Exit readiness
Build a business a buyer will pay more for.
A business that depends on its owner sells for about one less multiple of earnings than one that doesn't. It comes from systems, records and a team that doesn't need you. All of it can be built before a buyer ever looks.
Multiple of earnings at sale
Canadian owners, 2023
Why most owners leave money on the table
Canadian Federation of Independent Business, January 2023.
Buyers see all of that in the first week of diligence. They don't say "fix it"; they discount for it, or walk. The fixes take one to three years, which is why the time to start is before you want to sell.
Three to four weeks
The Exit Readiness Report
From $7,500, fixed by business size.
What I do
- Normalize three years of financials the way a buyer's analyst would
- Score the business on the drivers buyers pay for: owner dependence, recurring revenue, customer concentration, documented processes, financial visibility, team depth
- Interview you and your key people
- Review what a buyer would ask for in diligence, and what you could hand over today
What you get
- A readiness score and what's dragging it down
- An indicative value range, with the method and comparable multiples shown, so you know where the number comes from
- The gap between where you are and where buyers pay a premium, in dollars
- A 12 to 24 month plan: what to fix, in what order, and what each fix is worth
- A diligence checklist built for your business
This is a readiness report, not a valuation. I'm not a Chartered Business Valuator, and when you need a formal valuation for a sale, tax or dispute, I'll refer you to one. The report will have already done most of the groundwork.
Then the fixes get built
Most of what drags a readiness score down is the same manual, owner-dependent work the automation side fixes: reporting nobody can produce without you, processes that live in your head, systems that don't connect. The report leads into the same build and run steps, so the plan doesn't sit in a drawer.
Pricing
| Business size | Exit Readiness Report |
|---|---|
| Revenue under $3M | $7,500 |
| Revenue $3M–10M | $12,500 |
| Revenue over $10M | Quoted |
| Operations audit and Exit Readiness Report together, revenue under $3M | $12,000 |
All prices in Canadian dollars, fixed before work starts.
See where you stand first
The free scorecard measures the same drivers the report does. Five minutes, no email needed to see your score.