Most people think selling a business is a one-time event. It’s not.
It’s a process and the ones who get the most value don’t leave it to chance.
They plan ahead.
They remove risk.
They know their numbers.
They build something with recurring value.
Meanwhile, others get dragged through prolonged negotiations, deal fatigue, and disappointing offers that never close.
If you want to be in the first group, here’s three quick considerations.
1: Know Your Numbers
Buyers don’t buy your story, they buy your numbers.
And they’re looking for accuracy, consistency, clarity, and predictability. If your books are messy or your growth is built on false assumptions, your valuation will suffer.
✔ Keep your financials clean and straightforward. No shortcuts, no creative accounting.
✔ Ditch the fantasy forecasts. Buyers care more about reliable cash flow than big projections.
✔ Understand your real margins and growth levers. If you don’t know them, how can you defend them.
✔ Make the numbers boring. Steady performance wins.
✔ Find the weak spots before they do. Bad debt, deferred revenue, prolonged AR. Fix it now, not during diligence.
2: Build a Business That Runs Without You
If you’re the brand and the company falls apart when you step out, you haven’t built a business, you’ve built a job. And no one wants to buy your job.
✔ Define leadership roles. Buyers look for a team they can trust to operate post-sale.
✔ Get out of the center. If every decision flows through you, that’s a problem.
✔ Invest in a culture of accountability and execution. It reduces risk and improves handoff.
✔ Fill talent gaps now. If something’s missing, they’ll spot it, and use it to negotiate you down.
3: Protect What Makes You Valuable
If you have a true differentiator, or your “moat”, be sure it’s real, protected, and provable.
✔ Lock down IP and legal ownership. Don’t wait until diligence to find out something’s not clear.
✔ Tighten up contracts and vendor/customer agreements. Clean, transferable relationships matter, structured to ensure customers are “sticky”.
✔ Be able to explain why customers choose you, and stick with you. That’s your edge.
Final Thought: Start Before You Think You Need To
The best exits are built years in advance.
Even if you’re not planning to sell anytime soon, building a transferable, low-risk business is just good business.
At Next Level Growth, we work with founders to get their companies into this kind of shape—whether they’re aiming for an exit or just want more freedom and less chaos.
Thinking about a sale? Or just want to be ready when the time comes?
Let’s connect.
Next Steps
- Get your copy of the book you cannot afford to miss: Five Obsessions of Elite Organizations on Amazon/Audible.
- Click here to learn more about building an elite organization and the Five Obsessions of Elite Organizations.
- Have a conversation with our founders AI Clone about taking your business, and your life, to the next level
- Start a conversation with one of our Next Level Growth Business Guides about how we can help you achieve your vision for a bigger, bolder future.
