About
Written for the people nobody talks to
Owners twelve to thirty-six months from a sale are not looking for a broker yet, and a broker is not the right person to answer their questions anyway.
Only 20 to 30% of businesses that go to market actually sell, according to the Exit Planning Institute. Nearly everything that decides which side of that line a business falls on is settled before the listing goes up.
The owners who most need that information are the hardest to reach. They are two years out. They are running the business. They are not searching for a broker, and if they called one, the honest answer would cost that broker the listing. So the information does not get to them.
That gap is the whole reason this site exists.
What we stand for
Every number carries its source
If a statistic appears here, the source is named on the same page. Where a commonly repeated figure could not be traced to a real source, it is not published, even when it would have made a better argument. Several claims were removed on exactly that basis, including two that had been in use for months: an industry asking-price average that turned out to be the market norm rather than an advantage, and an owner-dependence discount roughly triple anything published.
Bad news early beats good news late
An owner who learns at twenty-four months that the business is not sellable has options. The same owner learning it at two months has a failed listing. Everything here is written on the assumption that you would rather know now.
Free has to actually be free
The readiness score is not a lead form with a score attached. It runs without an email address, it tells you your two weakest items, and if you score well it says plainly that you do not need paid help and points you at a broker instead. An instrument that recommends paid preparation to everybody is not an instrument.
Preparation and selling are separate decisions
Getting a business ready to transfer is one job. Selling it is another. Conflating them is how owners end up in twelve-month listing agreements they were not ready for. Nothing on this site asks you to decide who will eventually sell your business.
We say who benefits
This site is connected to a paid exit preparation practice and to a brokerage. Both connections are stated in the footer of every page and set out in full on thedisclosure page. You should know who gains from what you are reading before you read it, not after.
What this is not
Not a brokerage site. It carries no listings and does not value businesses. Not legal, tax or investment advice either. Where a decision turns on your specific tax position, the answer comes from your accountant, and this site will say so rather than guess.
Who writes it
Mike Lee, a business broker covering Utah, Montana, Wyoming and western Colorado with First Choice Business Brokers Summit. More writers as the work grows.