Consulting
Build the business a buyer will pay a premium for.
Preparation is the highest-return work an owner can do in the years before a sale, and almost nobody does it.
The economics of getting ready
A dollar of durable earnings is worth a multiple of itself at closing.
Every business sells on a multiple of its earnings, adjusted for risk. Reduce the risk a buyer perceives and the multiple moves. Raise the earnings that survive a recast and the base moves. Do both, deliberately, over two or three years, and the difference at closing is not marginal.
This is consulting work, not brokerage. We are not listing your business. We are making it worth listing.
Earnings quality
Move to accrual, clean the chart of accounts, separate personal from business, and document add-backs so a lender accepts them.
Owner dependence
Transfer relationships, decisions and knowledge off you and into the company, which is what a buyer is actually purchasing.
Customer concentration
Diversify the revenue base and put contracts around the accounts you keep, so one logo leaving is not an existential event.
Contracts & assignability
Leases, licences, customer agreements and employment terms reviewed for the clauses that block a transfer.
Succession & key staff
A second-in-command, retention terms for the people who matter, and a plan that does not evaporate at announcement.
Growth story
A credible, evidenced narrative for where the next owner's growth comes from. Buyers pay for the next three years, not the last three.
How engagements are shaped
Scoped to the gap, not sold as a package.
Some owners need a single project: a books clean-up before a valuation, or a contracts review. Others want a two-year program with quarterly working sessions. We scope against your readiness assessment so the work is aimed at the gaps that actually move your price.
Consulting sits naturally alongside the Exit Readiness Program: the assessment identifies the gap, the consulting engagement closes it, and the quarterly review measures whether it worked.
Assessment first
We do not sell consulting before we know what is wrong. The readiness assessment comes first, always.
A written work plan
What we will do, what you will do, what it costs, and how we will know it worked.
Working sessions
Regular sessions with you and, where it matters, your CFO, controller, attorney and CPA in the room.
Re-score and re-value
The same six dimensions, scored again, with a refreshed indicative range so the return on the work is visible.
Also available
Advisory work beyond exit preparation.
Dr. Jamie Klingman's practice spans brokerage, social enterprise strategy and governance. Where an engagement calls for it, that work is available directly.
Buy-side diligence support
For owners acquiring a competitor or a bolt-on, quality-of-earnings review and deal structuring support.
Partner & shareholder transitions
Valuation and structure for buyouts between existing owners, where there is no open market to price against.
Speaking & workshops
Sessions on exit planning and business value for associations, cohorts and boards. See about the firm.
Start with the assessment