{"apiVersion":"2026-10-19","data":{"disclaimer":"Educational. Not legal, tax, or financial advice.","resource":{"slug":"exit-readiness","title":"Exit readiness for retiring owners","audience":"seller","summary":"A succession checklist for owners who have run the company for decades.","citations":[{"label":"SBA local assistance","url":"https://www.sba.gov/local-assistance"},{"label":"IRS ESOP overview","url":"https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/employee-stock-ownership-plans-esops"},{"label":"Exit Planning Institute","url":"https://exit-planning-institute.org/"},{"label":"SCORE","url":"https://www.score.org/"},{"label":"IRS Publication 544","url":"https://www.irs.gov/publications/p544"}],"body":"This is educational. It is not legal, tax, or financial advice.\n\nA large share of New England owners selling in this decade built the company themselves and are ready to stop. Buyers can feel that in the books: the owner is the estimator, the salesperson, and the person the landlord calls.\n\nReadiness is concrete. Three years of tax returns that match the internal statements. A list of add-backs with receipts. A lease a buyer can assume, or a landlord who will talk. A manager who is not the owner, or a written plan and a wage for the person who will be. Customer contracts that are not oral. A reason for sale you can say out loud.\n\nThe exit-readiness score on this site turns that list into points and an action plan: financials, add-backs, concentration, a manager, the lease, the reason for sale, a tax advisor, and the family decision. The weights are NewHands's teaching order. They are not a bank's scorecard and not the Exit Planning Institute's methodology. EPI trains advisors; this page does not quote their research and does not certify anyone. SCORE is a place to find a mentor. IRS Publication 544 is background on selling business property, not your return.\n\nNewHands's readiness checklist in the seller flow is the short version. It does not score you for a bank.\n\nIf the buyer might be an employee, a child, or an ESOP, say so early. Those paths have different tax rules. The IRS maintains an overview of employee stock ownership plans. A child who has never managed the shop is not a transition plan until the customers have met them.\n\nYou do not have to list on a national site that forbids you from sharing the record elsewhere. A partner feed, or a listing you create here, keeps the attribution on you."}}}