Exit Readiness Scorecard
If you're considering a sale in the next 0–36 months, your outcome will be determined before you ever see an LOI. This scorecard shows you where buyers will apply pressure—so you can reduce valuation discounts, shorten diligence, and walk into the process with leverage.
Confidential • Takes ~5 minutes • Built for owner-operated businesses
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Exit readiness is how prepared your business is to transfer to a buyer with minimal friction and minimal valuation discounts. This scorecard identifies common readiness gaps—like owner dependence, unclear financials, and customer concentration—and delivers a prioritized 90-day action plan so you can improve value before you go to market.
Most founders don't lose money on price. They lose it on friction.
When buyers sense uncertainty, they protect themselves. Not with a dramatic "no"—but through small concessions that add up fast:
- •Lower multiple ("we're pricing in risk")
- •More holdback / earnout ("prove it")
- •Seller financing ("share the risk")
- •Longer diligence (more time for doubts to grow)
- •Deal fatigue (you get tired and accept terms)
Exit readiness is how you remove that friction before it shows up at the worst time.
What you get instantly (and why it matters)
This isn't generic advice. It's a clear score + practical next steps based on how buyers underwrite risk.
Your Exit Readiness Rating
Know where you stand today—and what a buyer is likely to question.
90-Day Action Plan (prioritized)
Not a "someday list." A short plan designed to improve transferability and reduce discounts.
Buyer-Lens Summary
The top issues that typically trigger diligence delays, earnouts, and valuation pressure.
Optional 15-minute Clarity Call
If you want a second set of eyes, we'll walk you through what matters most first.
Get your score in 5 minutes
Answer a few quick questions. We'll email your score and your 90-day plan.
What the scorecard evaluates (the same things buyers discount)
Buyers don't just buy earnings—they buy repeatability. We score the drivers that determine whether the business is transferrable.
Transferability (Owner Dependence)
Can the business run without you for weeks—not hours? If not, value usually gets discounted.
Financial Clarity
Are earnings clean, documented, and defensible—or are add-backs and one-offs doing the heavy lifting?
Customer Concentration
Does one customer (or a handful) hold the power? Concentration drives risk, and risk drives terms.
Operational Maturity
Are processes documented and repeatable—or stuck in tribal knowledge?
Team Depth
Is there real leadership beyond the founder, or does every decision bottleneck at you?
Risk Exposure
Contracts, compliance, key vendors, leases, litigation exposure—anything that can stall diligence.
Personal Readiness
Do you have a plan for what happens after the exit, or are you relying on "we'll figure it out"?
We don't show up after the wire hits. We help you win before the sale.
Most advisors compete for assets after a liquidity event. That's backwards.
The decisions that shape your outcome happen before a buyer is serious:
- •how dependent the business is on you
- •how clean the financial story is
- •what risks exist (and whether they're fixable)
- •how prepared you are for the transition
We work with owners pre-liquidity so the deal is cleaner and the post-sale plan is ready.
And if you've already sold? We can still help bring structure. But our edge is building leverage before it counts.
Want to know what a buyer will see first?
Key terms (plain English)
Exit readiness
How prepared your business is to be sold with minimal friction and minimal discounts.
Owner dependence
How much revenue and operations rely on the founder personally.
Customer concentration
How much revenue is tied to a small number of customers.
Quality of earnings (QoE)
A diligence process that tests whether earnings are real, repeatable, and well documented.
FAQ
Most owners complete it in 3–6 minutes.
No. It's most valuable before you go to market, when fixes are easier and more valuable.
Not by itself. It identifies the factors that influence valuation and deal terms—so you can improve them.
Yes. Submissions are treated as confidential. If we go deeper, we can sign an NDA.
You'll get your rating and a prioritized 90-day plan. If you want help implementing it, you can book a quick call.
Yes. We can still help bring structure. But our specialty is pre-liquidity planning.
Get the score. Fix the gaps. Walk into the sale with leverage.
For informational purposes only. Not legal or tax advice.