Where are you already strong?
Understand the foundations you already have in place and the areas that could support a successful future exit.
How exit ready are you?
You know you’ll exit your business at some point. What may be less clear is when that might be possible, which exit options are realistic for your business, and what you might need to do to get there.
The Exit Readiness Assessment looks at the commercial, organisational and personal factors that shape your exit readiness, helping you understand where you are today and where focusing your attention could make the biggest difference.
Complete the free Assessment and receive your personal Exit Readiness Map.
Free | Personal Exit Readiness Map | Designed for owners of established businesses
Is the Assessment for you?
The Assessment is designed for owners of established founder-led businesses who know they won’t run their business forever.
You may already have a particular exit in mind, or you may still be weighing up what is possible. Selling, succession, an MBO, EOT or stepping back are likely some of the options you’re considering.
You don’t need to have decided the route or the timing before you start preparing. What you can do now is strengthen the business, build value and create more options for whatever comes next.
The Assessment helps you understand what your business is capable of today, what may be holding back value or transferability, and where change is most likely to improve your position.
To get started, you’ll enter a few details and receive a secure link by email. There’s no password to remember, and you can return to your assessment later.
What will the Assessment tell you?
Your results are designed to answer four practical questions:
What could constrain your options?
Identify weaknesses, dependencies or gaps that may reduce value, make the business harder to transfer or limit the routes available to you.
Are your business and your ambitions aligned?
Understand how well what you want financially, personally and practically aligns with what the business can realistically support and your readiness for the transition.
Where should you focus next?
See which areas deserve attention first, so you can concentrate your time and energy where they are likely to make the greatest difference.
Your personal Exit Readiness Map
You’ll receive a personal Exit Readiness Map showing your current position across the key areas of business and owner readiness.
At the heart of the Map are three questions.
Is the business Attractive?
Does it have the financial quality, future potential and commercial fundamentals that make it valuable to somebody else?
Is it Transferable?
Can the business continue to thrive without its value, relationships and day-to-day operation depending entirely on you?
Is it Aligned?
Do the business, potential exit routes and timing support what you want financially, personally and practically? If you have co-founders, are your goals aligned, and are you all prepared for the decisions and transition ahead?
Together, these create a much fuller picture than simply asking whether your business could be sold.
What does the Assessment look at?
The Assessment considers twelve areas that influence your future options:
Attractive (what makes the business worth having)
Market Edge
How distinctive is what the business offers, and how credibly can it show where its future value will come from?
Financial Health
How strong, reliable and understandable are the financial foundations of the business?
Revenue Quality
How predictable is the revenue, and how dependent is it on particular customers, products or services?
Transferable (what lets it run without you)
Daily Operations
How well can the business deliver and keep running day to day without knowledge or decisions sitting with you?
Leadership Capability
Does the business have the leadership, capability and culture to continue successfully through change?
Governance
Are ownership, legal rights and key agreements in place to support a future transition without avoidable surprises?
Aligned (what you want, and who else is affected)
Future Direction
How clearly have you explored what you want a future change to achieve?
Key People
How well aligned are the owners, and anyone affected by your decisions, on where the business is heading?
Priorities & Trade-offs
How clearly have you identified what matters most, and the trade-offs between different outcomes?
Prepared (you, personally)
Stepping Back
How prepared are you for your role, authority and relationship with the business to change?
Next Chapter
How clearly have you explored what you want your life and work to contain afterwards?
Family & Finances
How well have you prepared for the personal, family and financial implications of change?
Exit readiness deserves more than a handful of generic questions and a superficial score.
The Assessment looks at twelve areas of commercial, organisational and owner readiness. It uses a consistent methodology, taking account of both the business and the person behind it. The result is a clear, practical picture of what is already strong, what may limit value or transferability, and where your effort is most likely to make a difference.
Your results separate three things: established strengths, areas that may need attention, and areas where more information is needed before any firm conclusion can be drawn.
