Exit-planning firms
THINKING ABOUTTHE WAY OUT
You have started thinking about the end, because the middle is exhausting. The business needs you in it every day, and somewhere out there is the year you finally hand it off. The firms that plan that year are expensive, and they arrive near the finish line.
Four minutes, no card. Free, and everything you see is yours to keep.
The usual move
Exit-planning firms handle the machinery of a sale: tax and estate structuring, wealth transfer, and the deal team. For a large exit, you need them. They engage close to the sale and bill accordingly.
Give it its due
What these firms do
- Legitimate, complex work for larger exits: tax and estate structuring, wealth transfer, deal advisory.
- The right team when you are selling a business worth several million and the structure is complicated.
- They coordinate the specialists a big transaction needs.
The gap
Why they are the wrong first step
- They are transactional and engaged near the sale, when the value is already set.
- They do not give a $300K to $5M owner an affordable monthly readout of the number and the fixes.
- The value that makes their job easy is built in the operating years they are not there for.
The long game
The daily trap and the discount are the same problem.
The number an exit team optimizes is built years earlier, in the daily work of getting the business off you. That work is also what buys back your week now. An owner-dependent service business trades near 1.65x SDE, an owner-light one near 3.5x, a $555,000 gap on $300,000 of earnings. The free diagnostic reads where you stand today and names the first move, so the value is built before anyone plans the exit.
owner-dependent vs owner-light on identical earnings, a $555,000 gap on $300,000 of SDE
Straight talk
If you are selling a large business inside the next year and the deal is complex, that structuring work is real, and it is not this.
Build the number they will work withWhat the diagnostic actually reads
Eighteen questions, four minutes. It reads the business on the three things a buyer prices, estimates a sale price, and names the first thing keeping the business tied to you. Free.
Business Independence Score
Can the business run without you?
The single value driver inside your control. It reads how much the business still depends on you personally, which is what a buyer discounts hardest.
Systems Maturity Score
How documented and repeatable are your operations?
Whether the work lives in written systems or in your head. Documented operations transfer; undocumented ones leave with you.
Acquisition Attractiveness Score
What would a buyer see when they look at your business?
The buyer’s-eye view: recurring revenue, customer concentration, clean books, and the risks that move the multiple.
Common questions
- When should I start planning my exit?
- Start building the number two to three years before you want out, well before you engage a firm to structure the sale, because the value work takes that long to show in the books a buyer reads. Owner-dependence alone moves a service business between roughly 1.65x and 3.5x SDE, a $555,000 swing on $300,000 of earnings. The free diagnostic reads where you stand today and ranks what to fix first, at no cost.
- Are exit-planning firms worth it?
- Exit-planning firms are worth it for a large, complex sale that needs tax, estate, and deal structuring, and they are engaged near the transaction. They are not built to give a small service-business owner an affordable monthly read of the number in the years when it can still be changed. Build the number first with the free diagnostic, then bring in the specialists the actual sale requires.
Free in four minutes
Find the first thing keeping the business tied to you
Three scores, an estimated sale price, and the ranked list of what is discounting your value, read against ten years of real closed transactions.
See what to hand off firstFree in 4 minutes, no credit card. Add your email to see your scores and estimated sale price.
Keystone gives an estimated sale price, not a formal appraisal. For a certified number in a sale, a loan, or a dispute, work with an accredited business valuator. This comparison reflects how these options differ as of 2026.