Prepare to Sell / Exit Readiness
You're never too early to prepare
The owners who get the best outcomes start years before they sell. The ones who wait until a buyer is at the table leave value behind, every time. By then the financial story is rushed, the diligence surprises pile up, and the negotiating power has shifted to the other side.
Our goal when we prepare a business for sale is twofold. First, increase enterprise value and eliminate the risks that put the purchase price in jeopardy. Second, make sure more of that number actually ends up in the owner’s pocket, by minimizing the holdbacks, escrows, indemnities, and working capital adjustments buyers use to claw money back after closing.
Preparing to sell is its own discipline, and it comes down to three questions. Are you ready. Is the market ready. Is the business ready. We help owners of closely held and family businesses answer all three honestly, then close the gaps while there’s still time to close them.
We’ve been on both sides of the table. Our Managing Directors have built the financial story, run the data room, and sat across from buyers and their advisors. We know what a sophisticated buyer checks first, because we’ve been the ones checking.
Are you ready
A sale is personal before it’s financial. We help you think through what you want from the transaction, what comes after, and whether the timing fits your goals and your life, not just the market. This is the question owners skip, and it’s the one that drives regret.
Is the market ready
Timing matters. We give you a clear read on what buyers in your sector are paying for, what they’re discounting, and where your business sits in the current market. That tells you whether to go now, or to spend twelve to eighteen months building value first.
Is the business ready
This is where most of the work happens, and where we do the most good.
Clean financials that survive diligence. Audit-ready books, GAAP-compliant policies, and a quality-of-earnings view of the numbers before a buyer brings their own. Surprises in diligence cost you price, through the holdbacks, escrows, and indemnities that claw money back after closing. We find them first.
A financial story that holds up. A three-statement model and projections a buyer can trust, with the narrative that explains them. We build the data room and the documentation so the process runs on your timeline, not the buyer’s.
Value built before you go to market. Margin, working capital, and cash conversion improvements that lift the number a buyer is valuing. The earlier we start, the more this compounds.
Deal structuring and negotiation support. We sit alongside you and your banker and attorney through structuring, valuation, and post-close integration, as the operator in the room who has done this before.
Start with the assessment
Not sure where you stand? Our Exit Readiness Check is a free, two-minute self-check that returns a score and shows you where the gaps are. It’s the easiest way to find out whether you’re closer to market than you think, or further than you’d like.
Proof
A medical device company brought us in to evaluate a sale and stand up the finance function behind it. The books weren’t ready for a buyer’s diligence, and the owner had no clean financial story to take to market. We built the financial visibility and discipline the process required, normalized the numbers into a quality-of-earnings view, and organized the diligence materials, so the owner could enter a transaction with clean books and a clear story instead of assembling one under pressure with a buyer already at the table.
Behind that one engagement is a track record most advisors can’t match. Everest has advised owners on more than 50 sell-side transactions with acquisition value exceeding $55 billion. When we sit in your chair, we have already sat across the table from the buyers you will face.
When to bring us in
You’re thinking about selling in the next one to five years. A buyer has approached you and you want to be ready before you respond. You want to know what your business would fetch today and what it would take to lift that number. Or you simply want the option, built and waiting, for whenever the timing is right.
Let's talk
The best time to prepare your business for sale is well before you need to. If a transaction is anywhere on your horizon, let’s talk now. We’ve sat in your seat. Now we’re in your corner.
