You spent years building the business. Your exit deserves the same care.
Whether you pass it to family, sell to an outside buyer, or hand it to your team, we help you understand what your business may be worth, find ways to strengthen it, and connect your exit to a plan for everyone who depends on you.
Carla founded a commercial heating and cooling company twenty-four years ago. Today it employs eighty-five people and is the largest thing she owns. She's thinking about what comes next. Follow her plan in seven chapters.
An illustrative business owner. Names, figures, and details are hypothetical and do not represent an actual client or predict future results.
Picture the exit
Carla's son works in the business. Her vice president of operations has hinted he'd like to buy it. And competitors call every few months. With guidance from Peter Waldron, a Certified Business Exit Consultant, she compared all three paths before committing to one.
Compare the paths
What we do
Help you plan for an eventual exit, whether that's passing the business to family, selling to an outside buyer, or a management buyout, with exit planning guidance from Peter Waldron, a Certified Business Exit Consultant (CBEC).
What you leave with
A clear view of every path, and the one that fits your goals.
Measure how ready you are
Carla assumed she was ready. The Business Exit Readiness Index, a ten-minute survey, showed her where she really stood, and which areas needed attention before any buyer or successor would look closely.
What we do
Provide the Business Exit Readiness Index (BERI) assessment, a 10-minute survey that shows how prepared you are to exit.
What you leave with
An honest starting point, in about ten minutes.
Know what it's worth
Next came the number every owner wonders about. A BizEquity valuation estimated what her business may be worth today. Set against what her personal plan would need from a sale, it revealed a gap she hadn't expected.
What we do
Offer a business valuation through BizEquity, so you can see what your business may be worth today.
What you leave with
A realistic starting value, and the distance between it and your goals.
Opens BizEquity's secure valuation tool in a new tab. Valuations are estimates, not appraisals.
Build value before you sell
We focused on what buyers pay for: turning one-off jobs into recurring service contracts, building a management team that doesn't depend on Carla, and cleaning up the financials. Along the way, we reviewed cash flow, debt, and what to reinvest, and how each choice affected her personal finances.
What we do
Recommend ways to increase the value of your business before a sale or transfer, and review cash flow, debt, and reinvestment decisions and how they affect your personal finances.
What you leave with
A clear list of ways to strengthen your business, and how each could affect your personal finances.
Protect your family either way
What if the business slowed down, or had to close? We stress-tested her plan against both. Because she had built wealth beyond the business in savings, investments, and insurance, the answer was reassuring: her family's essentials would be covered either way.
Test the what-ifs
What we do
Stress-test your financial plan against “what if” scenarios, such as the business slowing down or closing, so you know your family is protected either way.
What you leave with
A clear picture of how your family would fare if the business slowed down or closed.
Get the structure and taxes right
How a business is structured shapes how much of a sale the owner keeps. With her CPA and attorney, we reviewed her company's legal structure and its tax impact, and connected the sale to her personal plan: her taxes, her retirement, and her estate. Starting early gave her more options for managing the taxes on a sale.
What we do
Review your business's legal structure and its tax impact, and connect your business planning with your personal financial plan, including taxes, retirement, and estate planning.
What you leave with
A clear view of how your structure and taxes could affect what you keep.
Plan for what comes after
When the sale closed, Carla didn't have to figure out the next step alone. We had already planned how the proceeds would be invested, how the taxes would be paid, and what her next chapter would look like. Her attorney, her CPA, and our team worked from the same plan to the finish.
What we do
Help you plan for what comes after a sale, including managing the proceeds and the taxes on them, while coordinating with your attorney, CPA, and other advisors throughout the process.
What you leave with
A plan for your proceeds and your next chapter, in place before closing day.
Chapter 1 of 7
One plan for the business, and the family behind it.
For most owners, the business is their largest asset. Selling or transferring it touches nearly every part of their financial life, and involves more professionals than any other decision they'll make.
We keep everyone working from the same plan, from the first conversation to the years after the sale.
Peter Waldron, CBECGuides the exit strategy, from choosing a path to preparing the business.
Your attorneyHandles your entity structure, the sale or transfer agreements, and your estate documents.
Your CPAWorks through the tax impact of your structure and the sale itself.
Waldron PartnersConnects every decision to your personal plan, and manages what comes after.
If you are looking for a team that will treat your financial life with the same care you do, we highly recommend Waldron Partners.
Paul and Stephanie Herriott, clients
These clients were not compensated for this statement. Testimonials may not be representative of the experience of other clients and are not a guarantee of future performance or success.
Begin with a conversation about what you've built.
Whether your exit is two years away or ten, the best time to start planning is before you need to. Every year of preparation gives you more options.
