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Selling a Business?
Get confidential representation and a process built to protect value when you sell a business in Des Moines.
Start here →Empire Des Moines Business Brokers
Empire Business Brokers — Des Moines
Your Trusted Partner in Buying and Selling Businesses
Professional guidance for buyers and sellers of Main Street and middle-market businesses—from valuation through closing.
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Buying a Business?
Define the search, underwrite the file, and move toward a company you can run on Monday morning.
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Value My Business
A practical business valuation tied to how buyers and lenders in this market actually write checks.
Start here →About Empire
Insurance-town sophistication, owner-operated companies
Des Moines punches above its size in finance and insurance, then still runs on agriculture-related services, healthcare, franchise and retail operators, and the trades that follow rooftops into Ankeny, Urbandale, and West Des Moines. Empire Des Moines Business Brokers represents those owners when they want to sell a business, buy one, or get a valuation that an Iowa lender will recognize.
Empire Business Brokers has transferred Main Street and middle-market companies since 1981. In Greater Des Moines that means confidential process in a professional community that still talks, and pricing that does not import a Chicago multiple onto an Iowa P&L.
45Years of Experience
1981Year Founded
NationwideBrokerage Network
Local market
The Des Moines companies buyers actually fund
Insurance, financial-services vendors, and professional firms around downtown and West Des Moines can look like ‘easy’ deals and still hide key-person risk. If the book walks out with the owner, we price that. A Des Moines business broker has to speak both CPA and Main Street.
Agriculture-adjacent manufacturers, distributors, and service companies are a second identity for the metro. Equipment, seasonality, and a few large accounts are the underwriting. We put concentration in the CIM instead of hoping a first-time buyer will not notice.
Healthcare practices and suburban service businesses in Ankeny, Johnston, and Urbandale follow household growth. Those files close when leases, recast earnings, and staffing plans are ready. They stall when an owner wants a national franchise rumor as the asking price.
Areas we serve:
- East Village
- West Des Moines
- Ankeny
- Urbandale
- Johnston
- Downtown
- Waukee
- Altoona
Des Moines sales start with document-ready financials. Insurance-town counterparties expect a clean file. We recast earnings, decide whether West Des Moines or Ankeny real estate conveys, and market confidentially in a professional circle that still talks on the skywalk.
Offers get compared on book transferability, working capital, and how an Iowa lender will read add-backs. Closing is a calendar, not a handshake at the capitol.
Buyers — insurance operators, returning Iowans, managers ready to own — write an industry box. Ag-adjacent manufacturing and a suburban franchise are different tours.
Questions owners in this market ask
Will an insurance-industry buyer pay more for my firm?
If the book transfers. If the book is you, they will discount. We map client concentration before anyone talks about a premium multiple.
Is Des Moines too small for a confidential process?
It is small enough that confidentiality matters more, not less. We skip public boards when rumor risk is high and use NDAs that people actually sign.
Do you handle agriculture-related companies?
Yes — distributors, manufacturers, and services tied to the farm economy. Seasonality and a few large accounts belong on page one of the book.
Can I get a valuation for a partner conversation only?
Yes. Many Polk County owners want a number before a listing. You get a financeable range, not a weaponized appraisal.
Services
Buyer and seller representation in Des Moines
Confidential listing services, buyer representation, and search support for Main Street and middle-market companies.
Sell my business in Des Moines without the skywalk rumor
This is a polished but small professional circle. We market under confidentiality agreements, qualify buyers, and recast earnings the way local banks and SBA lenders read them. Your staff hears the news when you choose, not when a listing goes public.
Family companies here often own the real estate. Selling the operating company, keeping the building, or packaging both is a tax and financing decision. We put it on the calendar with your CPA before anyone drafts an LOI.
> List your business
Buying a business in Greater Des Moines
Buyers include insurance-industry operators, returning Iowans, and managers who want to own the company they already help run. We define industry and cash-flow targets, then look at East Village, West Des Moines, and northern suburb files that match staffing reality.
Diligence is document-forward in this market. We stay through financing, leases, and licensing until closing.
> Buyer representation
Des Moines business valuation that survives a Midwest credit committee
We value on recast cash flow, customer or book quality, owner dependence, and local lender appetite. You get a usable range and a short prep list — not a vanity number from a coastal newsletter.
> Request a valuation conversationWhy choose us
Local representation backed by an established brokerage
Des Moines owners expect competence and discretion. Empire delivers one-on-one local representation, a confidential sale process refined since 1981, and qualified buyers from the national network when the right operator is not already in Polk County.
Personalized, one-on-one service
You work with a local advisor who learns the company, not a call-center queue.
Forty-five years of company history
Empire Business Brokers has been representing owners and buyers since 1981.
Confidential handling of every transaction
Marketing is controlled. Names go out only to qualified, signed buyers.
Professional business valuations
Pricing is built from financials, market comps, and how buyers actually underwrite deals.
Access to qualified buyers
Local relationships plus a national network of brokers and buyer inquiries.
Guidance from valuation through closing
Offer review, diligence coordination, and negotiation support until funds hit.
Local representation, established network
Neighborhood knowledge with the process discipline of a long-running brokerage.
For owners
10 things you need to know before selling your business
Owners preparing to sell a business in Des Moines usually underestimate the same issues. These are the ones that change price, timing, and whether a deal survives diligence.
Employees, customers, and competitors should not learn you are selling from a public listing or a careless conversation. A business broker uses confidentiality agreements, screened inquiries, and controlled disclosure so value is not damaged before you are ready to talk.
Owners often remember the year the shop was slammed or the contract that almost closed. Buyers, lenders, and SBA underwriters start with tax returns, interim statements, and add-backs that can be proven. Clean books shorten diligence.
If the company only works because you take every call, hold every relationship, and make every decision, a buyer sees risk. Document processes, introduce key staff, and show that revenue can transfer.
Owner salary, one-time legal fees, personal auto, and discretionary perks can be normalized — but only with support. Inflated add-backs are one of the fastest ways to lose a serious buyer.
Inventory, receivables, and payables move with the business. Agreeing early on a target working-capital level prevents last-week fights over cash left in the company.
The headline price is not what you keep. Structure, allocation, and taxes can swing six figures. Coordinate your CPA and attorney with the broker before you accept a letter of intent.
SBA 7(a) and conventional loans still fund a large share of Main Street and lower-middle-market deals. That means the business must be financeable: verifiable earnings, reasonable leverage, and a story a lender can defend.
If you own the building, you may sell it with the company, retain it and lease it back, or keep it as an investment. Those choices affect price, financing, and your income after closing.
Buyers pay for a going concern. Retention of managers, technicians, and producers should be planned, not improvised after the announcement.
The owners who net more are usually the ones who spent a season tightening reporting, customer concentration, and leases — then went to market on purpose, not in a rush.
National reach, local expertise
Connecting entrepreneurs with opportunities
Empire Business Brokers — Des Moines combines one-on-one local service with a nationwide network for valuation, confidential marketing, buyer qualification, financing conversations, negotiation, and closing.
0Years of Experience
0Founded
Local + NationalRepresentation
Local presence in Des Moines, IA
Empire Des Moines Business Brokers — local presence with a national reach.
Talk with a Des Moines business broker
Call to discuss selling, buying, or a confidential business valuation. Each office is independently owned and operated.
DesMoinesBusinessBrokerage.com