Everything you need to know before you sell
Guides, FAQs and a glossary on exit planning, written to answer the questions owners and their AI assistants actually ask.
Exit Blogs
Exit FAQs
The questions owners actually ask, answered directly.
What is Exit Advisory Team?
One team covering growth, money and law: Neale Lewis (Scaling Up coach), Adam Rhodes (qualified financial adviser and stockbroker) and Debra Martin (corporate solicitor), working together on your exit rather than as separate advisers.
What is the Exit Readiness Assessment?
A free, 8-minute diagnostic that scores your business across the ten areas buyers check hardest, with an instant breakdown of where exit value is leaking.
What's the difference between Prepare, Maximise Value and Exit on Your Terms?
Prepare is about knowing where you stand today. Maximise Value is about closing the specific gaps holding your valuation back. Exit on Your Terms is about choosing the right route, a trade sale, a management buyout or an Employee Ownership Trust, and planning the money and legal side alongside it.
What exit routes are available?
A trade sale to a third-party buyer, a management buyout, an Employee Ownership Trust, a partner buy-in, or family succession.
Is this the right fit for my business?
This is built for founders, CEOs and owners running a business with £5M to £100M in revenue. It's not the right fit if EBITDA is under £2M, if the business is in financial distress, or if you want to sell tomorrow with no preparation.
When should I start preparing?
This work pays off most when it starts 2 to 3 years before an exit, though it is never too early to find out where the gaps are.
Is Exit Advisory Team free to join?
Join Free costs nothing and carries no obligation. It's the account that saves your Exit Readiness Assessment results.
Who sees my information?
Your answers are kept confidential. They are not published or shared.
Where does Exit Advisory Team operate?
Across the East Midlands and, by referral, the rest of the UK.
Exit Podcast Episodes
Glossary
Exit-planning terms, defined in plain English.
- EBITDA
- Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. One of the most common measures buyers use to value a business.
- Valuation multiple
- The number a buyer applies to EBITDA (or another profit measure) to arrive at a purchase price. A higher multiple means a higher price for the same profit.
- Trade sale
- A full or partial sale of the business to a third-party buyer.
- Management buyout (MBO)
- A sale of the business to its existing management team.
- Employee Ownership Trust (EOT)
- A structure that transfers ownership of the business to its employees, with its own tax treatment.
- Due diligence
- The buyer's detailed check of a business's finances, legal position and operations before a sale completes.
- Owner dependency
- How much a business relies on its owner personally to run day to day. High dependency tends to lower what a buyer will pay.
- Client concentration
- How much of a business's revenue sits with a small number of customers. Buyers see high concentration as a risk.
- Exit Readiness Assessment
- Exit Advisory Team's free, 8-minute diagnostic scoring a business across the ten areas buyers scrutinise hardest.
- Magic Number
- Adam Rhodes' exercise for working out what an owner actually needs from a sale, worked out before negotiations start, not during them.
- Deal Vision
- Defining what a good outcome actually looks like for the owner, before the sale process begins.
- Buyer-ready
- The state of a business whose operations, finances and legal position can withstand a buyer's due diligence without surprises.
Exit Webinars
Guides to read alongside
No quiz, just a plain-English read. Useful whichever stage you're at.
Exit planning guide
A plain-English walkthrough of what to expect at each stage, from first thoughts to signed deal.
Read the guide →Exit strategy options
Trade sale, management buyout, or employee ownership trust — compare the routes before you choose one.
Read the guide →Exit Materials
Tools to help you prepare for a successful Exit…
What happens when you start
Three steps. No pressure, no obligation.
Join free
No cost, no obligation. Just an account so your results are saved.
Get your value-gap breakdown
From the Exit Readiness Assessment, scored across the ten areas buyers scrutinise hardest.
Work with the whole team
Neale, Adam and Debra, on growth, money and law, together from the start.