Insights

When Should You Start Preparing Your Business for Sale? (Earlier Than That.)

Three-quarters of Canadian owners plan to exit within a decade; fewer than one in ten has a plan. Here's the realistic timeline for readiness work — and what each year buys you.

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The Canadian Federation of Independent Business estimates that over three-quarters of small-business owners intend to exit within the decade — more than two trillion dollars in business assets — while fewer than one in ten has a formal plan. The gap isn't ignorance. It's that "exit planning" sounds like something you do when you're ready to leave. It isn't. It's something you do while you still have time to change the outcome.

What each year buys you

Three years out: everything is available. You can build management depth, diversify a concentrated customer base, establish two clean fiscal years of provable numbers, and unwind owner dependence at a humane pace. Owners who start here choose their buyer instead of accepting one.

Eighteen months out: most levers still work — documentation, decision systems, the data room, financial cleanup — but customer diversification and leadership development get tight. Prioritization matters now; that's what a readiness assessment sequences.

Six months out: you're staging, not building: organizing the data room, pre-answering diligence, fixing the fast items. Valuable — deals close faster and cleaner — but the multiple is mostly set by what the business already is.

After the offer arrives: the only readiness left is honesty. Unprepared owners at this stage don't negotiate; they react.

The uncomfortable math

Readiness work started early routinely returns multiples of its cost — not because consultants are magic, but because time is the ingredient buyers can't fake and sellers can't rush. The best moment to start was two years ago. The second best is before your broker sends the first teaser.

Find out where you'd stand today: the Readiness Assessment takes two weeks and tells you exactly what each remaining year can still buy.