Selling your business
Sell-side CFO and exit readiness.
For owners of roughly $3M to $20M businesses, trades and contractors first, who are thinking about a sale or a recapitalization in the next 6 to 36 months. We act as your CFO: we get the numbers ready so what a buyer sees holds up, and we stay with you through closing.
What we do
The financial side of getting ready to sell.
We're your CFO, not a deal intermediary. We work alongside your M&A advisor, attorney and tax advisor, and keep the financial work moving so the deal doesn't stall on numbers.
Normalized earnings and add-backs
Owner compensation, one-time costs and personal expenses identified and documented, so the earnings a buyer sees hold up when they're tested.
Clean, closed books
Books cleaned up and closed monthly, with the WIP schedule kept current for contractors, so recent months tell the same story as the year-end.
Ready for quality of earnings
We prepare for the buyer's quality-of-earnings review: reconciliations, support for add-backs and answers to the questions it will raise.
Financial model and data room
A financial model built from your actual numbers, and the financial section of the data room organized and complete.
The diligence request list
Responses to the buyer's financial diligence requests, prepared accurately and on time, so your team can keep running the business.
Working capital analysis
A monthly working-capital history and a clear view of a normal level, so you understand the working-capital discussion before you sign a letter of intent.
Through closing and after: CFO support through the closing and the transition, including the handoff of reporting to the new owners.
One team around you. When your situation calls for it, we bring in trusted specialists from our network (M&A advisors, transaction attorneys, accounting firms and wealth advisors) and coordinate them as one team around you. They're independent firms, and you engage them directly.
Raise the value before you sell
The same business is worth more to a buyer when the earnings are clean, recurring and less dependent on the owner. If your timeline allows it, a value-creation plan comes first: margins by job and customer, more recurring service revenue, cash released from working capital, and a management team that runs the business without you.
How it works
Three steps, set to your timeline.
Exit-readiness assessment
We look at the books, the earnings, working capital and reporting the way a buyer's diligence team will, and tell you plainly what needs work.
A 6–12 month readiness plan
A written plan for the cleanup, the monthly close, the add-back support and the model, in the order that matters for your timeline.
CFO support through the deal
Data room financials, diligence responses and working-capital analysis, then support through closing and the transition.
Not ready to sell, or need to steady the business first? Many owners stabilize first and sell later. See restructuring and value creation.
For M&A advisors and exit planners
Take on more mandates and bigger deals without adding staff.
Join our network and use Legacy to scale your business: capacity on demand for more deals, financial services you can offer clients without hiring an analyst, and every client relationship kept as yours. When a client's books aren't ready, the deal slows down at the worst moment. Legacy works behind your firm, in your name or ours, so your clients' financials are ready before diligence starts. You keep the client relationship and the engagement. We never compete for advisory mandates.
Deal-support desk for your firm
- Seller financial cleanup and monthly close before going to market
- Normalized earnings and add-back schedules, with support
- Financial sections and schedules for your marketing materials (you write and own the materials)
- The data room's financial build
- Answers to the buyer's financial diligence list
- Working-capital analysis for the LOI and peg discussions
- Quality-of-earnings readiness
- Buyer-side financial diligence support, for advisors who represent buyers
- Interim CFO and integration support after closing
Back office for your advisory firm
Your own firm's finance function, so you can spend your time on clients:
- Bookkeeping and monthly financial statements
- Payroll on a platform that pays and files the taxes
- Tax planning and preparation
- Fractional CFO support
How we work with advisors
- Referral-only or white-label. Introduce us to your client, or we work behind your firm under your name.
- Confidential. Your client's information and the deal stay confidential.
- Your client stays your client. You keep the relationship and the engagement; we never compete for advisory mandates.
- Fees agreed up front with you or your client, and never contingent on the deal closing.
Confidential
Start well before the letter of intent
The earlier the numbers are ready, the more choices you have. The conversation stays between you and us.
We Listen | You Prosper
Book a confidential exit-readiness call
A private call about your timeline and where the numbers stand. Pick a time, or call and we'll set it up.
Book a confidential exit-readiness call