The Exit Toolkit · Sheet 3 of 20
The two-year exit runway
What to fix before going to market
Phase one: get the paperwork straight
Accounts and financial information, borrowings, asset lists, insurances, licences and consents, employee details, customer and supplier contracts, premises and leases. Go back three years.
Phase two: fill in the cracks
Get key contracts signed rather than verbal. Give every employee a written contract. Clean up book debts. Resolve or settle disputes. Check compliance, especially data protection.
Phase three: make yourself dispensable
Document how the business runs: operating manuals, systems, processes. A business that runs itself is worth more than one that runs on you.
Protect what you've built
Register trade marks for your name, logo or slogan. It costs little and turns goodwill into a tangible asset a buyer can see.
Scrutinise the numbers
Strip out unnecessary expenses so the figures present at their best. This is tidying, not hiding: your task is to present well, never to conceal.
Run a mock due diligence
Work through a buyer's information checklist before any buyer does. Remove the skeletons early so nothing surfaces late and knocks the price.
Bottom line
The advice is to plan a couple of years ahead. But if a buyer has already appeared, don't panic: a focused 90 days of preparation covers most of this list.
Related
General information only, not legal advice. Steven Mather Solicitor is a trading name of Kesters Nook Limited; legal work is carried out through Nexa Law Limited, authorised and regulated by the SRA (number 633024).