06 · Exit Planning Advisory
When should exit planning actually start?
Two to three years before you intend to sell, because the things that lift a multiple — revenue quality, customer concentration, founder dependency, documented process — all take that long to change. Exit planning advisory identifies the specific value drivers a buyer in your category rewards, removes the dependencies that trigger discounts, and builds the evidence trail that makes diligence uneventful.
Outcomes
What you walk away with
- A ranked list of the value drivers that move your multiple
- Reduced founder and customer concentration risk
- Revenue restated as recurring, predictable and transferable
- A diligence trail that removes surprises and delay
Deliverables
What gets produced
Value driver assessment
What acquirers in your category actually pay for, scored against where you stand today.
Dependency removal plan
The sequence for engineering yourself, and any single customer, out of the critical path.
Revenue quality programme
Moving revenue toward contracted, recurring and transferable — the single largest multiple lever.
Readiness pack
Documentation, contracts and metrics assembled so diligence confirms rather than discovers.
Process
How the engagement runs
01
Assess
Benchmark against the criteria live acquirers in your category are using right now.
02
Engineer
Work the value drivers with the longest lead times first — usually dependency and revenue quality.
03
Prepare
Assemble the readiness pack and rehearse the buyer conversation before it happens.
The AI layer
What changes in this service now that AI is load-bearing rather than experimental.
- Comparable transaction and acquirer research at scale
- Early modelling of how each value driver moves the multiple
- An AI posture buyers now diligence: what is owned, governed and defensible
Who this is for
- Founders considering an exit in the next two to five years
- Owner-managed businesses with heavy founder dependency
- Boards preparing a portfolio company for sale
Related services
What usually runs alongside this
Ready to work on exit planning advisory?
Thirty minutes, five pillars, one honest read on what is actually constraining growth. No obligation, and a written summary within 24 hours.