Exit readiness
Exit readiness for owner led Australian businesses
A structured preparation program for owners 12 to 36 months out from a sale, succession or partial exit. The work that lifts your eventual sale price, reduces transaction risk, and means the business is ready when the right buyer appears. Brought to you with the perspective of more than 50 transactions structured on the institutional side of the table.
Investment from $3,950 per month
The most common pattern in SME transactions is the owner who started preparing six months before a sale, only to discover the business was not buyer ready. By then the levers that genuinely move price have already closed. Customer concentration cannot be diversified in six months. Recurring revenue cannot be built in six months. Owner dependence cannot be unwound in six months.
Exit readiness is the work that happens before that window opens. It is not the sale process itself, and it is not a six week tidy up before a buyer arrives. It sits across 12 to 36 months, runs in parallel with the rest of the business, and means the sale itself becomes simpler because the business is already in the shape buyers want.
A well prepared business handed to a broker sells for materially more than an unprepared one handed to the same broker. The transaction reveals what was built in the preparation. It does not create it.
From owner led to owner independent
The single most important shift in exit readiness. The same business attracts a very different price depending on which side of this line it sits.
Owner led
- Senior relationships held in the owner’s name
- Most decisions run through the owner
- Pricing and quoting depend on the owner
- The business slows when the owner steps away
- A buyer sees a job, and prices it as one
Owner independent
- Relationships distributed across the team
- Decisions run through documented frameworks
- Pricing and quoting work without the owner
- The business performs when the owner is absent
- A buyer sees an asset, and pays for one
For SMEs, the gap between the two is often two to three turns of EBITDA. An owner led business attracting a 3x multiple can become a 5x or 6x business as it moves toward owner independent. Same revenue, same earnings, a materially different sale outcome. Most of the work concentrates here.
The six dimensions of readiness
Buyers assess a business across these six dimensions. Strength in each one compounds into the final sale outcome.
Financial
Clean three year financials, reviewed or audited, with normalised earnings and clear working capital trends.
Commercial
Customer diversification, recurring revenue mix, pricing discipline and visible, contracted income.
Operational
Documented processes, scalable systems and the demonstrated capacity to grow without the owner.
Leadership
Second tier leadership in place, distributed customer relationships and a clear owner step back path.
IP and assets
Documented intellectual property, transferable know how, and contracts that can be assigned cleanly.
Governance
A clean corporate structure, current compliance, and related party arrangements resolved well ahead of time.
The 12 to 36 month timeline
Four stages of structured work, counting down to a transaction. The earlier it starts, the larger the lift.
24 to 36 months out
Foundations
A baseline valuation, a value driver diagnostic, a reporting upgrade to acquirer standard, and a roadmap with quantified targets.
12 to 24 months out
Structural lift
The work that genuinely moves the multiple: customer diversification, recurring revenue, reducing owner dependence and developing second tier leadership.
6 to 12 months out
Buyer readiness
Documented systems and intellectual property, contracts ready to assign, three years of reviewed financials, and a pre transaction valuation refresh.
0 to 6 months out
Transaction
Buyer outreach, an information memorandum and data room, due diligence response, negotiation support and transition planning, with the business sold from strength rather than necessity.
An exit readiness diagnostic from $4,450 to begin, then the ongoing program from $3,950 per month. A value uplift roadmap is available from $7,000, and transaction phase work is scoped separately.
Case study
A specialist distribution business, fourteen months on
A $12M specialist industrial distribution business, family owned for 22 years, had a founder approaching 60 and wanting to exit within eighteen months. A local broker had indicated a likely sale range of $4M to $5M. The number felt low after two decades of building it, so the owner sought a second opinion before going to market.
Our diagnostic found five issues compressing the outcome, none flagged in the broker conversation. Around sixty five percent of significant customer relationships were held personally by the founder. The top two clients were thirty eight percent of revenue. Supplier contracts were informal and not structured for clean assignment. Reporting still ran through spreadsheets. And there was no operational leader beneath the founder, so a buyer was being asked to acquire a job.
