If you’re even thinking about selling in the next 1–3 years, you need a business exit checklist. Without a plan, you risk last-minute stress, lower offers, and deals that drag on forever.This checklist gives you 25 practical steps to prepare to sell your business with fewer surprises and a stronger result.
1–5: Clarify Your Exit Goals
- Define your “why”:
Are you exiting for retirement, lifestyle, a new project, or health reasons? Your reason affects timing and deal terms. - Set a target timeline:
Decide whether your ideal exit window is 12, 24, or 36 months. Exit planning for business owners works best with time. - Decide your post-sale role:
Do you want a clean break, a short transition, or to stay on as an employee or consultant? - List your non-negotiables:
Examples: keeping staff, preserving the brand, staying in your location, or not working for a competitor. - Align with family and partners:
Make sure everyone who matters understands your goals before you move deeper into the sale process.
6–10: Get Your Numbers in Shape
- Update your bookkeeping:
No missing months, no unreconciled accounts. Clean numbers are the foundation of this business exit checklist. - Normalize earnings:
Adjust for owner perks, one-off expenses, and non-recurring revenue so buyers see true underlying profit. - Prepare 3–5 years of financial statements and tax returns:
Buyers and lenders will request these early. - Create a simple financial summary:
A one- or two-page overview that highlights revenue, profit, and key trends makes it easier to understand your performance. - Get an accurate business valuation:
Use a professional or your accurate business valuation guide to understand a realistic value range before you set expectations.
11–15: Strengthen Operations and Reduce Risk
- Document your key systems:
Capture how you handle operations, sales, customer service, and finance. Buyers want systems, not chaos. - Reduce owner dependence:
Shift customer relationships and critical decisions away from you to your team where possible. - Secure key staff:
Talk to key people about the future and explore retention incentives or contracts, if appropriate. - Review contracts and obligations:
Check leases, supplier agreements, warranties, and long-term commitments so there are no surprises. - Fix legal or compliance issues:
Work with your accountant and attorney to clean up any obvious problems before due diligence.
16–20: Make the Business More Attractive
- Improve margins:
Review pricing, cost of goods, and waste. Even small margin improvements can boost your final sale price. - Diversify revenue:
Reduce reliance on any single client, product, or channel if you can. - Refresh your brand and online presence:
Update your website, profiles, and visuals so they match the quality of your business today. - Collect recent reviews and testimonials:
Social proof supports your story when buyers do their research. - Clean and organise your physical space:
Offices, warehouses, or stores should look tidy and professional. First impressions matter for buyers too.
21–25: Prepare for the Sale Process Itself
- Build your advisory team:
At minimum: a Kentucky-based CPA, a business sale attorney, and often a certified business broker or M&A advisor. - Plan a confidential marketing approach:
Decide how your business will be presented to buyers while protecting staff morale and customer relationships. - Write your owner’s narrative:
Explain why you’re selling, what’s working, and where the growth opportunities are for the buyer. - Plan staff and customer communication:
Decide when and how you’ll tell employees and key customers about the sale to maintain trust and stability. - Plan for life after the sale:
Work with a financial planner, think about how you will fill your time, and what you want your next chapter to look like.
How to Use This Business Exit Checklist
You don’t have to complete all 25 steps at once. Start with:
- Financial cleanup and valuation (steps 6–10)
- Then go through operations and risk (steps 11–20)
- Finally, prepare for marketing and negotiation (steps 21–25)
Pair this business exit checklist with your step-by-step guide to selling your business so your preparation and transaction stages support each other.
