How do I prepare my business for sale?
Twelve months, in four blocks: reduce owner dependence, clean the accounts, improve revenue quality, clear the legal ground. The first block matters most and takes longest.
Twelve months, in four overlapping blocks. The order matters more than the effort, because the most valuable change is also the slowest.
| Months | Focus | Why then |
|---|---|---|
| 1–3 | Reduce owner dependence | Slowest to change, largest effect |
| 2–6 | Clean the accounts | Everything else references these |
| 3–9 | Improve revenue quality | Contracts take a quarter to sign |
| 6–10 | Clear the legal ground | Kills more deals than price does |
| 9–12 | Build the buyer file | Assembled before it is asked for |
What actually moves the number
Reducing owner dependence, converting repeat revenue to contracts, and reducing customer concentration by growing the rest. Everything else is hygiene — necessary, but it protects value rather than creating it.
What is visible as preparation
Start with a baseline
Preparation without knowing your current range is guesswork. Establishing where you are, and which assumption moves the number most, tells you which of the four blocks deserves your next twelve months.
Preparing your business for sale has the full sequence; what buyers look for covers what they check and in what order.