Naturally, you want to sell your business for as much as possible. Of Course! You’ve put enormous work into your business over the years, it’s only fair to want to get as much as you can out of your exit, but the groundwork for a successful exit needs to be laid along the way. One of the most powerful key factors in maximizing your business’s value often gets overlooked: the importance of solid financial reporting, planning, and accounting processes.

Every business has a story. And some of the most heroic stories involve the numbers. All of these numbers add up to the story of your business. When it comes time to exit your business, this story is a key component of success. The story of how you got the business to where it is and a picture painted of where it can go are vital to a successful process.

Perhaps our biggest takeaway is a shift from Boomer owners who often have a singular passion for their business to Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z who often see their business as one of many life passions.

What could this generational shift in private business ownership mean for your business?

How prepared are you for the future state of your business? How ready is your business to transfer to a new owner? Regardless of the option that best suits you and your business, you’ll likely need to spend a lot of time seeking out information and guidance on the process. When the initial study was done in 2013, less than 40% of all owners surveyed said that they had an understanding of their exit options. In 2023, that number rose to 70%.

You’ve accomplished everything you set out to do; probably more. Now you’re ready to exit the business you’ve built from the ground up,

After reviewing your options, you’ve determined the best decision is to run a formal sale process to fetch the best offer for your company. Under this scenario, for a variety of reasons more than ever before, your most likely buyer will be a “financial buyer”. Let me tell you who this buyer is, and what they are looking for in your business.

Do you know what your business is worth? As an owner, you might have an idea in your head about what it could or should be worth. Maybe your competitor recently sold their business, and you heard how much it sold for. Perhaps you have done some tax planning. You may have even been approached about selling your business or even received an offer. Whether you're considering selling your business, seeking investment, or simply want to understand its worth, a “limited business valuation” can be a tremendous resource.

The intention during our Exit Audit is to learn the story of your business over the course of interviewing those that built it or have become essential in running it.

Hearing the stories of how it came to be, the factors that cause customers to remain loyal, and the plans for the future.

How did you get to where you are today and how will you reach those future goals you have plans for? That’s what we get to discuss.

The interview portion isn’t an interrogation, it’s a conversation. A conversation that allows us to paint a vibrant picture of your company and its potential.

So much of the value in your business is built on the qualitative data we learn about in the interviews.

Running a business is a wholly immersive experience, where each and every day presents new challenges and obstacles to overcome. As a business owner, you often develop tunnel vision, focusing solely on internal operations. But at certain moments you may be forced to reckon with external factors, like presidential elections.

The guiding principals you have used to run your business successfully are not always the most helpful when it comes to selling your business. Let us help you offset your company’s earnings volatility by moving from cash to accrual accounting, and learning to really understand your financial statements.

After reviewing your exit options, you also decided to sell to the highest bidder. You feel the release of this decision to sell. Now what do you do?

Do you put up a for sale sign on the front lawn? Do you put an ad in the newspaper? Do you create a website? Of course not. In order to get the best offer, you’re going to need to engage an investment banker who specializes in the sale of businesses like yours.

Chances are you’ve never engaged an investment banker before now. Most people haven’t. Here’s what you need to know.

It’s your business and you’ve always managed it this way. You’ve gotten a certain glee out of minimizing your income taxes. Over the years you’ve employed two common “strategies'' of closely held business owners: under-reporting cash sales and classifying personal expenses as business expenses.

While these actions are illegal under US law, you’ve dealt with that moral conflict long ago in your head. Either way, this piece is not about the legal, ethical, or moral questions of such strategies. Let’s instead discuss how these strategies may impact your exit plan.

While owners of cash rich businesses tend to place a limited financial burden on their companies, enabling strategic operations, strong vendor and customer relationships, and plenty of negotiation options, owners of cash poor businesses tend to place a heavy financial burden on their companies, forcing expedient and shortsighted decision making that often creates rifts with customers, vendors, and employees.

The cash rich/poor dichotomy can become stark in the case of selling your business.

For the past year or more, you’ve realized that your organization has no effective expense control. You simply cannot approve every expenditure anymore without suffocating your business. On the other hand without written policies it seems that every month you get hit with an unexpected spending surprise. There must be a happy medium, right?

You can sense the email arriving any moment from your finance director. The subject line will read: “Discuss Next Year’s Budget”. You think, “Is there anything more corporate than a budget?!” Budgeting makes you anxious and has for years.

You wouldn’t even do it if it weren’t a requirement from the bank. This is the moment in every year where you are forced to make definitive statements about the future and put yourself in a box. You do not like being put into a box. You are an outside of the box kind of person.