SMBbookkeeper.

Project · fee + success at close · 12–36 month runway

When your books are already buyer-openable, exit is preparation — not panic.

Ownable Books keeps you always exit-ready. Exit Readiness turns that posture into the right deal at the right multiple: Five Exits framework, buyer-grade QoE package, management succession installed, and us sitting on every diligence call from LOI through wire transfer.

A weathered hand passing a heavy brass key into another open palm above a polished stone threshold.

Always capital-ready. Always exit-ready.

Start with a 25-minute diagnostic. No pitch.

Scope an Exit Readiness project Take the free Scorecard

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What changes

The numbers an Exit Readiness engagement moves.

1.2–1.6×

Multiple expansion

Typical vs. unprepared sale.

12–36

Month runway

Real prep, not 90-day spin.

5

Exit paths audited

Annually, against your life.

The Five Exits framework

Five paths. Different math. Different lives.

  • Strategic acquirer

    Sale to a strategic buyer who values the business above standalone — usually the highest multiple, longest process, hardest diligence.

  • Private equity / search fund

    Sale to a financial buyer or searcher who values cash flow, defensibility, and management depth — middle multiple, structured process.

  • Internal / ESOP / management buyout

    Sale to the team that already runs it. Lower headline multiple, often best net-after-tax outcome, preserves legacy.

  • Family transfer

    Generational handoff. Tax-driven, governance-heavy, requires the longest runway and the cleanest cap table.

  • Recapitalization

    Sell a majority, keep a minority, take the second bite later. The exit that isn't fully an exit — best when growth runway is still real.

Scope of work

What's inside the engagement.

  • Five Exits framework audit

    Which of the five exit paths actually fits you — your life, your business, your timeline, your tax picture. The wrong path quietly costs years and millions.

  • Quality-of-earnings buyer-ready package

    EBITDA bridge, normalization adjustments, customer concentration, contract review, working capital peg — written to survive a Big-4 QoE re-do.

  • Management succession plan + key-person risk

    What happens when you're not the email recipient. Documented, instrumented, rehearsed. Buyers price this before they price growth.

  • Pre-built diligence room

    Folder structure, redactions, NDAs, financial trail, legal trail, customer schedules. Pre-built means the deal moves at our pace, not the buyer's lawyer's pace.

  • Post-LOI support through close

    We sit on the calls. We answer the buyer's questions. We protect the deal economics from the diligence death-spiral. Most deals die between LOI and close — ours don't.

  • Net-after-tax exit modeling

    With your CPA in the loop. Headline price is vanity. Net-after-tax is the only number that matters when you're 90 days from closing.

  • Owner-life-after planning

    The most under-served part of an exit. What you'll do, how you'll be paid, how the earnout structure protects you — not just the buyer.

Timeline

The honest sequence from start to wire transfer.

  1. 01

    Month 1

    Five Exits audit + readiness baseline

    Which exit fits. Where you are vs. ready. Honest 12–36 month plan to get there.

  2. 02

    Month 2–6

    Buyer-readiness build

    QoE prep, management succession, key-person de-risking, customer concentration work, contract and legal cleanup. The unsexy work that determines your multiple.

  3. 03

    Month 6–12

    Diligence room + buyer outreach

    Pre-built diligence room. With your investment banker (or via our network), buyer outreach begins. LOIs received and compared.

  4. 04

    Post-LOI

    Through close

    We sit on every diligence call. Working capital peg defended. Net-after-tax protected. Reps and warranties scoped. Close.

Investment

Aligned with closing the right deal, not any deal.

Project fee + success fee at funded close. Project fee scoped after a 60-minute readiness diagnostic — typically $25K–$75K depending on business complexity, time to expected process, and current state of the diligence package.

Success fee scales with deal size and structure, payable only at funded close. We deliberately don't take a banker-style success-only fee — that incentive structure pays for any deal closing at any price. Our work is to defend your net-after-tax, not chase a wire.

Pricing

Project + success

Project fee $25K–$75K scoped after diagnostic. Success fee at funded close, structured to the deal.

  • §Five Exits audit
  • §Buyer-ready QoE package + diligence room
  • §Through-close support, on every call
  • §Net-after-tax modeling with your CPA

Proof

One client. 1.4× the broker's quote.

5.4×

EBITDA multiple

Light manufacturing

$6.5M revenue · 24 employees · sold 2025

Before

Broker quoted 3.2x SDE on a previous engagement. Owner wanted an EBITDA-priced deal but couldn't articulate why he deserved one. Management succession was a single key-person risk. QoE would have been a bloodbath.

After

12-month Exit Readiness program. Management succession installed. QoE-ready package built. Diligence room pre-staged. Sold at 5.4x EBITDA — 1.4x the broker's original quote. Diligence team called the financials the cleanest of the quarter.

Frequently asked questions

What owners ask before they commit to an exit prep cycle.

No. We are not licensed brokers or investment bankers. Exit Readiness is the preparation and quarterback role around the transaction — your investment banker (or business broker, for smaller deals) runs the buyer process. We make sure the business and the package are worth what they're priced at. We've worked alongside dozens of bankers and brokers and can refer to specific ones for specific deal sizes.

What's next

What typically runs alongside Exit Readiness.

Tier III · $2,500/mo

LTEM Advisory

The ongoing operating-system layer underneath Exit Readiness. Many owners run both for 12–24 months pre-process.

Explore

Project · from $15K

Capital Readiness

Many of the same artifacts. Useful when a recap or seller-financed exit is on the table.

Explore

Tier II · $1,500/mo

Ownable Integration

If management succession and key-person de-risking are the gap, ProfitFlow extraction is the underlying work.

Explore

Decide your multiple on purpose.

Project fee + success at close. We sit on every diligence call.

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