The Deal

Exit & Succession

A good exit is engineered, not stumbled into. Twelve to eighteen months of deliberate work lifts value, tightens the numbers, prepares the data room and — most importantly — lets you negotiate from a position of strength.

Who it's for

Founders who recognise themselves in one of these.

Owners thinking about a sale in the next 1–3 years, whether trade or private equity.
Founders approached by a buyer, unsure whether the offer on the table is fair.
Businesses that look profitable but haven't been through the discipline of due diligence.

A three-step approach

Deliberate, sequential, no theatre.

Phase 1

Exit-readiness audit

A structured, honest look at what a buyer will actually find — customer concentration, contract quality, systems, key-person risk, EBITDA hygiene, working capital, tax posture. Every red flag, ranked.

Phase 2

Value engineering

6–12 months of deliberate work to lift the drivers a buyer pays for: recurring revenue mix, margin, growth trajectory, management strength, clean numbers. Boring on the surface. Multiples of impact on price.

Phase 3

Deal process support

Advisor selection, information memorandum sanity-check, sitting alongside you through management meetings, DD questions, SPA negotiation and completion — protecting value and tempo.

What you get

Deliverables.

Exit-readiness audit — a private, unflinching document.
Value-driver improvement plan with quarterly milestones.
Normalised EBITDA workings and add-back schedule.
Pre-DD data-room preparation and gap list.
Buyer landscape overview — trade, PE, MBO options.
Alongside-you presence at management meetings and key negotiations.

What changes

Outcomes.

A business that stands up to institutional due diligence without drama.
Higher, cleaner, more defensible EBITDA on completion.
A shorter, calmer transaction with fewer late-stage renegotiations.
A founder who lands on the other side of the deal without regrets.

FAQ

Questions we hear a lot.

No. We don't run the sale process, prepare the IM or take a completion fee. We're the founder's advisor — sitting on your side of the table through advisor selection, the process itself and everything before and after.

Ideally 18 months before you want to be in a process. Twelve is workable. Six is triage. Once a buyer is at the table it's largely too late to lift value — you're negotiating what's already there.

In our experience: recurring/contracted revenue, customer concentration under 15%, gross margin trend, growth rate, quality of the management team, and — crucially — how little the business depends on the founder day-to-day.

Yes. They're very different processes with very different outcomes for the founder — cash mix, roll-over equity, ongoing role, cultural fit. We think this through with you before any advisor is appointed.

Other practices you may want to explore.

Foundations

Let's talk about what comes next.

A discovery call is free, unhurried, and specific to your business. If we're not the right fit, we'll say so.

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