Most exit conversations start in the wrong place. “When should I sell?” “What multiple could I get?” “Is now a good time?”
These are fair questions, but they’re downstream ones. The question that actually shapes everything else is simpler and far less asked: how do you want this to happen?
Exit isn’t one event. It’s a decision with several different shapes, a full sale, a merger, a management buyout, a phased handover to partners, or simply winding things down on your own terms. Each one protects something different and costs something different. Getting to “when” without first working out “how” tends to mean backing into a decision rather than making one.
What does “exit” actually mean to you?
Before anything else, it’s worth being honest about what you’re actually trying to achieve.
Are you looking for the highest possible price, even if that means losing control of what happens next? Or does it matter to you that the firm, the team, and the clients are looked after in a way that reflects how you built it? Neither answer is wrong but they lead to very different processes, buyers, and timelines. Owners who skip this step often find themselves negotiating against priorities they never actually set.
Who do you want this business to become without you?
A firm built entirely around one person’s relationships, judgement, and reputation is difficult to sell and even harder to hand over cleanly.
If you want optionality, the ability to exit on your terms, at a time of your choosing, the business needs to be able to function, and ideally thrive, without you in the room. That’s not a project for the year before you leave. It’s a question worth asking years earlier, because building that kind of independence takes time most owners underestimate.
What are you actually protecting?
Money matters, but it’s rarely the only thing on the table.
Legacy, reputation, the people who’ve been loyal to you, the culture you’ve spent years building; these all carry weight, even if they’re harder to put a number on. Some owners will trade value for certainty that their team is protected. Others prioritise a clean break over a drawn-out earn-out. There’s no universally right answer, but there is a right answer for you and it’s worth working out before a buyer or a broker starts asking.
How ready is the business to run without you?
This is where most exit plans quietly fall apart. Succession isn’t just a plan on paper; it’s tested in practice. Do your senior people already carry real client relationships, or do most conversations still find their way back to you? Are your systems, processes, and financial controls something a buyer or successor could pick up, or does a huge amount of institutional knowledge live only in your head? Readiness isn’t about being replaceable in a diminishing sense; it’s about having built something robust enough to outlast you.
Timing versus readiness
Owners often ask “when” because it feels like the more concrete, more answerable question. But timing a market is far less within your control than building readiness is.
A business that’s genuinely ready to be sold, merged, or handed over will have more options, and more leverage in negotiation, regardless of exactly when that moment arrives. Chasing the perfect market moment while the business itself isn’t ready to withstand scrutiny is usually the more expensive mistake.
The bottom line
Deciding when to exit is a moment. Deciding how is a strategy- and it’s one that needs to start long before you’re actually ready to leave. The owners who get the best outcomes aren’t the ones who timed the market perfectly. They’re the ones who knew what they wanted, built a business capable of delivering it, and went into the process with clarity instead of pressure.
If you’re starting to think about what “how” looks like for you, whether that’s years away or closer than you’d like to admit, we’d welcome an honest conversation about what that could look like in practice.