What Would a Buyer Find If You Stepped Back From Your Business?
A buyer would find the same things that stop you stepping back: customers who only deal with you, work with no contract behind it, know-how held in one head, and numbers only you can explain. Fix those and the business runs without you, which is what stepping back needs and what a buyer pays for.
The two-minute version. Also on YouTube.
Buyers ask the step-back question first
When owners think about selling, they usually start with the price. Buyers start with one question: what happens when you're not here? That is also the question for any owner who wants to step back. Stepping back and selling are the same work. One sells your time back to you, the other sells the business to someone else, and both need a business that runs without its owner.
What keeps an owner tied in
We read the business the way a buyer will, across eight areas, with every figure sourced. The ones that keep an owner tied in come up first:
Customers. How much of your income sits with a few customers, and whether they would stay if you stepped away.
Contracts. Which work is under contract, and which is a handshake that depends on you.
Know-how. Who holds the knowledge of how it all fits together, and what happens if they leave.
Numbers. Whether the figures stand up when someone else checks them, without you there to explain them.
Each one is a reason a buyer would discount the business, and a reason the phone still rings when you are on holiday. The risk then comes out in the order a buyer would worry about it.
One business that looked healthy on paper
One business looked healthy on paper. Half its revenue had no contract behind it, and customers were paying at 180 days. The owner could not step away from that, and a buyer would have found it in a day. The same fixes that would protect the price were the ones that let the owner take time off.
If you do want to sell
Most owners can name one or two possible buyers. There are usually more: a competitor, a supplier or customer, a bigger firm that needs what you do, or your own managers. We map them one sector at a time, using the same approach as our market research, and narrow to the ones that fit.
A buyer is not paying for the years you put in. They are paying for what it earns next, and how little risk comes with it. If you never sell, the same work gives you your time back.
See how it works on the step back or sell page, or start with the free Ratio Check.