The 12-month exit readiness checklist

Most Colorado owners who "want to sell in a year" haven't done the cleanup that makes a year realistic. The following is the sequence that consistently gets a business from "thinking about it" to "under LOI" in twelve months without leaving money on the table.

Months 12–10: Financial cleanup

1. 01

   Reconcile 3 years of books to tax returns

   Have your CPA produce an add-back schedule and a normalized P&L. If your books can't tie to your returns, this is where the year is won or lost.
2. 02

   Separate the owner from the P&L

   Move personal expenses off the business card, right-size owner comp against market, and make add-backs defensible with backup.
3. 03

   Fix your cutoff and AR

   Buyers who see stale AR and inconsistent revenue recognition price it in. Clean up before you have to explain it.

Months 10–7: Operational independence

1. 01

   Identify or hire a real second-in-command

   Not a title change — a person who could plausibly run the business without you for 60 days. This is the single biggest month-9 lever.
2. 02

   Document top-10 customer relationships

   Introduce your #2 to every named account. Rewire touchpoints so the company (not you personally) owns the relationship.
3. 03

   Write the 20 things only you know

   Pricing exceptions, vendor terms, override rules. Not a full manual — a defensible knowledge doc.

Months 7–5: Legal and contract hygiene

1. 01

   Get corporate records current

   Minutes, cap table, EIN records, franchise/state filings. Missing minute books are a real deal-slower.
2. 02

   Review every customer and vendor contract for assignment clauses

   Contracts that don't survive a change of control are a diligence bomb. Know which ones need consent and plan for it.
3. 03

   Clean up IP, domain, and licensing ownership

   Anything in your personal name — domain, trademark, software license — moves to the entity now.

Months 5–3: Positioning

1. 01

   Get a defensible valuation range

   From an advisor who actually looks at your books — not a broker's back-of-envelope. This anchors every negotiation to come.
2. 02

   Build the confidential information memorandum

   The single document buyers will actually read. Financials, thesis, growth vectors, risks addressed head-on.
3. 03

   Decide who you will and won't sell to

   Strategic buyer vs. searcher vs. PE-backed roll-up. Each pays differently and demands different diligence.

Months 3–1: Discreet outreach and LOI

1. 01

   Approach a curated buyer list under NDA

   Ten right buyers beats a hundred wrong ones. Public listings are the last resort, not the first.
2. 02

   Run a structured Q&A period

   Written, tracked, and confidentiality-first. Never over-share pre-LOI — never.
3. 03

   Negotiate the LOI on more than price

   Structure, escrow, earn-out, working capital peg, transition period. These often move net proceeds more than the headline.

What to do next

Score where you actually stand today — most owners are further along than they think in one area and further behind in another. A private assessment gives you the honest starting map.