Planning to sell your company someday? Even if it’s two, three, five years down the road, developing the right exit frame of mind now will pay off handsomely in the future. We’ve already shared several ideas on the topic of preparing to sell your company, but we’ve got more to say about it because here’s the thing: it’s a myth that selling your business will be easy – very few successful sellers just got lucky.

The mergers and acquisitions landscape is littered with killed or failed deals for business owners who believed they were well-positioned to sell their business because they were masters at running it. Not so. Successful sellers lay the groundwork for their exit years in advance, developing processes, tweaking operations, and building out a complete management team, constantly putting themselves in the mindset of a potential buyer.

Optimize your business for sale today, tomorrow, and every day – there are several critical but easy actions you can take now that will pay dividends when you’re ready to sell. Let’s dig into a few key ideas.





Get Your Accounting in Order

Countless deals die because the seller’s books are sloppy and the seller doesn’t truly, deeply grasp their financials, and needs months of clean-up to present them to a potential buyer. Even if the deal moves ahead, a lack of in-depth understanding of your financials means you risk leaving money on the table.

The right exit frame of mind means a regular focus on your financials. Review your P&L;, cash flow statement, and balance sheet monthly, even weekly. A few times a year is inadequate to fine-tune your expertise and the insights you need to recognize and act on subtle areas for improvement.

Businesses are typically sold on a multiple of EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). There is any number of fairly painless ways you can boost your EBITDA, and thus your sales price, by focusing on profitability, i.e. enhancing revenue and streamlining expenses.

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📌 M&A Sellers: Developing an Exit Frame of Mind (Gudivada)
🏢 Linden Law Partners
📍 Gudivada