What Exit Readiness Cannot be Manufactured at the Last Minute In Part 1 of this arc, we examined why meaningful exit preparation often needs to begin years before an owner intends to sell. There is another reason that time matters. Making an improvement is not the same thing as proving that the improvement is sustainable. An owner may know that the business has changed, but a buyer still needs evidence. That distinction becomes critically important once a business enters a transaction. Buyers...

Why Exit Preparation Must Start Earlier Than Most Owners Think Most business owners know that eventually they will leave their business. What many underestimate is how much the timing of their preparation can influence what happens when that day arrives. For some owners, serious exit preparation begins when they decide they are ready to sell. They call their accountant, lawyer, wealth advisor or M&A professional and begin asking what needs to be done. That may feel like the beginning of the...

Canada is entering what BDC describes as a historic period of private-business ownership transition. Thousands of business owners are expected to retire, sell, transfer, or otherwise exit their companies over the coming years, placing an enormous number of privately held businesses into the succession and transaction market. Yet while considerable attention is given to the number of owners preparing to exit, far less attention is paid to a more fundamental question: how many of these...