Exitaca — The 18 months before the wire hits

T−18months

The decision.

You decide a sale inside one to three years is real. Nothing is signed, nobody is called. But from this point, every month of preparation compounds — an unprepared firm floors at 4–6× while the same firm, prepared, can carry 9–12×.

T−18months

Know your number today.

Buyers pay a multiple of adjusted EBITDA — reported profit plus the owner costs a new owner won't carry. Establishing that baseline honestly is the first act of preparation.

What is your firm actually worth? Run a rough estimate →

T−17→−12months

Groom the earnings.

Every addback you just estimated gets turned into evidence.

Addback schedule built — each adjustment tied to invoices and payroll records
Personal expenses off the books — cleanly, before a buyer finds them
Family payroll resolved — off payroll or into a real, documented role
Owner comp normalized — replacement cost benchmarked and defensible

T−12months

Pressure-test your lane.

The same dollar of EBITDA re-prices depending on which lane buyers put your firm in — from 3.5–5× for a local firm-on-firm sale up to 10–14× for recurring specialty work. If the revenue mix doesn't hold up in quality of earnings, the firm gets reclassified into a cheaper lane mid-deal. We test it now — a year before anyone else does. See the lanes →

T−9months

Reduce founder dependency.

The most common price-killer in a small firm: everything runs through the owner. We identify and document what transfers without you — client relationships, delivery processes, pricing decisions — so a buyer is purchasing a firm, not a person.

T−6months

Build the data room.

Live EBITDA, comp, and client-concentration dashboards — built before a buyer ever asks. When diligence starts, questions get answered in days instead of weeks, and the difference shows up in the final terms.

T−3months

Invite competition.

One buyer is not a market. You and your deal counsel run a confidential process with the right fit-screened buyers — and because the firm is prepared, several can engage at once. That competition, not the headline multiple, is what carries the top of your lane.

T−0close

QoE confirms what's already written.

Term sheet, quality-of-earnings review, definitive documents, wire — run by you and your deal counsel, with our preparation work answering the buyer's questions. The story is already documented, so the price holds. Money typically arrives in three pieces:

30–50% cash at close — the only guaranteed piece
20–40% rollover equity — your stake in the buyer's platform
20–30% earnout — paid over roughly three years, if targets hold

T+years

The second bite.

The rollover equity matters as much as the headline number. When the platform itself is later sold, that stake can re-rate substantially — which is why the platform you roll into is negotiated as carefully as the price.

The eighteen months before the wire hits.

From decision to close, in order.