Who benefits, and how

The Exit Files is published by Mike Lee. Mike Lee also owns and runs Exit Path Advisors, a fee-based exit preparation practice, and works as a business broker with First Choice Business Brokers Summit.

What that means in practice

• If the readiness score suggests you have preparation work to do, Exit Path Advisors sells that work. Links from this site to Exit Path Advisors point at a business Mike Lee owns, and are marked as such in the page source.
• If you eventually sell a business through First Choice Business Brokers Summit, Mike Lee may earn a brokerage commission.
• Neither Exit Path Advisors nor The Exit Files is owned by or affiliated with First Choice Business Brokers. Reading this site creates no obligation to use either.

What it does not change

Every statistic here is either traceable to a source that is named, or an observation from brokerage practice that is labelled as such. Claims that could not be verified have been removed rather than softened, including several that were previously in use.

The readiness score is built so that a high score sends you to a broker rather than into a paid engagement. That is deliberate: an instrument that recommends paid help to everyone is not an instrument.

Not advice

Everything on this site is general education. It is not legal, tax, accounting or investment advice, and it is not a substitute for advice about your own situation from someone who knows it.