Over fourteen months we worked through each one. Founder relationships were distributed across the sales team. New mid sized customers brought the top two concentration from thirty eight percent down to twenty two. Supplier agreements were renegotiated into formal, assignable contracts. Reporting moved to a proper platform with monthly management accounts. A general manager was hired into operational leadership. The business sold to a strategic national acquirer at $9.5M, structured as $8.2M upfront with a $1.3M earnout, against the $4M to $5M the broker had indicated.
$9.5M
sale price, from a $4 to 5M initial broker indication
5.0x
EBITDA multiple on normalised earnings
22%
top two client concentration, down from 38%
24%
founder owned relationships, down from 65%
Client details are anonymised and figures are rounded to protect confidentiality. Results vary by business and are never guaranteed.
Why ProfitPulse
Buyer side experience
Most exit advisors have only sat on the seller side. We bring the perspective of more than 50 transactions structured on the institutional side, so we understand what buyers actually price in.
A multi year horizon
Brokers focus on the transaction window and accountants on tax. The 12 to 36 month operational lift that determines the outcome sits between those disciplines. That is where we work.
Integrated with the CFO work
Exit readiness sits naturally inside an ongoing fractional CFO engagement, so the rhythm and discipline flow through one relationship rather than fragmenting across providers.
Built on institutional experience
ProfitPulse was founded by a Chartered Accountant whose career was built in investment banking, structuring more than 50 large scale infrastructure transactions across Australia, Asia and Africa, spanning debt, mezzanine and equity finance.
Much of that work sat on the buyer or lender side of the table. The discipline of looking at a business through the eyes of an acquirer or a credit committee is built from that direct exposure: what they price in, what they discount, and where they walk away. That perspective is rare in the Australian exit advisory market, and it is what we bring to businesses your size. You can read more about the firm on our about page.
Common questions
How early should I start preparing to sell?
Twenty four to 36 months ahead is ideal. The structural levers that move price take time to shift, particularly customer diversification, recurring revenue and reducing owner dependence. Twelve months is workable if the business is already in reasonable shape. Six months or less means the price is largely locked in by current state so you’d probably need to shift your exit window or save your dollars and work with what you have at your disposal.
Is exit readiness different from working with a broker?
Yes. A broker runs the sale process. Exit readiness is the preparation that happens before the process opens and the outcomes from this process informs what the broker publishes. Both have a role, but they are sequential, and a well prepared business sells for materially more.
What does an exit readiness engagement cost?
It usually begins with an exit readiness diagnostic from $4,450, then continues as an ongoing program from $3,950 per month. A value uplift roadmap is available from $7,000 if you prefer a once-off advisory scope, and transaction phase work is scoped separately. Our pricing page sets out how every engagement is sized.
How does this connect to a valuation?
A business valuation establishes a baseline and identifies the levers compressing your multiple. Exit readiness is the program that works through those levers over 12 to 36 months. Most engagements begin with a high level valuation and then move into the program.
What if I am considering a partial exit or recapitalisation?
Many of the same readiness levers apply, since financial buyers taking a minority or majority stake assess businesses against similar criteria. Partial exits usually sit alongside our capital raise preparation.
Do you broker the transaction itself?
No. We work alongside business brokers, advisors and corporate finance houses during the transaction, supporting the seller with financial preparation, due diligence response and negotiation support. The structural preparation beforehand is where the value uplift is generated.
What size businesses does this suit?
The program is most material for owner led businesses turning over between $2M and $40M. Below $2M the operational lift opportunities are usually narrower but still very effective. Above $40M, businesses often have internal CFO depth and engage corporate advisors directly prior to approaching brokers. Our guide on getting exit ready covers the fundamentals.
If you might sell in the next three years, start now
A 45 minute discovery call is complimentary. You will come away with a realistic sense of your current readiness and where the biggest lifts sit.