RESOURCES FOR OWNERS
Clear explanations, useful questions, and tools to help business owners prepare for an exit with greater confidence.
Explore the Owner’s Guide ↗ The Graystone Process ↗Owner’s guide
Short, plain-language guidance on the questions that matter most before, during, and after a sale.
Buyers pay for clarity. The year or two before a sale is the best time to tidy financials, reduce owner dependence, and document how the business runs.
Buyers look at earnings, but they also weigh risk, growth potential, and how easily the business transfers to new ownership.
Competitive, confidential outreach to the right buyers gives you options, and options create leverage on price and terms.
The terms you agree to shape what happens next, for you, your team, and your customers.
Where you are today
Three starting points, and the one step worth taking next from each.
Understand what drives value in your sector, what a process involves and what you would want from a transition. Keep clean monthly financials and a simple record of customer and supplier contracts.
Next step: call or text 281-822-2526 for a StrategyDesk conversation.
Reduce reliance on the owner, document processes, resolve customer concentration where you can, and put reporting in place that a buyer can test. Address the issues you would rather a buyer never found.
Next step: ask for a readiness discussion so the work you do now counts later.
Normalise earnings, prepare the business story, gather diligence material early and agree who needs to know and when. Bring your legal and tax advisers into the conversation.
Next step: call or text to discuss timing, buyers and what your process would look like.
Glossary
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. It is a measure of earnings used as a starting point in valuation discussions. It is not cash flow, and it is not the amount an owner receives at closing.
A document setting out a buyer’s proposed transaction terms. Parts of it, such as exclusivity and confidentiality, are usually binding, so it should be reviewed by your attorney before signing.
The buyer’s detailed review of your financials, contracts, operations, and legal standing before closing.
An independent review that tests whether reported earnings are accurate and sustainable.
The short-term assets and liabilities needed to run the business day to day, often negotiated as part of the price.
A portion of the price paid later if the business reaches agreed targets after closing.
Ownership an owner keeps in the business, or its new parent, after the transaction.
The confidential document that introduces your business to qualified buyers.
Still have questions
Ask an advisor directly.
Engagement scope and fees are discussed directly and documented before work begins.
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