Exit readiness, for owners who might sell

Most owners we work with have no intention of selling, and none of the other work assumes you will. This page is here for the ones who might.

Buyers and private equity groups pay for companies that run without the owner, produce numbers they can trust, and keep their people through a transition. All three are operations work. The things that make a company good to own turn out to be the same things that make it valuable to buy.

What a buyer discounts

• Owner dependency. If the relationships, the pricing judgment, and the institutional memory live in your head, a buyer is purchasing a job. They price it accordingly.
• Numbers that need explaining. Add-backs, informal arrangements, and reporting put together for the occasion all read as risk.
• Undocumented process. What exists only as habit doesn't transfer, and diligence will find it.
• A leadership team that leaves. Retention through a transition is a valuation input, not an afterthought.

Timing changes the number

Start a year or two out and the work shows up in the offer. Start during diligence and it shows up as a discount, because by then you're answering questions instead of presenting a company.

And if you never sell, none of it is wasted. A business that runs without you is a better business to own on any timeline.

Where our part stops

We make the business marketable and diligence-ready, then work alongside whichever advisors you choose. Your attorney, your accountant, and your broker each own their piece, and we'll tell you plainly when a question belongs to one of them. We are not brokers, we do not represent you in a sale, and we take no part of the transaction.