported close rate of around 91%, compared to an industry average that sits closer to 20%.

The firm was started by Barbara Taylor and Chris Taylor, entrepreneurs who built and sold a business of their own before entering the brokerage space.

That background is central to how they present themselves: not as outsiders who learned the theory, but as owners who went through the experience firsthand.

The team also includes John Dye, a CPA, which gives the firm in-house financial expertise relevant to deal structuring and valuation work.

The office is located at 5100 W JB Hunt Dr., Suite 320, Rogers, AR 72758. Their geographic focus is Northwest Arkansas, though the firm markets businesses both regionally and nationally when taking sellers to market.

Allan Taylor & Co. structures their offerings around where a business owner currently stands in their timeline.

Business Valuation The firm's Broker's Opinion of Value (BOV) costs $3,500 and takes approximately two weeks to complete after all required documents are received.

It includes a value range, earnings analysis, P&L trends, balance sheet review, operations and marketing overviews, industry research, deal structure considerations, and a list of value drivers vs. detractors.

Clients need to provide the last three years of financial statements and tax returns, and complete a 56-question survey about their business. The report is delivered electronically, followed by a 60-minute debrief call.

Rod Burkert, a CPA and Certified Valuation Analyst, has described these reports as among the most useful he has reviewed across hundreds of valuations in his career.

It is worth noting what the BOV is not designed for. The firm explicitly states it does not produce certified valuations for estate planning, tax purposes, divorce proceedings, litigation, bankruptcy, ESOPs, or distressed businesses.

Owners needing those types of certified reports will need to seek a different provider.

Sale Planning For owners who are not yet ready to sell but want to be in the next one to three years, the firm offers a planning engagement focused on building enterprise value ahead of a future transaction.

This includes identifying what's holding the business back from a higher valuation and developing a structured plan to address it before going to market.

Full Sale Representation When a client is ready to sell, Allan Taylor manages the entire process.

That includes creating a Confidential Information Memorandum (CIM), marketing the business to vetted buyers while maintaining confidentiality, managing buyer communications, negotiating the Letter of Intent (LOI), and guiding both parties through due diligence to closing.

The firm follows a seven-stage process they label: Assess, Decide, Engage, Market, Negotiate, Manage, and Celebrate. Here is what each stage covers in practice:

• Assess: An initial consultation to understand the business, the owner's goals, and whether the business and owner are actually prepared for the sale process.
• Decide: An honest conversation about whether now is the right time to sell, including consideration of alternative exit strategies if the timing is off.
• Engage: If both parties agree to move forward, the owner signs an engagement letter. The contract allows cancellation at any time with 30 days' written notice, and there is no expensive exit fee.
• Market: The firm creates a CIM and develops a buyer generation strategy, both regionally and nationally, while vetting buyers before any introduction to the seller.
• Negotiate: Allan Taylor manages all LOI negotiations, with the goal of establishing solid deal terms before entering due diligence.
• Manage: The firm coordinates due diligence, working alongside the seller's other advisors and the buyer's deal team to keep the transaction on track.
• Celebrate: Closing.

The firm is direct about why most deals fall apart before reaching that final stage.

In their view, the traditional brokerage model of taking as many listings as possible and rushing to market is the root cause of the industry's low close rate.

By working with fewer clients and doing thorough upfront work, they aim to avoid the surprises that kill deals mid-process.

Allan Taylor & Co. publishes a substantial library of educational content on their website, covering topics like how SBA 7(a) loans affect a sale, how to understand and boost valuation multiples, what due diligence actually feels like from the seller's side, and when not to sell.

This kind of transparency is relatively uncommon in the brokerage space, where many firms keep their process opaque until a client is already engaged.

On fees, the BOV is priced at $3,500. The firm does not publicly list their commission structure for full sale engagements, which is standard practice for M&A advisors since fees are typically negotiated and tied to transaction size and complexity.

The firm targets profitable businesses with pre-tax net income of $200,000 or more. Owners of smaller or struggling businesses are not the intended audience for their valuation or sale services.

Testimonials on the firm's website come from multiple completed transactions. Laura T. worked with the firm for three years on preparation before going to market.

Brent and Mandy M. credit Allan Taylor with helping them grow their business into a competitive regional player before selling.

Terri H., who sold a business she had owned for 23 years, noted that the process was emotionally difficult but that the team walked her through it from start to finish and generated multiple offers quickly. 

Blair and Leslie E. cited the firm's attention to detail throughout both the sale process and post-sale transition.

Past clients include businesses in industries spanning signage, heating and air, towing, medical supply, and others, visible through the client logos published on their website.

Allan Taylor & Co. is a credible option for profitable small business owners in or around Northwest Arkansas who want experienced, hands-on representation through a sale.

 The combination of founder credibility, a structured process, and a flexible engagement model makes them worth a serious conversation if selling is on the horizon.