The Owner Library
Understand your exit
before you make it.
Selling a business involves more than determining what it's worth. Learn how buyers evaluate companies, what makes a business transferable, how transactions are financed and structured, and what you can do now to prepare for a stronger exit.
Explore the library ↓Featured
The 3 Things Buyers Actually Buy
A buyer isn't simply purchasing your revenue, equipment or years in business. They're evaluating whether the profit, customers and operations can successfully transfer to them after you leave.
Explore by topic
What are you trying
to understand?
Start here
Six conversations worth
having before you sell.
Build Transferable Value
The 3 Things Buyers Actually Buy
Why transferable profit, customers and operations can matter more than the story behind the business.Understand Your Value
What Is My Business Actually Worth?
Why valuation starts with earnings but doesn't end with a multiple.Understand the Buyer
Why Good Businesses Don't Sell
Why profitability alone doesn't guarantee that a company will transfer, finance or transact successfully.Structure the Deal
Purchase Price Is Not Cash at Closing
Why a larger offer isn't necessarily the better exit once financing, earnouts, seller notes and risk enter the equation.Understand the Buyer
Can a Buyer Actually Finance Your Business?
Why financeability can determine whether an attractive valuation becomes a transaction.Prepare for the Sale
What Should I Fix Before I Sell My Business?
The areas worth examining before buyers begin examining them for you.Understanding the deal
Four numbers owners
should never confuse.
A great exit isn't defined by one number.
Valuation
What the business may reasonably be worth.
Purchase Price
What a buyer agrees to pay.
Cash at Closing
What actually arrives at closing.
Net Proceeds
What ultimately remains after the transaction.
Purchase price matters. So do financing, seller notes, earnouts, working capital, taxes, transition obligations, certainty of closing and risk after the sale.
Understand deal structure We negotiate the exit.Common questions
Start with the question that's
already on your mind.
Apply it to your business
You've learned how buyers think. Now see how your business may look to them.
Our Exit Readiness Assessment looks beyond valuation to the factors that can influence transferability, financeability and preparedness for a transaction.
Check my exit readiness Start a confidential conversation Private. No obligation. No pressure to sell.