The Next 90 Days | Improve Your Exit Price
When I first met Greg, he was 14 weeks away from listing his precision-parts company. Revenue was strong, margins solid, but the market wasn’t impressed. Buyers were offering the standard 3x EBITDA: no premium, no story, no urgency.
He didn’t overhaul his business, he just focused on what he could change before the listing went live. Ninety days later, he went to market and closed at nearly 4x. Same company. Better story.
That’s the point: you don’t need years to improve your exit price. You need focus…and a willingness to make visible, low-risk changes that move a buyer’s perception of risk, durability, and growth.
Here are four things you can do in the next 90 days to raise your multiple.
1. Lock in repeatability
Buyers don’t pay for potential, they pay for predictability. Even 5 to 10 percent of recurring or contracted revenue can lift valuations significantly.
Greg added 12-month service contracts for his top 10 customers. Same clients, same work, different packaging. It converted a “per-order” business into one with a baseline of committed revenue.
According to PitchBook, recurring revenue streams can increase perceived enterprise value by 15–30 percent in lower-middle-market deals. That’s often a full multiple turn.
2. Make yourself optional
Most owners are the irreplaceable gear in the machine…and buyers discount heavily for that. In the next 90 days, start transferring customer relationships and operational decision-making to your team.
One founder I worked with spent two months writing standard operating guides and handing account reviews to a new GM. When buyers toured, the GM led the meetings. The message was clear: “The business runs without me.” That’s worth real money.
Buyers don’t pay for your sweat; they pay for your systems.
3. Tighten the story around your profit engine
If your financials read like a novel, buyers get nervous. Simplify your chart of accounts, normalize your add-backs, and show trailing twelve-month trends that prove consistency.
In one exit I observed, simply reclassifying non-recurring owner perks and aligning the P&L presentation with industry norms made earnings look 18 percent cleaner. That alone pushed offers from 3.2x to 3.8x.
The data backs it up: 61 percent of deals stall or retrade because of weak financial presentation or due-diligence anxiety (IBBA & M&A Source Market Pulse Report, Q2 2024).
4. Build strategic optics
Finally, tell a story the market wants to pay for. Are you a logistics firm, or the regional backbone for last-mile e-commerce? Are you a manufacturer, or a precision-engineering partner for aerospace primes?
I spoke with the owner of an HVAC company that re-positioned its message from “repair and maintenance” to “energy-efficiency retrofits.” It didn’t change operations but it did change perception. Buyers from ESG-focused funds suddenly cared.
Sometimes the difference between 3x and 5x is just narrative fit.
Where this all leads
If you apply these moves consistently for 90 days, you’ll walk into buyer conversations with less risk exposure, cleaner data, and a more compelling growth narrative. That’s what drives competitive tension and lifts multiples.
You can’t control the market, but you can control how the market perceives you.
So, I leave you with a question:
If you had 90 days before listing, what one move would you make to raise your multiple?
Please share your answer below. I’d love to see what other founders prioritize.
Citations
PitchBook. “Valuation Multiples: Small & Mid-Market Trends.” (2024). https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/valuation-multiples-small-mid-market
IBBA & M&A Source. “Market Pulse Report Q2 2024.” https://www.ibba.org/market-pulse/
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.