Planning to sell your business within the next 2-3 years?
Build a More Transferrable Business
- and a More Intentional Exit
Your business may represent much of your net worth. Before approaching buyers, it is important to understand whether your company is ready to transfer, how much you may need from the sale, and how taxes and other financial decisions could affect what you ulitmately keep.
We help business owners connect business value, exit readiness, and personal wealth planning - so you can approach a future transition with greater clarity and coordination.
Do these questions apply to you?
Is your Business - and Your Personal Financial Life - Ready for an Exit?
You may be approaching a transition but still have important questions:
- Is the business attractive & transferrable to a future buyer?
- Does your business depend too heavily on you?
- What could increase (or reduce) your business' value?
- How much will I need from the sale to fund my next chapter of life?
- What could taxes do to my net proceeds?
- Should I sell to a 3rd party, transition internally, or transfer the business to family?
- Who should be involved, and when should each specialty advisor be brought in?
Why start 2-3 years before your exit?
The Decisions that Shape Your Exit Begin Long Before the Sale
Many factors that influence business value and buyer confidence take time to improve. Starting early gives you time to reduce owner dependence, strengthen management, improve financial readiness, address tax and estate considerations, and determine whether the anticipated sale proceeds can support your next chapter.
Beginning 2-3 years before a potential exit gives you more opportunity to:
- Identify factors that may weaken value or buyer confidence.
- Prioritize improvements before entering the market.
- Evaluate tax, estate, charitable, and liquidity considerations.
- Determine whether the expected proceeds can support your personal goals.
- Assemble the appropiate professional team.
- Prepare for life after business ownership.
Understanding the exit-planning process
Seven Steps Toward a More Coordinated Business Exit
A successful exit involves much more than completing a transaction. In this brief video, Todd explains seven important steps for preparing the business, evaluating your personal financial needs, coordinating tax and estate considerations, navigating the sale, and preparing your family for the wealth that may follow.
What You'll learn:
- How to estimate the amount you may need from the sell of your business to support the next chapter of your life.
- Why the business' value to a buyer may differ from the owner's expectations.
- How business readiness, taxes, estate planning, and transaction structure can affect an exit.
- Why preparing the next generation may be an important part of preserving family wealth.
The video above is educational and is not individualized tax or legal advice. Raymond James and its advisors do not provide tax or legal advice.
Step 1: Identify your Wealth Gap
Step 2: Obtain an informal indication of value
Step 3: Assess business readiness
Step 4: Coordinate estate planning
Step 5: Evaluate tax considerations
Step 6: Prepare for the transition
Step 7: Prepare the next genration
How we help
Preparing the Business, The Owner, and the Path Ahead
We help business owners strengthen transferable value, assess exit readiness, and connect a future transition to their personal wealth plan. We also coordinate with tax, legal, valuation, and transaction professionals so important decisions are addressed before the sale process begins.
Stengthen Transferrable Value
We help you identify areas that may affect buyer interest and business transferability, including owner dependence, management depth, recurring revenue, customer concentration, operational consistency, and financial performance.
Connect Your Exit to Your Personal Wealth Plan
We evaluate how the potential transition relates to retirement income, investments, liquidity, family commitments, estate planning, charitable goals, risk management, and the life you envision after ownership.
Coordinate the Advisory Team
We help organize the questions, decisions, and next steps while coordinating with the appropriate CPA, attorney, valuation professional, banker, insurance specialist, and transaction advisor.
Our Role in Your Exit
Connecting Your Business Transition to Your Personal Wealth Plan
An M&A advisor (or investment banker) may manage the transaction. A valuation professional may estimate value. Your CPA and attorneys address specialized tax and legal matters.
Our role is to help ensure that the business transition is connected to your personal financial life.
As your wealth advisor and exit-planning coordinator, we help you:
- Clarify what a successful exit means to you
- Identify financial and business-readiness gaps
- Evaluate potential transition paths
- Model the personal financial implications of an exit
- Prioritize decisions before a transaction begins
- Coordinate the appropriate professionals as their expertise is needed
Specialized Guidance for Business Owners
Todd Luce Montgomery, MBA, CEPA®, CRPC™, AAMS®, APMA®
As a Certified Exit Planning Advisor®, Todd helps business owners strengthen enterprise value, improve exit readiness, and coordinate a future business transition that ties to a business owner's personal wealth plan. He works collaboratively with the owner’s tax, legal, valuation, and transaction professionals so the business and the owner are better prepared for an eventual exit.
Contact the Branch
Explore Business Value Growth & Exit Planning
Tell us what decision is ahead. Our team will follow up to determine whether SilverTree may be a good fit.
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Educational first conversation
Raymond James and its advisors do not offer tax, legal, or business valuation advice. You should discuss any tax, legal or valuation matters with the appropriate professional.