The mechanism. Goodwill, multiple expansion, and why "the same business with better assets sells for more." Cited industry research and back-of-envelope math.
Realistic multiple ranges by revenue band and industry, the six factors that move you within a range, and worked math on what a stronger brand is actually worth at close.
The two earnings bases in plain English, the threshold where buyers switch, how add-backs work, and why owner-dependence quietly drags you into the lower number.
A month-by-month timeline from T-minus-12 to close — and why the brand and website work has to happen early, so the improved asset ages instead of reading as a panic polish.
What a diligence data room actually contains, folder by folder — including the IP and digital-assets folder owners forget, where deals get re-traded at the last minute.
The full business sale process, step by step, with a plain-English glossary of the deal terms — earnouts, seller notes, working-capital pegs — that blindside first-time sellers.
Why organic traffic, rankings, and an owned audience read as a transferable balance-sheet asset — what diligence teams inspect, and why the work must start 6–9 months out.
34 specific items a buyer's analyst will check on your website, social, sales pages, and visible touchpoints during diligence. Run through it before you list — or right now if you're already on the market.
Who the home-services roll-up buyers are, what they screen for, and the brand and digital fixes that make a trades business read as an acquirable platform, not an owner's job.
In aesthetics, presentation is the product. How membership revenue, provider structure, reviews, and brand consistency move the multiple in a fast-consolidating market.
Aggregators, strategics, and PE underwrite different things. The eight signals they weigh, and how an owned-brand layer turns a marketplace SKU into an acquirable brand.
External references we trust
We didn't make any of this up. The pre-sale-brand thesis stands on a body of work — some of it our peers, some of it the people we consult with on engagements.
Exit Planning Institute — CEPA credential, Value Acceleration Methodology, the industry body for exit advisors
Built to Sell Radio — John Warrillow's podcast and Value Builder System; the canonical "build to sell" curriculum
