Selling

How to Prepare Your Business for Sale: A 12-Month Timeline

Exit Street

28 Jan 2026 — 1 min read

Planning to exit? The best outcomes come from preparation. Rushing to market is the #1 reason sellers leave money on the table. Here's a month-by-month guide to getting your business sale-ready.

Months 12-9: Foundation

Clean your books. Get professional bookkeeping in order. Separate personal and business expenses completely.
Document everything. SOPs for every key process. If you get hit by a bus, could someone run this business from your documentation?
Reduce owner dependency. Start delegating. If you're the entire sales team, that's a problem.

Months 9-6: Optimization

Diversify revenue. Reduce customer concentration. Add new channels if possible.
Lock in contracts. Renew key vendor and customer agreements. Long-term contracts = predictable revenue = higher valuation.
Fix the leaks. Cancel unnecessary subscriptions, renegotiate vendor terms, optimize ad spend. Every dollar of profit improvement translates to multiple dollars of valuation.

Months 6-3: Preparation

Get a valuation. Know what you're worth before you go to market. Prepare your data room.
Choose your path. Marketplace listing, broker, direct outreach? Each has tradeoffs.
Legal prep. Review contracts for change-of-control clauses. Get your corporate documents in order.

Months 3-0: Go to Market

Create your listing. Compelling business summary, clean financials, growth story.
Screen buyers. Not every inquiry is serious. Qualify before sharing sensitive information.
Negotiate smartly. Price is one dimension. Terms, transition period, earnouts, and non-competes all matter.

The Bottom Line

A well-prepared business sells faster, at a higher multiple, with better terms. The 12 months you invest in preparation will pay for themselves many times over.

Thinking about selling? List your business on Exit Street →

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