Why most exits leave money on the table

Owner-dependent businesses trade at 30–50% lower multiples — and 70% never transfer cleanly without the founder still attached.

Most founders spend 10+ years building a great business and 90 days trying to package it for a buyer. The result: re-trades, earn-outs, deals that fall apart, or a price that doesn't reflect what was built. This playbook flips that — so the business is ready before the buyer ever shows up.

What you'll take away
1

A 90-day plan broken into three 30-day sprints — Audit, Systemize, Transfer-Proof.

2

Templates, SOPs, and KPI dashboards you can copy directly into your business.

3

The transferability moves that quietly add a full turn to your multiple at exit.

The 90-day Sell Ready framework

Three sprints. Each one builds on the last. By day 90 the business runs without you — and a buyer can see it.

SPRINT 1

Audit & Baseline

See the business the way a buyer will. Find what's broken before they do.

Core objectives
  • Run the Sell Ready Score™ across financials, ops, and transferability
  • Map every revenue workflow and who actually owns it
  • Quantify founder-dependency: which $ disappear if you do
  • Identify the top 5 valuation leaks and prioritize fixes
Milestone at Day 30
You know your real Sell Ready Score and your biggest gaps.
SPRINT 2

Systemize & Document

Get the business out of your head and into systems anyone can run.

Core objectives
  • Build the Company Brain — one source of truth for SOPs, data, decisions
  • Document the top 10 workflows that drive 80% of revenue
  • Install KPI dashboards across sales, ops, and finance
  • Stand up automations that eliminate founder bottlenecks
Milestone at Day 60
Core workflows run without you. The business is documented.
SPRINT 3

Transfer-Proof & Position

Make the business cleanly transferable — and visible to the right buyers.

Core objectives
  • Reduce key-person risk; install second-line leadership
  • Clean up legal, contracts, and the diligence binder
  • Build the buyer-facing story (CIM-ready narrative & metrics)
  • Lock in 90-day run-rate proof that the business runs without you
Milestone at Day 90
A transferable business with a defendable multiple.

What 'Sell Ready' actually looks like

The conditions that need to be true before a banker takes you to market — and the ones quiet buyers reward with higher multiples.

  • Clean, QofE-ready financials with documented add-backs
  • Customer concentration below buyer risk thresholds
  • Documented SOPs for every revenue-generating workflow
  • Org chart with named owners — not 'the founder'
  • Second-line leadership covering every critical function
  • KPI dashboards covering sales, ops, and finance
  • Automations replacing founder-bottleneck approvals
  • Clean contracts with assignability already reviewed
  • IP and employment paperwork buttoned up
  • A buyer-facing narrative backed by real metrics
  • 90-day run-rate proof the business runs without you
  • A diligence binder ready before the first LOI