Buyers price risk, not revenue
Two firms with the same revenue can be worth very different amounts. In one, the owner prices every job, holds every relationship, resolves every exception, and keeps the process in their head. In the other, pricing rules are written down, the work is documented, clients know the team, and the numbers show clean recurring revenue that actually gets collected. The second firm sells for more because the buyer is taking on less risk, and buyers pay for certainty.
What buyers pay more for
The list is unglamorous and completely learnable. Procedures that are documented instead of remembered. Clients who pay up front or on retainer instead of after a chase. A portal most clients actually use. Minimum pricing that holds for new work. A busy season the owner survives at sane hours. And someone besides the owner who can close the books or sign a return. Every one of those moves the price, because every one of them is something the buyer doesn't have to fix or fear.
Fix first, then decide
The useful part is that this is the same work that makes the firm better to own. Repricing the book, releasing the wrong clients, documenting the work, and getting the owner out of the middle raise profit now and raise the price later, whether the sale happens next year or never. Fixing the firm and preparing it for sale are one project, not two.
Where this fits
Review & Recommend finds what the firm is costing its owner today and what fixing it is worth, which is also the honest starting point for a future sale. And when you are ready to think about buyers, we keep a private list and share nothing without your approval.
Know what staying the same costs.
The diagnosis comes first, whether you keep the firm or one day sell it.
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