# Exit readiness for retiring owners

This is educational. It is not legal, tax, or financial advice.

A 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.

Readiness 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.

The 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.

NewHands's readiness checklist in the seller flow is the short version. It does not score you for a bank.

If 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.

You 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.