03 Preparation
Prepared for what’s next.
Value is not discovered at the exit. It is built before it.
02 What readiness means
Five strands,one line.
Operations
Leadership
Governance
Reporting
The case
Running without the founder in every decision.
A team that has operated at the scale being sold.
Decisions recorded where a buyer can follow them.
Numbers that reconcile, on time, without heroics.
An account of the business that survives scrutiny.
-
01
Operations
Running without the founder in every decision.
-
02
Leadership
A team that has operated at the scale being sold.
-
03
Governance
Decisions recorded where a buyer can follow them.
-
04
Reporting
Numbers that reconcile, on time, without heroics.
-
05
The case
An account of the business that survives scrutiny.
A description of what preparation involves. It is not a claim about valuations reached or transactions completed.
03 How it is sequenced
Four chapters, in order.
-
01
Look at it as a buyer would
Before anything is fixed, the business is read the way an acquirer reads it — coldly, and from the outside.
-
02
Separate the owner from the engine
Relationships, judgement and standards move out of one person and into the organisation.
-
03
Make the numbers answerable
Management information that reconciles and answers the question that will actually be asked.
-
04
Fix what moves perceived value
Done far enough ahead that it is real rather than cosmetic by the time anyone looks.
- Readiness diagnostic
- Data-room readiness checklist
- Governance and reporting improvement roadmap
- Management-bench assessment
Illustrative examples of how an engagement might be packaged, not committed deliverables.
11 — Start a conversation
Let’s shape what’s next.
Tell us what is forcing the decision, and by when.