You want top dollar for it. Do you know what a buyer would pay today?
I score a business across the 11 areas a buyer looks at, with you, in a real conversation. You leave with a readiness score and the gap between what it would fetch today and what it could fetch with the right work first.
20 minutes to start. No pressure either way, including no pressure to sell.
Sound familiar?
of businesses listed for sale never close.
The ones that do close usually fixed the same three things first.
The owner is too central
The business runs through you, so a buyer is really buying a job.
The profit is too thin
Not enough to support the price you have in mind.
Nothing is written down
No systems a new owner could pick up and run.
Any one of these, handled early, barely matters. Found late by a buyer's diligence team, it becomes their best reason to offer less.
How it runs
A 20-minute conversation
Where the business is, and what you want from it.
The Exit Readiness Assessment
33 questions across 11 factors, answered with me, in conversation. Your numbers, on screen.
Your score and the gap
Where you stand today, and how much more the business could be worth with the right work first.
A defined engagement
Usually 9 to 12 months, two or three meetings a month, working the factors that move your number most.
The 11 factors a buyer looks at
Several of these are the same levers the profit work has used for years. That's deliberate. The work that makes a business pay you properly is most of the work that makes it worth buying.
Earlier is better, and it's rarely too late.
Most owners start this conversation about 18 months before they want out, which is about 12 months later than ideal. We can still move the number. We just have fewer moves.
What this is, and where it stops
This is a readiness read: what's dragging the number down, and what to fix first. It isn't a formal valuation, and I'm not a business broker or a valuation expert. When it's time for either, I'll say so, and I'm glad to work alongside whoever you choose.
If the business ran well without you in it every day, would you still want to sell?
If the answer is yes, and there's a reason attached (your age, your next chapter, a number you need), this is your door.
If the answer is no, or you had to think about it, you might just be tired. That's a different conversation, the work is mostly the same, and it might give you your weekends back instead of a closing date. Growing one →
Price
Quoted as a defined engagement once we've both seen the assessment. Never an open-ended retainer.
Most of the owners who call you aren't ready to sell yet.
I work with those owners until they are, and send them back to you with a business that can close.
Questions
Do I have to be selling soon?
No. Plenty of owners start three to five years out. That's the best time to start.
Is this a valuation?
It's a readiness score and an estimate of the gap. A formal valuation comes from a valuation professional, usually closer to a sale.
Does my business have to be a certain size?
No. Exit work starts from what you want to do with the business, and the size just shapes the plan.
Will you work with my broker?
Gladly. The best outcome is a broker and an advisor pulling in the same direction.
Twenty minutes to find out where you stand.
No pressure either way.