The items on the readiness list that close in days.
Brokers, exit planners, CPAs, M&A counsel: you have a get-the-house-in-order list, and almost everything on it takes quarters. Three of them don't. We close those, hold them clean for as long as the process takes, and hand the acquirer documentation at close.
Three columns on the diligence sheet.
The visible win, week one
Financials, contracts and management depth take a year to fix. The website takes two days. Your client sees something change immediately, which buys patience for everything else on the list — and it's the first thing a search fund associate opens.
Demand becomes auditable
Where inquiries came from, who touched them, what closed — a log a buyer can read instead of a story the owner tells. Revenue stops looking like it depends on who the owner knows, because there's a record showing it doesn't.
Processes on paper
Quoting, job tracking and customer records move out of one person's head into something the team runs. This is the key-person question, answered with a system rather than an assurance.
Not a multiple play.
We won't tell your client any of this raises their multiple. It doesn't, and you'd hear about it if we said otherwise.
What it does: removes a first-impression risk with buyers who diligence from a laptop, and takes key-person risk out of the room by making the operating processes legible to someone who wasn't there.
On timing: this is work for an owner two to five years out. If they're closing in twelve months and want minimal spend, we'll say so on the call and you've lost nothing.
The Transfer Packet.
When the deal closes, the acquirer gets the whole footprint on paper: everything in the company's name, every login, every inspection since the rework — and, for anything Run built, the documented process and system access alongside it.
You get to say "the digital and operating side is accounted for" in diligence and mean it. Your client, usually staying on through transition, doesn't get called about a domain renewal in month four.
- Domain registrar access, in the company's name, renewal dates documented
- Hosting and DNS, credentials recorded and transferable
- Google Business Profile ownership, verified and correct
- Analytics and Search Console, with history intact
- Site source files and current content inventory
- Every quarterly inspection since the rework
- Documented processes and system access for anything Run built
- One handoff call with the acquirer's team
Nothing here signals a sale.
To customers, employees and the internet, it's a company updating its website and tidying its back office. We never reference the transaction, we don't tag the client anywhere, and we work with you rather than around you.
What advisors ask.
What if the deal takes three years, or never closes?
Nothing changes for your client. They got a working site for $2,000 and a free inspection every quarter, and whatever else they bought keeps running. The Transfer Packet is ready whenever it's needed, and if it's never needed, they still have the systems.
Can the buyer keep using you after close?
Yes, on the same terms, and most do — the systems are already theirs and already documented. There's no renegotiation at the table and nothing that needs your involvement to continue.
Can you take a referral fee?
Brokers can take 10% of the build. Advisors who can't accept fees can direct it as a $200 credit to the client, in your name. Either way we'll put it in writing before anything starts.
The advisor one-pager.
Everything above on a single page you can print, forward, or drop in a client folder — including the suggested line for handing it to the owner.
Thanks — it's yours. Take the PDF for your files, or open the web version to read and forward.
1 page · PDF · 143 KB
Thirty minutes. Bring the client or don't.
Happy to talk through a specific situation before you introduce anyone. If we're not the right fix for that client, we'll say so and you've lost nothing but the coffee.