The Exit Readiness Playbook

Read the playbook, chapter by chapter

Every chapter of The Exit Readiness Playbook is here to read online. If you would rather have the whole thing in one place, the free PDF is a short form away.

There are thirteen short parts, and each one reads in a few minutes.

  1. How to read thisRead this once cover to cover in about an hour, then keep it close. It walks the whole journey of selling a business, from deciding whether now is the right...
  2. Forty-seven years on every side of the tableI started in business at twelve years old, sweeping the floor and selling toys and bicycles in a little shop in East London, South Africa, for a man named...
  3. The one idea that runs through this whole bookIf you remember nothing else, remember this. Prepare your business as if you were going to sell it tomorrow. By that I mean something calm and steady. Build...
  4. Chapter 1. Is it the right time, and what "ready" really meansBefore we talk about price, we have to talk about timing. The right time to sell arrives when three separate things line up at once: your business is ready...
  5. Chapter 2. What your business is actually worthLet me start with the conversation I have had more times than any other. An owner tells me what the business is worth, I ask how they got to that number...
  6. Chapter 3. Clean books and the few documents a buyer needsIf I could give an owner only one chapter, it would be this one. Clean books are the single biggest signal of value and trust you send a buyer, and the...
  7. Chapter 4. The silent value killersSome risks hide in plain sight because from the inside they look like success. Two of them quietly cut more deal prices than anything else I know, customer...
  8. Chapter 5. How buyers are actually foundOwners often imagine the buyer just appears. Sometimes one does, the way two appeared for me, but most of the time finding the right buyer is real work, and...
  9. Chapter 6. The deal, the structure, and the tax basics that move your take-homeThe first thing every owner asks is the price, and it is the wrong first question. The money you keep is decided by how the deal is structured: how much of...
  10. Chapter 7. Due diligence, and the data roomDue diligence is the part owners fear most, and it is the part I want you to stop fearing, because everything in the chapters before this was preparation...
  11. Chapter 8. Transition and life after the saleThe deal does not end at the closing table. For most owners there is a transition period where you hand the business over, and then there is the rest of...
  12. Your first week, and five takeawaysYou have read a lot. If you forget the rest, hold onto these five, because across the businesses I built and sold these moved the price the most. Prepare...
  13. Book a free 30-minute callWhen you are ready to talk it through, I would be glad to. I offer a free 30-minute call, owner to owner. No pitch, no pressure, and nothing for sale on the...