When I sold my company, NewAir, to private equity in 2021, we were doing over $80M in revenue. But here’s the truth: what made the deal successful wasn’t just the top line—it was EBITDA, preparation, and confidence.
We didn’t have a big exec team. No full-time CFO. But we made strategic moves that added millions to our valuation. Fractional leadership, disciplined pricing, tighter ops, and a clear growth story gave buyers confidence—and confidence creates value.
This is the playbook I used. It works.
Strategy #1: Fractional Leadership
If you don’t have a seasoned CFO before a sale, you’re already behind. Buyers want numbers they can trust, fast.
A fractional CFO can:
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Clean up your books
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Identify add-backs buyers will accept
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Build buyer-ready forecasts
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Sit in diligence calls and earn trust
I brought one in six months before selling. He found $600K in add-backs—worth nearly $3M at a 5x multiple.
Lesson: Don’t skip this. Buyers aren’t buying your revenue—they’re buying certainty.
Strategy #2: Pricing and Customer Discipline
Your margins tell the story. Here’s what we did:
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SKU rationalization: Cut 20% of products that drove less than 5% of gross margin.
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Customer cleanup: Stopped selling to accounts that undercut pricing and drained resources.
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Value-based pricing: Shifted key SKUs to premium positioning.
Those moves boosted margins by 3 points—millions in added valuation.
Lesson: One spreadsheet and a couple hard conversations can be worth more than a consultant’s deck.
Strategy #3: Operational Discipline
Buyers want to see scalability, not heroics.
We:
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Mapped processes from PO to delivery
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Documented SOPs for service and returns
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Delivered clean monthly reports that matched buyer models
The result? Confidence. And in diligence, confidence is currency.
Lesson: If your ops aren’t buyer-ready, expect a haircut.
Strategy #4: Working Capital Readiness
The silent deal killer? Working capital adjustments at close.
We avoided surprises by:
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Reducing slow-moving inventory 6–9 months pre-sale
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Tightening AR (net 60 → net 30)
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Stretching AP with vendor negotiations
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Building our own working capital model—before the buyer did
Result: We cut $1M in inventory and got paid for it in valuation, instead of losing it at close.
Strategy #5: Reduce Owner Dependency
Buyers don’t want you. They want the machine.
I prepped two rising leaders, gave them visibility, and pulled myself out of day-to-day decision-making. By diligence, I was almost irrelevant operationally—and that boosted trust.
Lesson: Bring your bench to buyer meetings. Show them the business runs without you.
Strategy #6: Run a Full Process
Never take the first inbound offer. A full process with a banker creates competition and leverage.
In our case:
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We had 7 LOIs
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The spread between top and bottom bids was over $6M
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Better terms came with the stronger buyers
Lesson: Competition drives price. Always.
The Final Push: Grow Into the Exit
Don’t slow down once you decide to sell—accelerate.
We launched two new SKUs nine months before diligence. They showed upside potential buyers could scale—and gave us leverage on multiple.
Lesson: Momentum creates negotiating power. Flat or declining revenue does the opposite.
Closing Thought
You don’t need a massive exec team to maximize your exit. What you need is:
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Clean, defendable numbers
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Operational discipline
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Fractional experts who know the playbook
Start preparing 12–24 months out. The biggest regret I hear from founders is:
“I wish I had started earlier.”
You’ve built something great. Now finish strong—and get paid for the value you created.
👉 Try the Exit Readiness Score on Apex CEO to spot your gaps before buyers do.
