When Should You Start Preparing to Sell? (Earlier Than You Think)

Most owners start preparing to sell at the moment they decide to sell. Having sat on both sides of that decision — as an owner for over thirty years before becoming a broker — I can tell you that’s about two years late. The things that most move a sale price are slow things. Start them when the sale is a live decision, and you’ll sell the business you have. Start them early, and you get to sell a better one.

1. Get the books to close fast and clean

Buyers read financial hygiene as operational competence. A business whose monthly numbers close within ten business days, reconcile to the bank, and hold up under questions gets believed — and believed is cheaper than verified. Loose books don’t just slow diligence; they invite the buyer to re-price everything you’ve claimed.

2. Reduce what depends on you

Take yourself out of the org chart on paper and see what breaks. If the top customers call you, if pricing lives in your head, if nobody else can run a Monday — the business is less transferable than it looks, and buyers price transferability with brutal consistency. Delegating real authority takes time and tolerates mistakes, which is exactly why it can’t start the year you go to market.

3. Deal with concentration while there’s time

One customer over a quarter of revenue, one supplier with no alternative, one lease with three years left and no renewal option — none of these kill a deal on their own, but each shapes structure: earnouts, holdbacks, price adjustments. The year-early version of the fix is growth and diversification. The mid-deal version is a concession.

4. Get your own personal number

An exit has to fund whatever comes after it — and net proceeds sit well below headline price once debt, transaction costs, taxes, and deal structure take their share. Owners who work out their number early, with time for tax and structure planning to matter, keep meaningfully more of what they built. Owners who work it out at the closing table just find out.

The takeaway

The best preparation for selling a business is nearly indistinguishable from running it well. None of the items above are wasted if you decide not to sell — they make the business stronger, more profitable, and less dependent on you. Which is also, not coincidentally, exactly what buyers pay for.

Thinking about what comes next for your business? Download the free guide — 7 Critical Points Every Business Owner Must Know Before Selling — or book a confidential conversation with Don Emmett. Straight answers from someone who’s sat on your side of the table.