Exit readiness
How prepared a business is to be sold well, as distinct from how much it is worth today. The two are related but they are not the same thing.
In more detail
Value answers what a buyer would pay. Readiness answers whether a sale would actually close, and at what discount. A profitable business can be badly unready: books that will not survive diligence, one customer at half of revenue, an owner who is the only person who can quote a job, no second-in-command, no documented processes. Those are the things buyers price down for or walk away from, and almost all of them take one to three years to fix. Which is why readiness work is worth doing before you need it rather than after an offer arrives. An owner who starts eighteen months out can address concentration and owner dependence. An owner who starts the week a buyer calls cannot. It is worth separating from timing. Being ready is not the same as being willing, and plenty of owners are ready years before they want to go.
If you are selling
The gap between your value today and your value ready is usually the largest number in the whole exercise, and it is the only one still in your control.
If you are buying
A ready business is a faster, cheaper, more certain close. It is also a fair signal of how the company has been run.
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