Aerial view of a working limestone quarry
For Owners · Before You Sell
Exit readiness review: what a buyer will find, found first.
A buyer will read your numbers and your operation from the outside, with no reason to be generous. This is that same read, run for you, three months to four years before you sell, while the answers can still be changed. It ends in a fix list with a call on every item: fix it before you go to market, fix it after an offer, or stop trying to fix it and put it on the table priced. Indiana-rooted. Serving buyers and owners nationwide.
Hoosier Supply Co. · Illustrative
The owner rated himself 68. The evidence carried 46.
68 against 46
What he believed, against what the evidence supported
Scored on the same 25-factor rubric both times. The left number is his own free Foundation Check self-rating. The right is ours, where every factor had to cite a document, a number, or something we watched happen. He was not wrong about his business. He was rating the part he could see, which is the part that works.
4.0 against 1.8
Leadership bench, the widest gap of the five dimensions
A capable office manager who had never set a price, never negotiated a vendor program and never held a profit-and-loss statement. The two dimensions he over-rated most are the two nobody inside a business can assess about themselves, and they are the first two a buyer tests.
30 days
What it took to close the lowest-rated finding in the review
Nothing held the two people a buyer would have to keep. No agreement of any kind, no non-solicitation covenant, no retention award. Closed with paper in a month. Done early it is housekeeping. Done during diligence it looks like a reaction.
The numbers read

What the business earned, proved to the bank.

A sell-side Quality of Earnings. Led by Ryan Anoskey, CPA.

  • Every add-back against three gates
  • Personal spending stripped out
  • The walk from the filed return, tied
  • Working capital and the peg
Where the documents stop
The operator read

Whether those earnings belong to the business or to you.

Interviews, the calendar, the approval routing. Led by Jared Luegers, CFA.

  • Which seats the earnings run through
  • Whether anyone else can hold them
  • What the customer relationships attach to
  • What a buyer underwrites on day one

One report, one readout. Run apart, the two contradict each other and you are left deciding which to believe.

The financial mechanics live on the Quality of Earnings page and are not repeated here.

The two halves
A buyer reads the numbers and the operation together, so we do too.
Ryan Anoskey leads the numbers, and he has run more than one hundred quality of earnings engagements, buy-side and sell-side. Jared Luegers leads the operator read and does the interviews himself. Run apart, the two contradict each other and you are left deciding which to believe. Run together, the operator work explains what the numbers show: on the sample business the margin slipped, and only the pricing process said why.
A business owner standing in the doorway of his own building, looking out
The five dimensions
The two dimensions he over-rated most are the two he could not see from inside.
The left column is the owner's own free Foundation Check self-rating. The right is ours, where every factor had to cite a document, a data point or something we watched happen. The gap is the point, and where it is widest is where a sale gets decided. Note the last row. Deal-ready is the dimension owners routinely under-rate, because a finished Quality of Earnings and an organised data room put you further along than you think.
Dimension He rated Evidenced What the evidence rests on

A. Clean numbersCan a buyer trust the numbers?

4.0

2.6

AmberEarnings quality is strong and the Quality of Earnings proves it. The system around them is not: close lands near day 20 with no commentary, and no customer-level or line-level margin exists anywhere.

B. Runs without youDoes it run when you are out?

4.0

2.0

RedThe counter and the warehouse run without him for a week. Pricing, purchasing and the top three accounts do not. 61% of scheduled time in customer, pricing or vendor meetings, and 11 of 14 recurring approvals route to him.

C. Leadership benchIs there a team that carries it?

4.0

1.8

Red · the binding constraintA capable office manager who has never set a price, never negotiated a vendor program and never held a profit-and-loss statement. No employment agreements for the two seats a buyer must keep, and no named successor for any seat he holds.

D. Where you standIs the position durable?

3.0

2.4

AmberThe service advantage is real and his own data supports it: a 96.4% fill rate on stock items. Pricing power is defensible on stock and absent on quoted work. Top customer 24%, top ten 70%.

E. Deal-readyReady to transact?

2.0

2.8

Amber · the one he under-ratedA completed Quality of Earnings and an organised data room put him further along than he thought. Held back by an undocumented equity understanding, a related-party lease whose change-of-control terms are untested, and a largest account on no written terms.

Foundation Score

68

46

Out of 100. Evidenced stage: Footing. He is not wrong about his business. He is rating the part he can see, which is the part that works.

