Before You Commit · Timing the sale

Before You Time The Sale Of Your Business

The number you want is the number you had two years ago. The market is showing you a different number. You can wait or you can move. Both have a price.

This page is for the owner who knows the sale is coming and is fighting about whether this year is the year.

Short answer

Sell when the business has run without you for 90 days, the financial trail survives diligence, the leadership team is paid to stay through transition, and you can describe what you do the day after close without rehearsing.

If any of those is not true yet, the question is not whether to sell.

The question is what to fix this year.

Fast extraction

Questions owners ask when the year is starting to feel like the year.

The search phrase is the confession. The diagnosis comes after the confession is visible.

When is the right time to sell my business?

When the business runs without the founder for at least 90 consecutive days, when the financial trail will survive diligence, when the leadership team is paid to stay through transition, and when the founder can answer the day-after-close question without rehearsing.

Should I sell my business now or wait?

Wait if your number does not match the market multiple, if the company still routes every decision through you, or if you cannot describe what you do the day after close.

Sell now if the multiple has peaked for your category, if your energy has visibly dropped, and if the team is ready to be led by someone else.

What is the most expensive timing mistake on a sale?

Going to market in the last quarter of your worst year. The buyer will price the dip and discount the recovery. Sellers who wait one full operating year almost always close on better terms.

How long does a business sale actually take?

Nine to eighteen months from the decision to sell to the wire. Sellers who plan for six months are negotiating against their own deadline by month four.

Money already moving

broker retainer, accountant cleanup hours, legal pre-diligence, internal time spent rehearsing the story, deferred hiring decisions

Money usually lost

the discount the market applies to a seller who is visibly tired and visibly under-prepared, compounded across the full transaction value

Blind spot

the year you wanted to sell is already priced into how the buyer reads your patience

Decision map

The year is not the whole decision.

The year you choose is the visible commitment. The dangerous part is the hidden decision about whether you have done the operating work that makes the year worth choosing.

Inspection list

What Stan would inspect before the year is named.

Before the timing locks

Whether the business has run without the founder in the meetings for 90 consecutive days.
Whether the financials have been kept as if a buyer was already reading them.
Whether the top three executives are paid to stay through close and one year after.
Whether the customer concentration would survive a buyer's review without explanation.
Whether the founder can describe the day after close without rehearsing.
Whether the market multiple in your category has peaked or is still climbing.
Whether the founder is selling tired or selling ready. The buyer will tell the difference.

Next gate

Go into the pattern before you go into application.

The point is not to collect another opinion. The point is to name the hidden decision well enough that the next move is not theater.

Prepare For Sale Without Losing Control

The sale-readiness pattern beneath the year.

Exit and Succession

The decisions under the transaction, not the transaction.

Before The PE Offer

If the offer is already real.

Before You Sell The Family Business

Family transitions have their own clock.

Ways To Work

Use this after the pattern is clear.

Apply for Tier 01

Use this if the year decision is one live read.

The year is not the answer. The operating work behind the year is the answer.

If you want Stan to read the live decision, use the application route and describe the year you are considering in plain language.

When this is one live decision and the cost is already real, Tier 01 is the commercial route. When the team or the principals are part of the work, Tier 03 applies.

Apply for Tier 01 Back to the hub