The broker takes
your business to market.We make it worth taking.
Exit readiness for North Texas owners. The two to three years before a sale are where the multiple is won or lost. We do the operational work that lifts what your business is worth and de-risks it, so it sells for more, sells faster, and survives diligence.
A business that runs well isn’t the same as a business that sells well
You’ve built something valuable. Here’s the question that decides what it’s worth when you go to market:
Can anyone else run it?
Buyers don’t pay a premium for a busy business. They pay for one that doesn’t depend on you, because the day you walk out, that’s what they’re left with.
3 things buyers ask before buying:
- What happens to this business the day you walk out?
- How much of the growth is the business, and how much is you?
- Where are the risks they can use to discount the price?
If the answers aren’t already in place, the price gets cut in the final stretch, or the deal dies. Our job is to build the answers in, years before anyone asks.
It all comes down to two numbers
Business value = SDE × Multiple. Two numbers, and only two ways to move the result: grow the earnings, or raise the multiple a buyer will pay for each dollar of them. A business doing $400K of SDE at a 3× multiple is worth $1.2M. Lift that same business to a 4.5× multiple and the price becomes $1.8M, without earning another dollar. The six levers below move both at once, which is exactly why the two to three years before a sale matter so much.
Here’s why each of these matters to what you’d walk away with:
- Industry: sets your baseline multiple; buyers price each industry’s risk and growth differently, so the same SDE sells for very different numbers.
- Years in business: longevity signals durability. A real track record lifts the multiple; a young company carries uncertainty and gets discounted.
- Annual revenue: frames the scale and sanity-checks the earnings. Larger, steadier revenue draws a wider, more competitive pool of buyers.
- Owner earnings (SDE): your profit plus owner pay and add-backs; the true profit a buyer inherits, and the number everything else multiplies against.
A rough, illustrative ballpark, not a valuation. Your real number comes from a closer look at the financials, which is where we start.
The six levers that move both numbers
Buyers aren’t paying for how hard you work. They’re paying for how little the business needs you, how predictable the money is, and how much of it survives diligence. These six levers are where that value is won or lost, and they’re the work we do from inside the seat, not from a slide deck. Each one lifts the earnings, the multiple, or both, and together they’re the difference between a discounted offer and a number that reflects what you actually built.
Why should you engage with a sell-side advisor before a broker?
In the two to three years ahead of a sale, we build the asset itself: the systems, independence, and proof that make it worth more, so that when your broker takes over, they’re marketing a business that’s already ready.
SOPs and process, de-risking owner-dependence, customer concentration and key-person risk, diligence readiness, and the value narrative. We build the operational story and assemble the diligence-ready documentation your advisor’s CIM is built on, so it writes faster and holds up under scrutiny.
Takes it to market, finds and vets buyers, owns the CIM, negotiates IOIs and LOIs, and closes. We hand off or work alongside. We never run the deal.
Your readiness roadmap
The work is scoped to your levers, not to the calendar. We start by measuring where you stand, then move through clearly defined phases, each ending at a checkpoint, so you always know what’s changed and what it’s worth. Nothing here is busywork: every phase is chosen because it moves the earnings, the multiple, or the risk profile a buyer will price. You stay in control the whole way, with the option to reassess and decide at each step.
Baseline what the business is worth today, then pick the two or three highest-impact levers to work first. This is the Value Readiness Audit.
Clean books, a defensible SDE, and organized contracts, with the right CPA coordinated so the numbers hold up the moment a buyer starts looking.
Recurring-revenue programs, a manager hired and trained, customer diversification, and margin work. This is where the multiple actually moves.
Prove the business runs without you, and that revenue and margins hold steady once the changes are in place and the new systems are carrying the load.
Rerun the number against where we started, then decide together: hand it to a broker now, or keep building toward a stronger position.
How far we get is a function of runway. The more lead time we have before you go to market, the more levers we can pull, and the wider the gap we can close between what the business is worth today and what it could command at sale. Six months clears the easy discounts; a full eighteen lets us rebuild the engine, prove it runs without you, and let the new earnings season into something a buyer will underwrite. Time, used well, is the cheapest multiple you’ll ever buy.
It does ask something of you: roughly 5–10 focused hours a week, not a second job. And performance can’t slip while we build, or it defeats the purpose.
Cleanup and quick wins. Removes the documentation discount.
The sweet spot. Two or three levers, structural and verifiable change.
Full transformation for bigger gaps. Time to rebuild the systems, prove them, and let new earnings season.
Premium multiples aren’t won in the final year. They’re built years ahead
The window is the two to three years before a sale
The owners who sell well don’t scramble when the buyer shows up. They spend the years before a sale making the business worth more and easier to hand off. That’s the window we work in, early enough to actually move the number.
The cost of waiting shows up late
Owners who put this off find the gaps during the buyer’s diligence: a valuation cut in the final stretch, a renegotiated price, sometimes a dead deal. We find and fix those gaps while there’s still time, not while a buyer is using them as leverage.
The Value Readiness Audit
In two weeks, you’ll know what’s holding down what your business is worth: the owner-dependencies, systems gaps, and risks a buyer will discount you for, plus the exact sequence to fix them before you go to market.
- A mapped view of where the business still runs through you
- The specific value-drags a buyer will flag, and what each likely costs you at sale
- A prioritized readiness roadmap, sequenced by impact
- A 90-minute working session to walk it together
We dig into your financials, operations, and customer base, then benchmark you against what buyers in your industry actually pay for.
We sit down for the working session, walk the findings line by line, and leave with a prioritized roadmap you own outright.
Value guarantee. If the audit doesn’t give you a clearer, more useful picture of what’s holding down your value than you have today, tell us and you don’t pay for it. We’d rather refund the fee than have you tell another owner it wasn’t worth it.
No long lock-in. The engagement starts with a defined first phase and a go/no-go checkpoint. If the build isn’t tracking by then, you can walk, and you keep the roadmap.
We take a limited number of engagements at a time.
Is this the right move for you right now?
The honest answer isn’t always yes, and we’d rather tell you that up front than take your money for work that won’t pay off. Here’s where this makes sense, and where it doesn’t.
- Clear, improvable value levers
- You have the energy for the work
- The value gap justifies the time
- A stable foundation to build on
- Realistic goals and timeline
- You’re burned out and done
- A strong buyer is already at the table
- Structural problems execution can’t fix
- Health or personal urgency to exit
- The market may be peaking now
Not sure where you land? That’s exactly what the audit settles: two weeks to an honest read on whether the runway is worth it.
Find out where you stand