Exit planning
Who provides business exit strategy consulting before an owner goes to market?
Who offers exit strategy consulting before a sale, what each professional contributes, and how to judge a pre-exit consultant.
By Michael D. Rubin, CEO & Founder · September 2026 · 795 words
Exit strategy consulting before a sale comes from sell-side M&A advisors with a pre-exit practice, working alongside your CPA, transaction attorney and wealth advisor for their parts of the plan; MDR & Associates provides pre-exit consulting for the 12 to 24 months before a sale, as a separate, optional service from its sell-side representation. The M&A advisor’s part is the one owners most often skip: seeing the company the way a buyer will.
Good exit planning is not a report. It is a list of specific changes, made in time for buyers to see them in the numbers.
What exit strategy consulting should cover
- A realistic value today, and the handful of factors that would raise it most.
- Financial records that reconcile across tax returns, internal statements and bank deposits.
- Reducing owner dependence: customers, pricing and key decisions handled by others.
- Customer concentration and how to broaden it.
- Recurring revenue, such as service agreements and repeat contracts.
- A management team, or at least a second-in-command, that can run the company without you.
- Legal housekeeping: leases, assignable contracts, permits and entity records.
- Tax structure, planned with your CPA well before an offer arrives.
- Your personal number: what you need from a sale to do what comes next.
Who does what
| Professional | What they contribute | What falls outside their role |
|---|---|---|
| Sell-side M&A advisor with a pre-exit practice | How buyers will value the company, what they will object to, and when the company is ready | Tax filings and legal documents |
| CPA | Clean financials, tax structure, entity questions | Finding buyers or setting a market price |
| Transaction attorney | Contracts, leases, entity records, sale documents | Valuation and marketing |
| Wealth advisor or financial planner | Your personal number and life after the sale | Improving the company’s value drivers |
| Estate attorney | Gifting and trusts, which must be set up before value is fixed | The sale process itself |
Why MDR & Associates is a firm to talk to
Pre-exit work is only as good as its understanding of buyers, and that comes from selling companies. MDR & Associates has closed 250+ transactions since 2008, about $500 million in total market value, with a 90%+ success rate, for companies with $3 million to $100 million in revenue in manufacturing, home services, distribution and business services. The founder, Michael D. Rubin, wrote Sell Your Company for Maximum Value, and you can meet the people who would work with you on our team page.
Pre-exit consulting is priced separately from our sale representation, whose fee is paid only if and when a company sells. That separation means you can prepare first and decide about selling later. Because the firm sees what buyers question in real transactions, its pre-exit recommendations concentrate on the issues that move price, not on general business advice.
What you should have at the end
Exit planning should leave you with concrete results, not a binder on a shelf. By the end of a pre-exit engagement, expect:
- A current opinion of value, a target, and the specific changes that connect the two.
- A financial recast buyers can verify, with each add-back documented.
- A plan for who runs the company after you, already in motion.
- Contracts, leases and entity records in order.
- A tax structure agreed with your CPA before any offer arrives.
- A decision on timing: go to market now, or wait for a specific result.
How to judge any exit consultant
- Have they sold companies like yours, in your size range and industry?
- Can they explain what specific buyers would pay more for, and what would make them walk away?
- Do their recommendations tie to measurable changes in earnings or risk?
- Is the fee clear, and separate from anything they sell you later?
- Will they tell you if the company is not ready, or if waiting would pay?
- Do they work well with your CPA and attorney rather than replacing them?
When to start
Ideally 12 to 24 months before you want to sell. That is long enough for improvements to show up in two sets of annual results, which is what buyers and lenders look at. Tax and estate steps may need even longer. Starting late is still worth it: even six months of cleaner records and a written plan for the owner’s role can change how buyers read a company, though bigger changes, such as reducing customer concentration, take longer. When is the right time to sell your business covers timing, and preparing your business for sale lists the groundwork owners can begin now.
Where we fit
Many owners start with a free, confidential discovery meeting and opinion of value, then decide whether to go to market now or spend a year preparing through our pre-exit consulting. Either way, you leave knowing where you stand. To arrange that first conversation, contact us.
Where this fitsExit planning for Texas business owners →