Preparing Your Business For Sale
The 12–18 Month Runway That Separates Top-Performing Exits from Second-Tier Results
Last year, I sat across from a founder in a Loveland café…coffee cooling between us, his voice caught between relief and regret.
He’d just sold his company for $3.7 million. A solid number. But he admitted something I’ll never forget:
“If I’d started prepping a year earlier, it would’ve been five.”
That single sentence captures one of the most expensive misunderstandings in entrepreneurship.
Because what separates a top-performing exit from an average one isn’t timing the market. It’s timing yourself.
Most owners believe the “for sale” moment starts when they call a broker. It doesn’t. It starts 12–18 months earlier. That is when they begin transforming their business from something they run into something that can run without them.
Starting that early compounds the value quietly. Systems replace personalities. Data replaces instinct. Narrative replaces noise.
According to KeyBank’s Middle Market Outlook, 24% of companies plan to sell by 2027, but 58% say “relationships” and 56% say “culture” are holding them back. Those aren’t financial problems. They’re structural ones. And they take time to fix.
Here’s what I tell clients:
Buyers don’t just buy your numbers. They buy your confidence in those numbers.
Twelve to eighteen months gives you time to make your business predictable and predictability is the new premium. It means clean books, transferable contracts, stable leadership, and a growth story that holds under due diligence.
I watched one founder who took this seriously turn a $4 million offer into $6.3 million by simply creating a repeatable sales rhythm, upgrading his reporting, and pulling himself out of the day-to-day. The business didn’t suddenly become more innovative. It became de-risked.
Buyers don’t pay more for potential. They pay more for proof.
The founders who rush into a sale hoping the market will do the heavy lifting usually end up negotiating from weakness. The ones who build 12–18 months of strategic runway show up with leverage, optionality, and confidence; that’s what attracts the right yes.
It’s a paradox: the earlier you prepare to sell, the less you’ll need to. Because every step that makes your company sellable also makes it more valuable to keep.
I sometimes tell clients that exit planning isn’t about “selling out.” It’s about “growing up”…turning your business into an asset that thrives without your constant input. That’s what buyers reward. And that’s what freedom looks like.
Twelve to eighteen months from now, you’ll be somewhere different. You can either be explaining to a buyer why your numbers dip every July, or watching multiple buyers compete because your business now runs like a precision engine.
Start early. Clean up your books. Clarify your story. Build your bench.
And most importantly, start leading like the future owner of your company isn’t you.
That’s when exits become legacies.
David Hermann, CEO of hermanngroup and M&A Advisor/Broker at Sunbelt Business Brokers of Colorado
David Hermann is a transformative advisor and strategist who turns complex business challenges into extraordinary successes. Known for driving over $500 million in documented financial improvements for clients, David partners with C-suite leaders to unlock their full potential. With 60+ speaking engagements, numerous publications, and a spot in the top 1% of Consulting Voices and top 1% of the Social Selling Index on LinkedIn, he’s passionate about making strategy, change leadership, and operations insightful and accessible.