One thing I’ve noticed is that business owners tend to spend years preparing their companies
for a sale and very little time preparing themselves.
And you can’t blame them.
Because the business has customers, employees, systems, margins, and financial statements
that buyers are going to scrutinize. So naturally, that’s where most of the attention goes.
But after talking with more than 100 owners in the last year, I’ve come to believe that the most
decisive action items before selling your business have surprisingly little to do with the business
itself.
They have to do with you.
Because once the deal closes, the business becomes somebody else’s problem…
But the life you’re left with is yours.
Hi, I’m Ryan Guth.
I sold my own business, wrote a book called Permission to Exit, and today I work with founderled
business owners to think clearly about what life looks like before, during, and after a sale.
So, here’s what I’ve come to believe:
The transaction itself is only one part of the equation.
Structure, timing, tax planning, estate planning, and personal preparation shape the outcome
just as much as the sale price does.
And many of the decisions that shape that future have a shelf life.
If you wait too long, some of your best options quietly disappear.
I’ve seen owners spend years thinking about valuation, deal structure, and timing, yet never
take the time to answer the questions that determine whether the exit feels successful.
How much do you need?
What are you walking toward?
What does your spouse want life to look like after the sale?
And who’s making sure all the moving pieces are working together?
If you’ve watched my other videos, you’ve heard me talk about your number, about timing, about
valuation, and about the quarterback gap… that space where good advisors working in separate
silos leaves nobody connecting the dots.
I’ll link those videos in the description, because this video is the capstone… where all of those
ideas come together.
And if you’re already thinking about any of this and want to talk through your specific situation,
there’s a link in the description where you can schedule a free call.
No pitch, just a one-on-one conversation about where you are and what’s worth preparing for
now.
Ok, let’s start with what I believe is the most critical question action item…
#1 - WHAT’S YOUR NUMBER?
Not the multiple, not the valuation, and not the vanity multiple you heard another owner talking
about at a conference who sold for twelve times EBITDA.
I’m talking about the amount you personally need to net…
After taxes, after fees, after everything else…
To support the life you want.
A lot of owners can tell you exactly what they think their business is worth, but they struggle to
answer what they need out of the sale to support their post-exit lifestyle and additional growth
goals.
A valuation tells you what the market may pay.
Your number tells you what success looks like.
Without that number, you can’t evaluate offers confidently.
Because if you don’t know what you’re trying to attain, every deal starts to look attractive.
This is why we start there. The valuation only has meaning when it’s connected to a hard
number goal.
#2 - GET PERSONALLY READY BEFORE THE BUSINESS IS READY
This is something I write about in Permission to Exit.
Many owners spend decades becoming the business.
The company shapes their identity, their schedule, their relationships, and their daily sense of
purpose.
They’re the founder, the leader, the person everyone calls when something goes wrong.
And then one day, they sell.
The money shows up. The calendar clears. And they’re left asking a question they never
expected.
Now what?
I had a conversation with an owner who told me that six months after his sale, he felt more
unsettled than he had before the transaction.
Financially, he was fine. The deal had gone well.
But he hadn’t spent much time thinking about who he was without the business.
Purpose doesn’t magically appear after a wire transfer. It needs to be thought through before
one arrives.
That’s why I encourage owners to start separating their identity from the company long before a
transaction is on the table.
The goal isn’t just to leave something behind. It’s to be moving toward something meaningful.
That brings us to the next point…
#3 - HAVE A REAL CONVERSATION AT HOME
Not the spreadsheet conversation. Not the valuation conversation.
The life conversation. I have a framework for this conversation in my book, Permission to Exit.
I’ve seen situations where one spouse is mentally preparing for a completely different future
than the other.
One person imagines travel and flexibility.
The other wants to stay close to get back at it.
One is already sketching out the next business.
The other hopes this is finally the season where things get quieter.
Those conversations shape deal decisions in ways that financial models never capture.
Because if your spouse wants freedom and your deal requires another five years of earnouts,
rollover equity, and employment agreements…
That tension shows up eventually… and it’s far better to work through it before the term sheet
arrives than after.
The sale isn’t happening to one person. It’s happening to a family.
Make sure everyone understands what comes next.
#4 - DECIDE WHAT YOU’RE OPTIMIZING FOR
Before a sale, most entrepreneurs are optimizing for accumulation…
Growth, revenue, profit, expansion. That’s the game they’ve been playing for years.
After a sale, the game changes entirely.
The shift is from accumulation to stewardship.
What do you do with what you’ve built?
What role does work still play?
What kind of legacy do you want to leave for your family?
The challenge is that the “opportunities” start showing up fast… and I use that word loosely.
