Exit planning
How to prepare your business for a sale
What to focus on in the two years before you sell, from your financials to your management team.
Preparing a business for sale takes about two years. These are the areas buyers review first.
Make yourself less important
If customers, suppliers and staff all depend on you, a buyer sees risk. Move relationships and decisions to your managers early, and let them prove they can carry them.
Clean up the numbers
Separate personal costs, document adjustments and get to three years of accounts that need no explaining. Diligence is far faster and far cheaper when this is done.
Write down how the business works
Quoting, hiring, onboarding and the key processes should exist on paper. It shows the business can be run by someone new.
Fix the obvious problems first
A single customer above twenty percent of revenue, an unsigned lease or a key person without a contract all cost money at the table.
