Today’s provocation: you should prepare to sell your company even if you never want to sell it.
Relax. I’m not telling you to sell. I’m saying that what a buyer looks at is, almost always, also what protects the owner day to day.
Six questions to ask today:
- Does the business run without you? If the company stops when the owner travels, the buyer sees risk. You see exhaustion.
- Can you trust the numbers? Revenue, margin, cash: all reconciled, no “more or less.”
- Are contracts up to date? Clients, suppliers, partners, employees.
- Do you depend on just a few clients? Concentration scares buyers and investors alike.
- Are processes on paper, not just in your head? The owner’s knowledge is an asset. But it only counts if it’s documented.
- Is there a clear story of why the company exists and where it’s going? (Yes, we’re back to the reason to exist.)
What you find weak isn’t a sentence. It’s a work agenda for the next 12 months.
And there’s the flip side. If your thesis is to buy, the question flips: what do you need to know about whoever sits across the table?
On either side, a good conversation beforehand avoids a lot of pain afterward.
How many of the six would you answer “yes” to right now?
Is there a decision weighing on you? Sometimes what’s missing isn’t an answer, it’s a good conversation with someone from the outside. If it makes sense, let’s talk. No script, no strings.