How much more value could you
create before you exit?
You’ve spent years building something valuable, and if exit is beginning to appear on the horizon, even if it’s still two or three years away, you may be starting to think differently about the business and what you ultimately want from it.
Perhaps you know you want to realise some of the value you’ve created, but you’re not yet entirely sure what you want the next chapter to look like. You may be excited by the possibility, protective of what you’ve built, conscious of your people and determined not to leave value on the table.
I think that’s exactly what makes this such an interesting time to start thinking about exit.
Because those years aren’t simply a countdown to a future transaction.
They’re still years in which you can create.
A great exit isn’t simply about selling the value you’ve already created. It’s about using the time before exit to create more value, and more choice.
There is still time to influence it
Of course the financials will matter enormously, alongside the commercial story, tax, legal structure, operations and everything else that will eventually come under scrutiny.
But while you’re preparing all of those things, there is also an opportunity to look deliberately at the leadership of the business, and at you.
Starting earlier gives you something incredibly valuable: time to make meaningful changes while they can still influence the business you’re eventually going to sell.
You can strengthen the leadership team, reduce unnecessary dependency on you and unlock more of the capability already inside the organisation. And as that leadership capacity grows, it can contribute to better decisions, stronger execution, greater ownership and ultimately the performance and value of the business.
of GPs reported that exit preparation improved valuations, with the strongest outcomes reported where preparation began 12–24 months before sale.
EY-Parthenon Global PE Exit Readiness Study, 2026The EY research looks at exit preparation broadly rather than leadership development specifically, but the principle is important: starting earlier gives you options that starting late simply doesn’t.
That’s why I don’t see Leadership Exit Readiness as polishing the leadership story shortly before due diligence.
I see a much bigger opportunity:
Let’s use the years before exit to build a stronger business, and create more value for someone eventually to buy.
Build leadership a buyer can believe in
At some point, the perspective changes.
You’ve spent years looking at the business as its founder. A potential buyer is going to look at it differently.
They aren’t simply interested in what the company has achieved so far. They’re trying to understand what they’re buying next.
These are questions worth becoming curious about before somebody else starts asking them.
of PE firms said that when exits didn’t go well, they would focus on preparing management better in the future.
EY Private Equity Exit Readiness Study, 2025Starting earlier gives you time to look honestly at what a future buyer might see and strengthen what genuinely needs strengthening.
The goal is genuine leadership depth: strong leaders, clear ownership, good decision-making and a team capable of understanding, articulating and delivering the opportunity ahead.
Not simply because a buyer may eventually care about it.
Because it’s valuable to the business you’re running today.
How much choice do you want your exit to give you?
How much choice do you want your exit to give you?
How much of the value the buyer thinks they’re acquiring walks out of the door if you do?
Founder dependency often exists for very good reasons.
You may hold extraordinary customer relationships. People trust your judgement. You carry years of knowledge about the company. And when something really matters, people know you can make it happen.
Those things have helped create enormous value.
But if too much of that value remains personally dependent on you, a buyer will reasonably want to understand what happens without you.
That can influence buyer confidence, the importance of your continued involvement, transition arrangements and potentially elements of how a transaction is structured.
And there’s another reason that matters.
It gives you choice.
The more independently the business can operate, the more genuinely you can decide what happens next.
◆ Perhaps you want to leave completely.
◆ Perhaps you want to take money off the table and stay to build something even bigger.
◆ Perhaps new ownership and capital could open up possibilities you’re genuinely excited about.
And perhaps you’re beginning to imagine the freedom while finding the idea of not being needed by the company much stranger than you expected.
There can be enormous pride and excitement at this point. There can also be protectiveness towards your people, nervousness about leaving value on the table and questions about what your role, or even your identity, looks like afterwards.
This isn’t simply a financial transaction.
It’s a significant moment in your life.
So it’s worth becoming clear about what you actually want before somebody else’s transaction timetable starts making those choices for you.
How much choice do you want everything you’ve built to give you?
Prepare the business.
Prepare the leadership.
Prepare the founder.
This is how I think about Leadership Exit Readiness.
Not as a final-stage intervention, but as a deliberate process of strengthening the business, its leadership and you while there is still time for that work to matter.
These aren’t three separate workstreams. They are deeply connected.
Prepare the business
Use the runway before exit to strengthen the leadership conditions that can contribute to better decisions, ownership, execution, performance and growth.
Keep creating value while there is still time to influence it.
Prepare the leadership
Build genuine leadership depth, individually and collectively, so the team can challenge, decide, execute and articulate the opportunity ahead without everything depending on the founder.
As a transaction approaches, prepare them for the different scrutiny and pressure that management due diligence may bring.
Prepare the founder
Prepare yourself for the transition too, the decisions, pressure and identity shifts that can come with selling a company while still having to lead it.
And if you stay afterwards, the work may continue as you navigate new ownership, different governance, new expectations and perhaps an even bigger ambition.
The exit isn’t necessarily the end of your leadership journey.
It may be the beginning of a very different one.
I work alongside your other professional advisers
Ideally, we begin well before a transaction, often two or three years before a likely exit where that runway exists.
The work is tailored around you, the leadership team and the business, evolving as the transaction gets closer.
I work alongside your other professional advisers, each of us bringing our expertise to a different part of the same outcome.
And I’ve experienced this journey myself through an eight-figure exit.
Your experience will be your own, but I understand something of the excitement, pressure and complexity of leading a business as it prepares to change hands, and why the conversation needs to be about more than the transaction.
What would a genuinely successful exit look like for you?
There is still time to create more value, strengthen the leadership around you and become clearer about what you want everything you’ve built to make possible.
So perhaps the question isn’t simply:
How do I prepare this company for sale?
It’s:
What would a genuinely successful exit look like for me, and what could I start doing now to give myself the best possible chance of achieving it?
If you’re beginning to think about exit, even if it’s still several years away, let’s have a conversation.