Exit Readiness Partnership
The fix list, run with you from inside the business.
Owners who want help carrying out their readiness priorities engage one partner role or both, at Advisory, Strategic Advisory or Embedded, from $2,500 a month per role. The work can start from a LIMESTONE Review, another firm’s findings, or what management already knows needs fixing; the Review is not required first.
An Exit Readiness Review shows where a buyer may question the business. An Exit Readiness Partnership helps management address those issues over time.
The two clocks
The books take a year or two, and the structure takes longer.
The twenty-four-month plan below is an illustration. The actual priorities, cadence and term depend on the business and the agreed engagement.
What the roles do here
The two roles, pointed at a sale.
At Embedded the CFO Partner builds the reporting, the cash plan and the transaction file within the agreed scope, and the Operating Partner runs the agreed operating priorities with management. At Advisory the partner brings senior judgment and scheduled reviews; Strategic Advisory adds one maintained workstream; Embedded adds agreed execution. The levels are compared on the CFO & Operating Partner page. A client’s attorney, accounting provider and management retain their separate responsibilities.
What you keep
Five lines sit between the letter and the cash you keep. The fix list moves four of them.
Owners plan around the price in the letter of intent. On the sample business a $5.0 million letter becomes about $3.9 million at close and about $4.1 million once the escrow releases. The partnership works on the lines in between: the peg moves with the books, the escrow with the consents and the agreements, the fees with how long the process runs. We put no value on a business in writing.
Owner dependence
Owner dependence is the slowest fix, because the proof is repetition.
The proof a buyer accepts is a second seat that has set prices through a full cycle, a vendor program that renewed without you in the room, an account that stayed after the named contact changed. Step away for three weeks with the phone off and write down what breaks. The list is the first quarter’s work, and the next quarter’s re-score shows whether the fix held.
Get started
Tell us how far out you are.
If you have had the Review, bring the fix list and we’ll tell you which items the roles would take first. If you haven’t, take the free Foundation Check in about ten minutes, or book the Review.