Built by someone who has done it, not just studied it
Five weeks. That’s how long it took a business owner to send me his last three years’ accounts…and I was trying to buy his business.
At first, I was surprised. He wanted someone to buy his business, but couldn’t provide the basic information needed to consider it.
As the weeks passed, that surprise turned into frustration. Selling his business was a huge decision, yet the basic information wasn’t ready.
How could I take the next step if I couldn’t even see the accounts?
And this wasn’t an isolated experience. I kept finding the same lack of preparation in businesses I was looking at buying.
These owners knew how to run their businesses. They didn’t necessarily know how to sell them. I felt they were being let down by the people they relied on for guidance.
You’d expect the advisers you paid to explain what needed doing.
I’d seen businesses fail to sell, and owners eventually get fed up and close them.
I imagined reaching that point after years of hard work. Unable to sell, closing the business, and telling your employees they no longer had a job.
That was what bothered me, and sparked the idea for Exit Blueprint.
After years of building your business, you deserve to choose when and how you leave, to be paid for what you’ve built and to see it carry on.
Exit Blueprint helps you prepare for that while you still have time and choices.
My business education started early
I grew up around a family retail business, so business was part of everyday life long before I had a career of my own.
At 21, I bought my first business, and by 24, I’d sold it.
Since then, my career has taken a few unexpected turns. I’ve worked in retail, technology and software, built businesses, worked with startups, helped turn around struggling teams and departments, advised business owners, become involved in investments and acquisitions, and somewhere along the way, I even trained as a commercial pilot.
It’s not exactly a conventional career path.
But there’s been a common thread running through most of it. I like understanding how things work, identifying what’s getting in the way and finding a better way of doing it.
Technology became a big part of my career, but I’ve never really thought of myself as a technologist. I’m much more interested in the business problem behind the technology.
How do we sell more? Why aren’t we making enough money? Where are we wasting time? Why does everything depend on one person? What needs to change for this business to work without its owner?
I’ve made good decisions and bad ones along the way. I’ve built things that worked and pursued ideas that didn’t. I’ve learned from successes, failures and quite a few things that didn’t turn out as planned.
That’s the experience I bring to Exit Blueprint.
Why Exit Blueprint exists
Knowing how to run a business doesn’t mean you know how to prepare it for sale. Many owners reach that point without clear guidance on what buyers will look for, what could hold up a deal or what needs to change.
Exit Blueprint helps you understand how a buyer would see your business and turn that insight into a practical plan.
That might mean reducing how much the business relies on you, getting your financial information ready, strengthening your team or addressing risks such as relying on a handful of customers.
Whether selling is years away or already on your mind, you’ll understand what needs attention and where to start.
And even if you never sell, those improvements can make your business easier to run and give you more choices about what comes next.
"The single biggest obstacle to an exit, and personal freedom is almost always the same: the business depends too much on its owner."
Karl Gjertsen
Founder, Exit Blueprint
The best place to start
The Dependency Score.
Three minutes. Honest answers. Everything else follows from there.