All articles
A valuation tells you the price of your house. An Exit Readiness Assessment tells you whether the kitchen needs updating before you list it.
Most business owners call a broker, ask for a valuation, get a number, and decide whether to sell based on that number. That sequence costs sellers in Northwest Ohio real money, every year.
A valuation is a snapshot of today. It tells you what your business is worth in its current state: messy financials, customer concentration, owner dependency, and all. It does not tell you what your business could be worth 90 to 180 days from now with focused preparation.
An Exit Readiness Assessment is the opposite. It walks through the exact dimensions a sophisticated buyer's due diligence team will scrutinize: quality of earnings, recurring versus one-time revenue, customer concentration, key-person risk, documented processes, lease terms, intellectual property, and growth trajectory. Then it tells you which of those are dragging your multiple down and which can be fixed before you ever go to market.
Here is the math that matters: a small distribution business doing $1.2M in EBITDA might command a 3.5x multiple as-is and a 4.5x multiple after 120 days of cleanup. That is the difference between a $4.2M sale and a $5.4M sale. The valuation alone never surfaces that gap.
The right sequence is: assessment first, fixes second, valuation third, listing fourth. Skip the first two and you are pricing from where you are, not where you could be.
If you are even considering a sale in the next 24 months, start with the assessment. The valuation will be more accurate, the listing will be stronger, and the closing number will be higher.
Every message goes straight to Eric. No fee, no sales pitch.