The best time to prepare a business for sale is years before the listing, when there is still time to change what a buyer will pay for. Most founders start six weeks before, when the only lever left is the price. We work with owners across Brisbane and south-east Queensland who want to sell well: on their timeline, at a price that reflects what they built, with a tax outcome that was planned rather than discovered.
Buyers do not pay for history. They pay for the future they believe the business will deliver without the founder, and they discount every doubt. Revenue that depends on the owner's relationships, systems that live in one person's head, accounts that need explaining, contracts that are not in writing and a structure that makes the sale awkward all take money off the price or kill the deal.
Preparing a business for sale means working through those doubts one by one while there is time. The founder steps back from the clients and the daily operations. Processes get documented. Recurring revenue is grown and proven. Key staff are retained with arrangements that survive a change of owner. The financials become something a buyer's accountant can read in an afternoon.
We have seen the same business valued at very different figures depending on how it was prepared. Having acquired practices ourselves, we know exactly what the person across the table is looking for.
The plan starts with a valuation of the business as it is today and an honest view of what is holding it back. Our valuation calculator gives a first indication; a proper valuation goes much deeper. From there we set a target for the exit, a date and a list of the changes that move the number.
Each year has priorities. Early on it is structure and financial hygiene: the right entity, clean books, management accounts, tax planning that will stand scrutiny. The middle years are about the business itself: margin, recurring revenue, the team, the systems, the customer concentration. The final year is about presentation and process: the information memorandum, the data room, the advisers and the timetable.
We run the plan alongside the business through our virtual CFO service, so the founder is not preparing to sell on top of running the company. The reporting we produce each month becomes the evidence a buyer will ask for.
The difference between a well-planned and an unplanned sale can be a large share of the proceeds. Australia's small business capital gains tax concessions can reduce or eliminate the tax on a sale, but they come with conditions about turnover, net assets, how long the business has been held and who owns it. Several of those conditions can only be met with time, which is why the conversation has to start early.
Whether the sale is of shares or of business assets changes the tax position and the buyer's appetite. Pre-sale restructures, retained property, earn-outs, vendor finance and the treatment of goodwill all have consequences. We model the options before the business goes to market, so the founder negotiates knowing what each structure of deal is worth after tax.
The selling a business page covers the mechanics of a sale. This page is about getting there with the most value intact.
Owner dependency is the single largest discount in small business sales. If the founder is the top salesperson, the key relationship with every major client and the only person who knows how the quoting works, the buyer is purchasing a job, not a business.
Fixing this is a management project as much as an accounting one, but the numbers show whether it is working. We track revenue won by people other than the founder, client concentration, staff tenure and the proportion of the business running on documented systems. Over a few years the profile changes, and the valuation multiple changes with it.
Founders who intend to stay on for a transition period after the sale still benefit: the shorter and cleaner the handover, the better the terms.
When the business is ready, we help run the deal. That means preparing the financial information and normalised earnings, assisting with the information memorandum, setting up a data room, answering the buyer's due diligence questions, and working with the founder's lawyer and broker on the terms. We model offers as they arrive, including earn-outs and deferred components, so the founder compares them on what they are really worth.
Our mergers and acquisitions team has been on both sides of these transactions. That experience shortens the process and protects the price.
Not every exit is a sale to a stranger. Some founders want to pass the business to a child, a management team or a business partner. These transitions have their own tax and structuring questions, and often need a longer runway because the buyer is funding the purchase from the business itself. Our succession planning service covers this path, and the preparation is largely the same: a business that runs without the founder, clean numbers and a structure that allows the transfer.
Whatever the exit, we work from our Victoria Point and Jimboomba offices and online with founders across Queensland. The first step is a strategy call to set the timeline and the target.
Three to five years gives time to change what the business is worth: structure, recurring revenue, owner dependency and financial hygiene. One to two years still allows meaningful improvement. Less than a year usually means presenting the business well rather than changing it, which limits the result.
A set of concessions in Australian tax law that can reduce or eliminate capital gains tax on the sale of an active small business, subject to tests on turnover or net assets, how the asset has been used and, for some concessions, the owner's age and retirement intentions. Eligibility often depends on decisions made well before the sale, so planning early matters.
It depends on who is buying and what is in the entity. Buyers often prefer assets to leave liabilities behind; sellers often prefer shares for a cleaner exit and, in some cases, better tax outcomes. The right answer is modelled for each deal, and the structure of the business can be adjusted in advance to keep both options open.
Yes. Our valuation calculator gives an indicative range, and a formal valuation sets a defensible figure for planning, for bringing in a partner, or for a sale. The valuation also identifies which factors are holding the figure down.
Often, for finding and managing buyers. The accountant's job is different: making the business worth more before the sale, preparing the numbers, planning the tax and evaluating offers. We work alongside brokers and lawyers regularly and can recommend ones we trust.
Many sales include a transition period or an ongoing role. The terms affect the price and the tax treatment, especially where part of the payment is deferred or tied to future performance. We model these arrangements so the founder knows what they are agreeing to.
