Exit Readiness Guide
How to make your company sale-ready over the years — and achieve the full price when the time comes.
Exit Readiness Guide
How to make your company sale-ready over the years — and achieve the full price when the time comes.
- Eight value levers that drive the sale price — from owner independence to balance-sheet hygiene
- For each lever: why it moves the price, how a buyer sees it, what you can do
- Fillable Exit Readiness scorecard and action plan over 36, 24 and 12 months
- Drawn from more than 20 years and over 100 supported transactions
Who it is for.
The guide is written for owners of small and mid-sized companies who are not considering a sale or succession tomorrow, but in the coming years — and want to increase the value of their company in a focused way until then. Those who start early negotiate later from a position of strength.
It is equally suited to owners without a fixed timeline who want to understand how a buyer measures the value of a company — and where they have the greatest lever today.
What you receive.
A 16-page guide that works through the eight value levers of sale readiness step by step: independence from the owner, audit-ready accounting, recurring revenue, customer concentration, a second management layer, documented processes, legal cleanliness and balance-sheet hygiene. For each lever we explain why it moves the price, how a buyer recognises it and which measures work over what time horizon.
The PDF also contains a fillable Exit Readiness scorecard for an honest self-assessment, plus an action plan over 36, 24 and 12 months — fillable on screen or printed. The stocktake becomes a concrete roadmap.
Why sale processes fail — and what to do beforehand
A substantial share of company sales that are launched never reach completion. The reasons repeat themselves, and almost all of them could have been solved with one to three years of lead time. Six weak points that reliably surface during the review.
The owner is the company
If the most important customer relationships depend on you, the pricing knowledge sits in your head and every second decision crosses your desk, nobody is buying a company — they are buying a job with handover risk. Buyers price that in, through a lower factor, a long tie-in clause or a high earn-out. The counter-design takes time: a second management layer with genuine decision-making authority, documented processes, customer relationships resting on several shoulders. A business that functions for three weeks without you is measurably worth more than one where that has never been tested.
Customer concentration
A customer accounting for thirty per cent or more of revenue is, from the buyer’s perspective, not revenue but risk. If the business loses that customer after closing, the whole calculation collapses — so either the price is reduced or a large part is shifted into an earn-out. The countermeasures need lead time: winning new customers outside the dependency, longer contract terms with the major customer, extending the service to further divisions or locations of that customer. A concentration level falling year by year is a strong argument in the sale process.
Figures that do not withstand review
Late annual accounts, no interim reporting, no contribution margin calculation per product or customer, private items in the company’s books: each of these points costs weeks in the process and money in the negotiation. Buyers infer the quality of management from the quality of the figures — and what cannot be evidenced is not paid for. Anyone who starts two to three years before the planned sale to keep books cleanly separated, report monthly and complete accounts promptly later has a robust history instead of an explanatory problem.
Unresolved legal circumstances
Trade marks registered in the owner’s personal name rather than the company’s. Operating property held privately without a market-standard lease. Software without a clean licence chain. Missing or incomplete shareholder resolutions. Change-of-control clauses in key contracts that nobody has reviewed. Individually these points are usually repairable — but the repair takes months and can hardly be carried out mid-process without a price discount. Cleared up beforehand, they cost nothing.
A business model without repeatability
Buyers pay for predictability. Recurring revenue — maintenance, service, subscription, framework agreements — is valued considerably higher than pure project business, even at the same result. Where the model cannot be converted, evidence of stability helps: long-standing customer relationships, high repeat purchase rates, a filled order book with visibility over several quarters. That too is nothing that can be created in three months.
The wrong moment
The worst starting position is the forced sale: illness, conflict among the shareholders, exhaustion after a weak year. Buyers reliably detect pressure and negotiate accordingly. The best starting position is the opposite — selling from strength, after two to three years of rising results, with an intact management team and without personal distress. Anyone who wants that room for manoeuvre has to start early. Three years of lead time is not a luxury but the difference between negotiating and accepting.
Concrete next steps: Exit Readiness Check · Selling a company · Company valuation
If the company is a GmbH, clean shareholder documentation is part of exit preparation; the formal requirements are summarised under selling a GmbH.
Frequently asked questions.
In what format do I receive the guide?
You receive the guide as a 16-page digital PDF. The download begins immediately after payment; we also send the PDF and the invoice by email. The scorecard and action plan can be filled in on screen or printed.
When should I begin preparing?
As early as possible. The levers with the largest effect — independence from the owner, a second management layer, recurring revenue — take years, not months. Anyone considering a sale in three to five years has the greatest lever today; even with a shorter runway much can be put in order.
Does the guide replace individual advice?
No. The guide creates orientation and a structured roadmap. Which lever is strongest in your case and when the right moment for each step is depends on your company — and that judgement is what we make with owners confidentially.
Looking for concrete, individual support? An overview of our services can be found under Selling a company and Business succession.