Do-it-with-you exit preparation
Preparing a business for sale.
Exit readiness is built over months, not weeks. We work alongside you to strengthen the value drivers buyers pay for and remove the risks they discount — before you ever go to market.
A six-to-twelve month engagement, with one to two working sessions a month. If you later engage Wraith to sell the business, 25% of your consulting fees are credited against the success fee.
The exit-preparation challenge
Most owners wait until they're ready to sell to think about preparation. By then it's often too late to address the risks a buyer will discount for.
The traditional approach
- Wait until ready to sell to start preparing
- Discover issues during due diligence
- Rush to fix problems under time pressure
- Accept lower valuations due to risks
- Deal with buyer concerns and delays
The Wraith approach
- Start preparing 1-3 years before exit
- Identify and address issues proactively
- Implement improvements systematically
- Present value drivers the way acquirers underwrite them
- Enter the sale process prepared, not reactive
Concentration risk
For the typical owner, roughly 80% or more of total net worth is locked in a single illiquid asset — the business itself. The sale is the one event that turns a life’s work into liquidity, which is why it has to be prepared for, not improvised.
Source: Exit Planning Institute, 2023 National State of Owner Readiness Report (owner’s business “typically equates to 80% or more of the owner’s total net worth”).
Exit on your terms
An estimated half of all exits are forced — they do not happen on the owner’s terms or timeline. Preparation is what puts you in the other half.
Forced exits follow the “5 Ds” — death, disability, distress, disagreement, and divorce.
Source: Exit Planning Institute, 2023 National State of Owner Readiness Report (an estimated 50% of exits are “forced,” the result of the “5 Ds”).
Exit consulting improves the business’s sellability while you continue to own and operate it, so the value drivers a buyer looks for are already in place by the time you go to market.
Our approach
Our do-it-with-you approach
We work alongside you to systematically improve your business's sellability, focusing on one critical area at a time over 6-12 months.
Reduce owner dependency
Build systems and processes that allow your business to operate independently of your daily involvement.
Increase business stability
Strengthen financial controls, customer relationships, and operational processes to reduce buyer risk.
Strengthen value drivers
Address the factors buyers discount for, and present the ones they pay for, before you go to market.
Strengthen the management team
Develop leadership capabilities and succession planning to demonstrate continuity to buyers.
Improve documentation
Create comprehensive documentation of processes, contracts, and procedures that buyers expect.
Optimize financial reporting
Put in place the financial controls and monthly reporting a buyer can rely on in diligence.
Why do-it-with-you works
Traditional consulting hands you a report and leaves you to implement it. We do the work with you. You keep running the business; we make sure the changes actually get made.
How it works
Our methodology
A 6-12 month process that works on the things a buyer will scrutinize, one focus area at a time.
Where the business stands
We work through the areas a buyer underwrites — financials, operations, owner dependency, customer concentration, contract quality — and mark honestly where the business is strong and where it will get discounted.
A clear, honest baseline
What to fix first
From that, a short list of the highest-impact changes, sequenced so the work compounds instead of scattering across a dozen fronts at once.
A sequenced roadmap
Doing the work, with you
One to two working sessions a month to make the changes — not a report handed over and left for you to implement alone.
Changes actually made
Checking the work
We track what has moved and adjust as the business changes, so it is genuinely ready the day you decide to go to market.
Ready when you are
The benefits of early preparation
Starting your exit preparation early provides significant advantages over waiting until you're ready to sell.
For your business
- A more defensible valuation
- Reducing the risks buyers discount for supports a stronger, more defensible valuation at the table.
- Fewer diligence delays
- Buyers move faster through an organized, well-documented business with systems they can see.
- A reason to engage, not discount
- A prepared business gives qualified buyers fewer reasons to hesitate — and fewer to discount the price.
- Reduced deal risk
- Fewer surprises in diligence means fewer deals that fall apart before closing.
For you personally
- Reduced stress
- No last-minute scrambling to fix issues or prepare documentation under pressure.
- More options
- Better preparation gives you more choices in timing, buyers, and deal structure.
- Reduced owner dependency
- Building systems that run without you means you can step back while maintaining business performance.
- Readiness on your timeline
- The business is ready whenever you decide the time is right to exit — not scrambling to catch up.
The assessment
How we assess the business
We look at the business across the dimensions a buyer actually weighs, and turn that into a plain read of where it stands and what to fix.
Financial health
Revenue growth, profitability, cash flow, and financial reporting quality
Operations
Systems, processes, scalability, and operational efficiency
Management
Leadership depth, succession planning, and owner dependency
Market position
Competitive advantages, market share, and growth opportunities
Risk factors
Customer concentration, regulatory compliance, and business risks
Documentation
Contracts, procedures, IP protection, and record keeping
What the report tells you
Each area is weighted by how much it actually moves price and deal terms. You get a plain report:
- Where the business stands, area by area
- The gaps a buyer will find in diligence
- What to fix first, in order
Investment & terms
What the engagement involves
A defined 6-12 month scope with custom pricing — and fees that credit toward the sale if you later engage Wraith to sell the business.
What’s included
- Comprehensive sellability assessment
- Improvement roadmap built for your business
- Monthly advisory meetings (1-2 per month)
- Ongoing implementation support
- Quarterly progress reviews
- Direct access to Wraith advisors
Success fee credit
25% of your consulting fees will be credited against our success fee if you engage Wraith Brokerage to sell your business.
So part of what you invest in preparation comes back as a credit against the success fee if you go on to sell the business with Wraith.
- Value while you still own it
- The systems you build to sell the business also make it run better while you still own and operate it.
- Risk reduction
- Address the potential deal-killers before they surface in a diligence process.
- Ready when the window opens
- Prepared if a buyer approaches or the right time arrives, instead of scrambling to catch up.
Request a confidential valuation.
A short conversation about your business, your timeline, and whether exit consulting is the right next step.
Note: 25% of consulting fees are credited toward your sale success fee if you choose Wraith for your exit transaction.
Schedule your exit-consulting consultation
All information is kept strictly confidential