What is a realistic timeline to get sale-ready?

Owners often ask how long getting ready actually takes, separate from how long the sale itself takes once listed. The honest answer is a project with phases, not a single date you can put on a calendar.

Phase one: assess and prioritize

Start with an honest assessment of where the business stands against what buyers actually look for: financial cleanliness, owner dependence, customer concentration, contract and lease status, and documentation. A broker, accountant, or advisor can help you rank these by how much each affects value and how long each realistically takes to fix, so you spend your limited time where it matters most.

Phase two: the bulk of the work

This is the longest phase and covers reconciling financial statements to tax filings, resolving shareholder loans, reducing owner dependence by building a management layer, and confirming which leases and material contracts can actually transfer to a buyer. Most of these items take months to do properly, and several, especially owner dependence, cannot be rushed regardless of how much time pressure you are under.

Phase three: documentation and packaging

In the final stretch before listing, document your core processes, pull together the due diligence package of financial, corporate, and operational records, and get a professional opinion on price. This phase moves faster than phase two because it is largely about organizing and presenting work that should already be substantially done, not starting new fixes from scratch.

A shorter timeline is possible but has real trade-offs

If you need to sell sooner, you can compress this by focusing narrowly on the highest-impact items and accepting that some issues, particularly owner dependence and customer concentration, will simply be priced into the deal rather than fixed. Be upfront with your broker or advisor about your actual timeline, since it changes what preparation work is worth prioritizing.