How do I prepare my business for sale?
Short Answer
Get the numbers clean and normalised, tidy contracts and intellectual property, reduce founder dependency, and prepare a vendor due diligence pack and data room — all framed around what a buyer's diligence will test.
Full Explanation
Preparing a business for sale is about surviving a buyer's due diligence with your price intact, and it takes longer than most owners expect.
Work through four areas. First, the numbers: produce clean management accounts and a defensible normalised EBITDA, ideally supported by your own quality of earnings analysis. Second, the legal and contractual base: put key customer and supplier relationships on contracts, resolve disputes, and confirm you own your intellectual property with clear title. Third, founder dependency: document processes, distribute customer relationships, and build a team that runs the business without you. Fourth, the evidence: assemble a data room and a vendor due diligence pack so diligence runs quickly and cleanly, and prepare your disclosure against the warranties you will be asked to give.
Doing this twelve to twenty-four months early removes the ammunition a buyer would otherwise use to chip the price. See preparing your business for sale and see Opagio Intangibles in action to build the intangible-asset evidence base.
Related Glossary Terms
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Further Reading
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