The aim isn’t to tell you that everything needs fixing. It’s to give you a balanced view of where you stand, and what matters most to address next.
From insight to action
Your Exit Readiness Map is a starting point. The real value comes from using it to decide what matters most and then making the changes that strengthen your position over time.
If you want to go further, we can use your results to decide which changes are most important for your business, your ambitions and your likely exit horizon.
- 1
Assess
Complete the Assessment and receive your personal Exit Readiness Map so you understand where you and your business stand today.
- 2
Prioritise
In a Clarity & Options session, explore what the findings mean, what you want to achieve and decide which issues matter most given your ambitions, likely timing and current readiness.
Explore Clarity & Options - 3
Move Forward
Work through the priorities that will build value and transferability and improve your future options. That might mean reducing owner dependency, strengthening leadership, improving systems, tackling customer concentration, planning succession or preparing yourself for the transition ahead.
Discuss tailored support
Where specialist valuation, tax, legal or transaction advice is needed, the appropriate advisers can be brought in alongside the work.
There is no obligation to work with me after completing the Assessment.
Why assess the founder as well as the business?
A commercially strong business does not automatically create a successful exit.
You also need clarity about what you want the exit to achieve, what trade-offs you are prepared to make and what the transition may mean for you personally.
Success will look different for every owner. Financial outcome matters, but so can timing, your future role, family, team, legacy and what you want life to look like afterwards.
Founder readiness is therefore about more than being “ready” for the eventual transition. It means having the clarity, capacity and energy to prepare well, make difficult decisions and create space for the work that needs to be done, while also being better prepared for whatever comes next.
Exit Compass considers both sides because the business needs to be ready, but so do you.
Is this a business valuation?
No.
The Exit Readiness Assessment isn’t a formal business valuation. Instead, it helps you understand the factors that may be strengthening or constraining value and transferability, so you know what deserves attention before a valuation or transaction becomes necessary.
Where specialist valuation or corporate finance advice is needed, I work alongside the appropriate professionals.
We are careful with your information
We understand that information about your business can be sensitive. Your responses are used to prepare your personal Exit Readiness Map, and we take the confidentiality of your information seriously.
You can find out more about how your information is used, stored and protected, including who may have access to it, in our Privacy Notice.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to know how I want to exit?
No. In fact, one of the reasons to assess your readiness early is to understand what options the business can realistically support before committing to a particular route.
How far ahead should I start preparing?
Earlier is generally better. Many of the things that influence value and transferability, such as reducing founder dependency, strengthening leadership or improving financial quality, take time to change.
You do not need to wait until you are ready to appoint transaction advisers before starting to prepare.
What if I complete the Assessment and decide not to sell?
That is perfectly valid.
Improving value, transferability and reducing owner dependency can create a stronger business and more freedom regardless of the eventual route you choose.
The purpose of the Assessment is to improve your understanding and options, not to push you towards a transaction.
Will it tell me what my business is worth?
No. It identifies factors that may influence value and exit readiness, but it is not a formal valuation.
What will I receive?
A personal Exit Readiness Map showing your position across twelve key dimensions of exit readiness, together with an explanation of your strengths, priorities and first next steps.
What happens after I receive my results?
You can simply use the findings yourself.
If you want help understanding what they mean for your business and deciding what to focus on next, you can book a paid Clarity & Options session with me.
From there, we can decide whether any further strategic or ongoing support would be useful.
Explore Clarity & OptionsIs my information confidential?
Yes. Your assessment responses and report are treated as confidential, with access restricted to people who need it to provide or support the service. We explain how your information is used, stored and protected in our Privacy Notice.
Read our Privacy NoticeReady to see where you stand?
You don’t need to have decided exactly how or when you’ll exit.
Start by understanding how ready you and your business are today, what is already working well and where focusing now could strengthen your future options.
Receive your personal Exit Readiness Map.