The years before a sale decide the price far more than the negotiation does. A handful of changes reliably raise both your multiple and the earnings it's applied to. Here's where the value actually comes from.
The single biggest value lever is a business that runs without you. Document processes, build a management layer, and remove yourself from day-to-day delivery so a buyer can picture owning it without inheriting your job.
Normalise your financials, cut one-off noise, and show a clear, predictable earnings trend. Predictable, well-documented profit earns a higher multiple than the same profit delivered erratically.
One customer worth 40% of revenue is a discount a buyer will demand. Diversifying customers, suppliers and revenue streams directly de-risks the business and lifts the price.
Most of these gains take 6–18 months to show up in the numbers a buyer trusts. Starting two to three years out is what separates a good price from a great one.
Removing owner-dependence, showing clean and predictable earnings, and reducing customer concentration. These move the multiple more than almost anything else — usually more than any negotiation tactic.
Ideally two to three years. Most value-building changes take 6–18 months to show up in earnings a buyer will trust, so the earlier you start, the more you can capture.
Our Sale Preparation service turns this into a defensible result.