MANDA INSTITUTE

Success fee calculator

Use the slider to see a transparent illustration of the 5% success fee we intend to charge. You would pay nothing up front, and MANDA would be paid only if the business actually sells. No engagement letter has been drafted yet, so what you read here is our intended basis rather than terms that bind either of us.

We intend to invoice on completion, never before, and to make it due 14 days after you have the money. Shown before VAT.
The same rate at every deal size. We do not intend to set a minimum fee, or a floor on a smaller sale.
If the business never sells, MANDA is not paid a success fee. That is the whole point of charging this way. We intend to take nothing from you up front, and to charge nothing for ending the mandate early.
This is an illustration based on the sale price you enter, and it is shown before VAT, which is added where it is legally due. We intend to charge 5% of the consideration you actually receive. Advisory work would not begin before both sides sign a letter setting that out.
Provisional. No engagement letter has been drafted yet, so this is how we intend to charge rather than terms you can hold us to.
What you pay when the business does not sell.
A sale process can run for months and still end without a buyer. That is the case worth comparing, because it is the one where the money you have already spent is gone and there is nothing to show for it.
A listing platform sells a listing, paid for before any buyer is found. We do the work, and we intend to be paid only if it works.
An owner who sells for €3,000,000 pays us €150,000, and pays nothing at all if it does not sell.
An owner who pays €2,499 to list and never sells has paid for the listing, written their own information memorandum, and has no sale.
If the sale does complete, the listing platform is the cheaper of the two. At €3,000,000 their total comes to €15,999 to €17,499 against our €150,000. We would rather say so than argue a saving we cannot support.
Dealsuite published price list for business owners, dealsuite.com. Checked 1 September 2026.
There is nothing to pay MANDA up front, and no MANDA success fee if the business does not sell. This is how we intend to charge. No engagement letter has been drafted yet, so the scope and terms of a mandate will be settled in the letter you read and sign.
Listing fee, then a success fee
Paid to list, before any buyer is found. The price depends on your revenue and on the tier you choose, and each tier adds 0.5% on completion. The shortest listing runs three months. Writing the information memorandum is the owner's job, with a manual provided.
Engagement fee, then a success fee
The engagement fee, whatever it came to
Only 12% of advisors will work on success fee alone. The rest charge before there is a result, payable whether or not the deal completes. The most common arrangement is monthly, and the most common monthly amount is $5,000 to $10,000.
Our percentage is flat, and that cuts both ways.
A traditional success fee falls as the deal gets bigger, because a large sale is not proportionally more work. Ours does not move. Below are the typical bands against our flat five percent. On larger transactions a traditional advisor will usually quote a lower percentage than we do, and we would rather you read that here than discover it later.
The bands are quoted in dollars and measured on transaction value, so read them as the shape of the market rather than as an exact euro comparison. Many advisors also set a minimum success fee, which raises the effective percentage on smaller sales. We do not intend to set one.
A fee you pay is not the same as a cost you carry.
The strongest case for a traditional advisor is not that they are cheap. It is that a good one can raise the price you finally agree, by more than their fee costs you. We have no figure we can stand behind for how much, so we are not going to put one here. If it holds in your case, a higher fee can still leave you better off.
We think that argument is real, and it is the reason our own work is advisory rather than a listing page. What we disagree with is the retainer, because the retainer is charged whether the uplift arrives or not, and the owner carries that risk alone. Our position is simple. We should be paid well when we deliver, and nothing when we do not.
The questions owners actually ask about the fee.
When is the fee due?
Only if the business actually sells. We intend to invoice on completion and never before it, with the invoice falling due 14 days after you have received the money it relates to. We do not intend to charge stage payments along the way.
What is the fee calculated on?
5% of the consideration you actually receive for the shares or the business. We intend to exclude anything applied at completion to repay borrowings, to charge escrow only once it is released to you, and to charge nothing on money you never receive. The slider above is an illustration on the figure you enter.
How are earn outs and deferred consideration treated?
We intend the fee to follow the money. Each deferred amount would be charged only once you have received it, and invoiced after that. An earn out that never pays out would never be charged, and a partial payout would be charged only on the part you actually received.
What if the buyer came from my own network, not from you?
Our intention is that a buyer you already knew carries no fee. You would list the parties you already know when you sign, and could add to that list at any time before we approach them. Proving that an introduction came through us should be our job rather than yours, and where we cannot show a dated written record, we do not intend to charge.
Is there a minimum fee?
We do not intend to set one. The rate we intend to charge is 5% at every deal size, with no floor and no fixed amount substituted for the percentage on a smaller sale.
Does anything renew?
We do not intend anything to renew automatically, and we do not intend to make you give notice to stop it. The mandate would run 12 months; either side could end it earlier on 30 days' notice at no cost, and afterwards we intend a fee to arise only on a sale to a buyer we introduced during the mandate and named on a list given to you within 14 days.
Are the figures on this page before or after VAT?
Is there anything to pay besides the fee?
Before VAT. Every figure on this page is shown before VAT, which is added where it is legally due. A VAT registered seller can usually recover it, but that depends on your own tax position, so we do not net it off the numbers above.
Nothing we intend to charge you. We mean to carry our own costs of running the mandate, and to recharge you nothing unless you have agreed to that specific cost in writing, in advance, with a cap. Lawyers, accountants, and notaries you appoint contract with you and invoice you directly, and we do not mark them up.
These fee terms are provisional. No engagement letter has been drafted yet, and one still has to be written and reviewed by a solicitor before we can offer a mandate to anyone. What is set out here is how we intend to charge. It is not a contract, none of it binds you or us, and the terms that govern any mandate will be the ones in the letter you read and sign.
The instant benchmark gives you an indicative value range in under 60 seconds, measured against completed sales of medium sized European businesses. The full valuation takes about 5 minutes, uses your own financials and shows up to four methods. Both are free. Both are indicative estimates, not a formal appraisal.
The one success fee we intend to charge applies only when a deal closes. Provisional. No engagement letter has been drafted yet, so this is how we intend to charge rather than terms you can hold us to.

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