Scored 1 to 5 on a 25-factor rubric, five factors per dimension, equal weight. The rated column is the free Foundation Check self-assessment; evidenced is our rating, each factor citing a document, a data point or a direct observation. Source: LIMESTONE analysis. Illustrative; Hoosier Supply Co. is fictional.

The default

No contact at all.

The concentration read comes from your contracts, your invoices and your churn history. It needs no phone call, and most reviews never make one.

If you switch it on

01

You pick the accountsNot us, and not all of them. Usually the three or four where the answer actually matters.Your call

02

You make the introductionIn your words, on your timing. Nobody is contacted cold and nobody hears it from us first.Your call

03

The same question set every timeWhether they are buying the business or buying you, what switching would cost them, and whether the margin survives a new owner.

04

Themes in the report, names only with consentNo quotation is attributed to a named customer unless that customer agrees to it.Their call

A declined account is recorded rather than replaced, because a refusal is itself a finding.

Your customers
We do not contact your customers unless you ask us to.
The first thing most owners want to know is whether this puts their accounts at risk. It does not. The concentration read comes from your contracts, your invoices and your churn history, and none of it requires a phone call. If you do want the customer view, and it is the best evidence there is of whether a relationship is attached to the business or to you, we will run it on your terms: you pick the accounts, you approve the introduction, and nothing is attributed to a named customer without consent. It stays your decision throughout.
The fix list
Five things to fix before market, four to fix after an offer, and three to stop fixing and disclose.

Fix before you go to market

Five · all inside 90 days

Every one of these changes what a buyer believes, and every one can be closed before a buyer ever sees it.

Put the office manager and the estimator under agreementWith a non-solicitation covenant and a retention award that survives a sale. The lowest-rated dimension, closed with paper.

Low effort

30 days

Resolve the equity understanding in writing, and get written consent on the dealer agreementOne is a claim risk at close. The other is 18% of revenue resting on a consent nobody has asked for.

Low effort

30 to 60 days

Give the three owner-held accounts a named contact who is not youAnd put the top ten on written terms. This is the one that moves the revenue-at-risk scenario.

Medium effort

60 to 90 days

Recalibrate the price file and set a margin floor on quoted workWorth about $77K a year, and it improves the margin trend a buyer will extrapolate.

Low effort

30 to 60 days

Report margin by revenue line, close by day 15, hold a weekly meeting with five numbersThree months of clean reporting is what makes everything else in the review credible.

Medium effort

90 days

Fix after an offer

Four · real work, longer clock

These will not finish before a buyer arrives, and starting them now costs momentum you need elsewhere.

Move pricing authority into the office manager's seatWith a written framework and a monthly margin review. It needs repetitions, and those need time you do not have.

High effort

9 to 12 months

Hand the three largest vendor programs overWith introductions and the rebate calendar. Better done alongside a buyer, who will want their own relationship anyway.

Medium effort

6 to 9 months

Document the four riskiest processesReplenishment, project quoting, counter pricing, month-end close. A buyer will want it written their way.

High effort

6 months

Test change-of-control and renewal on the warehouse leaseSits naturally with the purchase agreement and your own counsel.

Low effort

60 days

Stop fixing it and disclose it

Three · the column nobody gives an owner

Some things cost more to fix than to admit. Put them on the table early and they get priced. Leave them and they get discovered, which is always more expensive.

The 24% customer concentration itselfThe relationship is fixable. The share is not, and not on this timetable. Every buyer finds it in the first schedule.

High impact

Not fixable

The lost account, and the service failure behind itThe revenue schedule tells that story whether you do or not. Better in your words than in a buyer's reconstruction.

Medium impact

Historic

The on-premise server and the paper ticketsCheaper for a buyer to fix their own way. Capital spent here buys nothing at the table.

Low impact

Not worth it

The constraint is bench, not you. There is no seat to move three of your roles into, and nothing holds the two people who would receive them. Do the retention paperwork first; everything else assumes they are still around.

Rated on consequence to price, not on difficulty of fixing. Source: LIMESTONE analysis, sell-side sample review. Illustrative; Hoosier Supply Co. is fictional.

Runway
What is fixable depends almost entirely on how long you have.
The question an owner actually asks is whether there is still time. Nothing on this list is exotic, and all of it takes longer than an owner expects, which is the argument for starting before you think you need to.
Three years out You sell

Three years

Everything is still available, including the things only time can prove.

  • A successor who has held the seatThrough a full cycle, with the numbers to show it. The one fix that cannot be bought.
  • Concentration brought downBy winning new accounts rather than by losing the old one.
  • A margin trend a buyer can extrapolateThree years of it, not three months.