Investment deals, business partnerships, people who didn’t know you before who suddenly
know you very well.
That amount of liquidity attracts attention. That’s just human nature.
Which is why getting clear on what you’re after before the money arrives is one of the most
useful things you can do.
Once it does, you’ll be making decisions from a position of clarity instead of reaction.
If any of this is resonating, there’s a link in the description where you can schedule a free call
with me. It’s a conversation worth having before things start moving faster than you expect.
Moving on, you’ll want to…
#5 - REDUCE OWNER DEPENDENCE AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE
A business that can’t function without you is worth less than one that can.
That’s true whether you’re selling to private equity, a strategic buyer, or an internal successor.
And it doesn’t just cap your multiple.
It can chain you to an earnout, keeping you inside a business you’ve already sold because the
buyer doesn’t trust it to run without you.
Buyers pay close attention to this.
If every major decision flows through you, they notice.
If key client relationships depend on your personal involvement, they notice.
If operations stall when you take a week off, they notice.
The more independent the business becomes, the more attractive it becomes… resulting in
more freedom for you well before a transaction ever starts.
I’ve seen owners delay this work assuming they’ll always have time.
Then a buyer appears, and suddenly they’re trying to solve years of owner dependence under a
deadline.
That’s not the ideal way to do it.
#6 - GET YOUR TAX AND ESTATE PLANNING RUNWAY STARTED NOW
Not when the LOI shows up.
Now.
Because many of the best planning opportunities disappear the moment a letter of intent is
signed.
Tax planning, estate planning, and deal planning all intersect in ways that require real
coordination…
Someone who’s connecting what your CPA knows to what your estate attorney is working on to
what your deal team is negotiating.
That’s why I often describe the role as “quarterbacking”.
Not doing all the work, but making sure all the work connects.
#7 - UNDERSTAND YOUR VALUE AND YOUR VALUE DRIVERS
This isn’t what you think the business is worth, and it’s not what your friend sold theirs for.
What would the market say today?
That’s why I encourage owners to get introductions to quality investment bankers and M&A
professionals well before they’re ready to sell.
Many of them will walk through a valuation as part of their process, at no or little cost to you.
And what you learn often goes beyond the number itself.
It tells you what’s driving the value, and what might be holding it back.
That information can quietly change how you spend the next two or three years inside the
business.
#8 - INSTALL THE COORDINATOR AND GET THE TEAM RIGHT BEFORE THE DEAL
STARTS MOVING
Many owners have competent advisors: a CPA, a corporate attorney, a financial advisor,
and sometimes an estate attorney.
None of which are in communication with each other or ever ask about your future plans.
The issue usually isn’t competence. It’s a fit and coordination problem.
Maybe you’ve outgrown your CPA. Maybe your financial advisor keeps pitching you investments
or insurance over trying to understand what’s important to you and how your business plays a
role in your future financial independence.
If nobody’s connecting how the taxes flow into the deal structure, which connects to the estate
plan, which connects to your family goals, which connects to life after the sale…
You don’t really have a unified plan.
You have a bunch of advisors who don’t talk to you about your goals that are working in
separate rooms.
And even decent advisors in silos are parts, not a plan.
Finally…
#9 - MAKE THE DECISIONS YOU’VE BEEN PUTTING OFF
I’ve seen owners delay estate planning, valuation work, conversations with spouses, succession
planning, and tax strategy.
These are difficult conversations, and there always seems to be time for them later.
Until there isn’t.
Waiting carries a cost. And in most cases, it’s more expensive than making an imperfect
decision and adjusting along the way.
More often than not, it’s the real thing standing between an owner and a clean exit.
Before I wrap things up, I want to come back to something I call The Goldfin Moment.
The goal isn’t simply selling your business…
And it’s not just hitting your number.
It’s waking up after the sale with both the financial freedom and the direction to use it
well… and the resources and clarity about what comes next.
Because the owners who get this right don’t just walk away from something profitable.
They walk toward something purposeful… with the freedom and the capital to solve bigger
problems for more people, on their own terms.
The owners who navigate this transition best aren’t necessarily the ones who got the highest
multiple.
They’re the ones who knew what they were building toward all along…
Who understood their number, prepared their family, coordinated the moving pieces, and
thought carefully about purpose before the sale ever happened.
When the transaction closed, they were ready for what came next.
That’s The Goldfin Moment.
So, if your business is generating a million dollars or more in annual profit and you’re starting to
think about these questions, click the link in the description and schedule a free call today.
There’s no pitch and no pressure.
It’s simply a chance to think through where you are, where you’re headed, and whether the
pieces are lining up the way they should.
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the next one.