Most owners don't actually know the answer — not because they lack discipline, but because building a company and designing a transferable company are two different things. The Exit Readiness Assessment closes that gap.
Revenue is solid. Customers are loyal. The team gets the work done. But the business that feeds your family today may still be dependent on you for key decisions, running on tribal knowledge, missing the systems buyers expect, and carrying hidden risks that reduce your valuation.
This gap — between what you think you have and what a buyer will pay — is why most small businesses never sell, even when the owner wants them to. And it's invisible until diligence makes it expensive.
Owners routinely overestimate exit value because they're pricing performance, not de-risked performance. Buyers price what they can verify — and what doesn't depend on you personally.
If decisions, relationships, and institutional knowledge flow through you, a buyer is acquiring a job with employees attached. That is not what buyers pay premiums for.
Owners who start engineering for exit 2–5 years out consistently command stronger multiples. The decisions you make now determine the outcome you get at closing.
A broker's job is to sell your business — not to tell you it isn't ready. This assessment exists to show you what buyers will eventually see, while there's still time to act.
The Exit Readiness Assessment evaluates the core drivers acquirers analyze when determining value, structure, and risk — the specific questions that appear in every letter of intent and quality-of-earnings report.
At this point, most owners realize they have more exposure than they thought.
Most owners find out what buyers think of their business during diligence — when it's too late to fix anything. The Exit Readiness Assessment tells you first. What you learn here protects your multiple, your timeline, and your ability to exit on your terms.
You see exactly how a buyer scores your business across all 8 dimensions — before they do. No more discovering problems after you've accepted an offer.
A direct debrief with David Hermann identifies the specific risks that cause buyers to walk, retrade, or discount. Named and prioritized before they become leverage against you.
A prioritized action plan tells you exactly which levers move your multiple — so you don't spend 18 months improving what buyers don't price.
A written summary report gives your accountant, attorney, and co-owner the same picture you have — so everyone is working toward the same exit.
This assessment is free during the pilot phase. The same diagnostic will be a paid engagement at full launch. Pilot participants get it at no cost.
Owners who understand their exit readiness 2–5 years out consistently command stronger multiples. This is where that process starts.
I have helped create over $500M in documented enterprise value across more than 70 engagements.
As an M&A advisor, licensed broker at Sunbelt Business Brokers, and CEO of HermannGroup, my focus isn't simply selling businesses. It's engineering them to command stronger multiples before they ever go to market — because buyers don't pay for potential. They pay for de-risked performance.
The Exit Readiness Assessment was built from patterns I've seen repeated: the same risks surfacing in diligence, the same gaps between what an owner believed and what a buyer would pay. This diagnostic makes those patterns visible early enough to act on them.
If you're 12–60 months from a transition and want an honest picture of where you stand, this is where to start.
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