Twelve months

Authority can still move. Proof by repetition is out of reach.

  • Pricing authority in a second seatWith a written framework and a monthly margin review. Nine to twelve months of repetitions.
  • Vendor programs handed overWith introductions and the rebate calendar. Six to nine months.
  • The four riskiest processes documentedReplenishment, quoting, counter pricing, month-end close.
  • A weekly operating cadenceRunning long enough that a buyer believes it predates them.

Three months

Paper and pricing only. Everything else becomes disclosure.

  • Retention agreements signedThe two people a buyer must keep. Thirty days, and the cheapest item on the list.
  • The equity understanding in writingAnd change-of-control consents requested where agreements carry them.
  • The price file recalibratedWith a margin floor set on quoted work.
  • Named contacts on the top accountsIntroduced, not just nominated.

Timings from the sample review's fix list, which states an effort and a time to fix for every item. Source: LIMESTONE analysis. Illustrative; Hoosier Supply Co. is fictional.

Most owners take this list and run it themselves. If you would rather it were run with you, that is the Exit Readiness Partnership.
See the actual work
You can read a whole review before you hire anyone, including us.
The readout excerpt
The five dimensions, the findings register and the fix list from a full review. Three pages is enough to tell whether a firm can actually do this, which is the only reason to offer them.
Ask on the call or by email. It comes back the same day, with no form to fill in.
First page of the LIMESTONE sample Quality of Earnings report, Light scope
The full sample report
Ten pages: the executive summary, the five dimensions scored against evidence, the twelve findings with the call on each, the fix list and the readout. Hoosier Supply Co. is fictional and every page says so. It records the green findings as carefully as the red, because a review that lists only problems is not a review.
Sent. It is on its way from Jared Luegers and usually arrives within a minute. If it does not, check your spam folder.
That did not send. Try once more, and if it still will not go through, contact us and we will send it across.
Your address is used for the report and a single follow-up. Nothing else.

Questions We Get

What owners ask before they start.

If yours is not here, ask it on the call.

How far out should I do this?

Three months to four years. Closer than three months and the list is mostly disclosure, because the fixes that matter need time to become true. Further out than four years and the business changes enough that parts of it have to be re-run. One to two years is where almost everything on the list is still reachable.

What are the scopes, and which one do I need?

Two. The Review is the numbers read at Core scope plus the operator read, and it is what most owners take. Comprehensive goes deeper on both, including owner-directed customer conversations where you want them, and suits a business with more moving parts or an owner closer to market. If you only want the numbers, a sell-side Quality of Earnings on its own is the smaller door. A short call is enough for us to tell you which one fits, and if this business does not need the full review, that is what you will hear.

Do I need a Quality of Earnings first?

No. The Review includes one. If you have already had a Quality of Earnings done, we will read it rather than redo it and scope around what it covers. If you only want the numbers and nothing else, that is a sell-side Quality of Earnings on its own, and it has its own page.

Will you talk to my customers?

Only if you ask us to. You pick the accounts, you approve the introduction, and nothing is attributed to a named customer without consent. The concentration read itself comes from your contracts, your invoices and your churn history, and needs no phone call at all.

Will you tell me what the business is worth?

Not in writing, and not as a conclusion of value. We are not appraisers and we do not do valuations. At the readout we will tell you out loud what buyers are underwriting for businesses like yours, and we will say plainly that this is not a valuation.

What if the answer is that I am not ready?

Then you will hear it, with the list of what would have to be true and how long each item takes. An owner who learns that from us has time to act on it. An owner who learns it from a buyer is renegotiating.

Is this the same as the Exit Readiness Partnership?

No. The Review is a defined engagement that ends in a report and a readout. The Partnership is ongoing work where we sit in the seats alongside you and run the list. Most owners take the Review and run the list themselves, which is the outcome it is designed for.

What is this not?

Not a valuation, not an audit, not a review or an attest engagement, and not a broker's opinion of price. It is also not the fix itself. It is a read of what a buyer will find and what to do about it, in time to do it.

get started

Find out what a buyer will find, while you can still change the answer.
Tell us roughly when you want to sell and what the business does. A short call, then one fixed fee in writing, half at signing and half at delivery. Two of these run at a time, because the interviews and the verdict are not delegated, so if the calendar is full you will get a date rather than a late report. If this business does not need the full review, that is what you will hear. Indiana-rooted. Serving buyers and owners nationwide.

Jared Luegers, CFA · Founder and Managing Partner · jared@limestonesp.com

Ryan Anoskey, CPA · Partner · ryan.anoskey@limestonesp.com