Sell in 12 months

This is educational. It is a sequence, not a promise that a buyer appears. Nothing here is a timeline a lender is required to follow.

Months 1–2. Decide and gather

Write why you are selling, what you need to live on, and whether a child, a partner, or a key employee expects the company. Talk to a CPA about an asset sale and a stock sale before you fall in love with a price. IRS Publication 544 is background on selling business property, not your return. Pull three years of tax returns and the internal statements. If they do not match, that is the work of these two months.

Months 3–4. Earnings a stranger can follow

Build the add-back worksheet. Mark anything that will happen again as recurring. Subtract a replacement wage if the buyer will have to hire one. Write customer concentration down. Read the lease assignment clause.

Months 5–6. The business without you

Use the owner-dependence playbook. Name who runs a week. Introduce that person to the landlord and the largest customers without announcing a sale. If you want the Turnkey Ready badge, this is when the three statements become true: verified financials, a clean diligence file, and a transition plan. The badge is your attestation. It is not an audit.

Months 7–8. The teaser and the people you hire

Decide whether you will hire a broker. If you do, interview two and compare engagement letters. Draft the teaser with the trade, the region, and a revenue band, not the name. The confidential narrative waits for an NDA.

Months 9–10. Buyers and a letter

Qualified buyers sign an NDA before the customer list. An indication of interest is a conversation. A letter of intent is the term sheet. Have your lawyer read it. An SBA buyer will need the lender's package. SBA describes 7(a) loans. The lender applies the current SOP 50 10. Do not plan the closing date around a rule this page does not quote.

Months 11–12. Diligence and close

Quality of earnings, the working-capital peg, and the lease are the usual arguments. Tell employees and customers when the deal is real enough that a rumor is worse than the truth, and not before. The confidentiality guide is that judgment. Closing is counsel and a closing agent, not a button on this site.

If a month slips, the order still holds. Gathering the numbers after a buyer is in the room is how a year becomes two.