Who Can I Talk to Before Selling My Business?
If you are quietly wondering whether it is time to sell, close, transfer, or step away from your business, you may have an unusual problem:
You need to talk to someone before you are ready to tell anyone.
Employees may worry about their jobs. Investors or partners may have their own interests. Customers and vendors may react before there is anything to react to. Even family and friends who know you well may not understand the financial and operational realities of the business.
That can leave a business owner carrying a very significant question alone.
You do not have to.
You Do Not Need to Know That You Want to Sell Yet
One of the biggest misconceptions about talking with an exit advisor is that you should wait until you have decided to sell.
You shouldn’t.
In fact, the period before you make that decision can be one of the most useful times to have a confidential conversation.
You may be wondering:
Could someone actually buy this business?
What might my company be worth?
Am I ready to sell, or am I simply burned out?
What would I need to change before going to market?
Could an employee, partner, or family member take over?
Would I be better off selling the assets?
What happens if I simply close?
What would my life look like after the business?
Am I making a financial decision, a personal decision, or both?
You do not need to arrive with the answers.
The purpose of the first conversation is to help you understand the questions.
A Confidential Place to Start
Exit with Mo was created for business owners who are somewhere between “I’ve been thinking about this” and “I know exactly what I’m going to do.”
Maureen Brown provides private, focused exit advisory services for founders and business owners who need help getting oriented before making a major move.
This is not designed to become an open-ended consulting relationship.
Most owners need one to three focused conversations to talk through the situation, understand the available options, identify the most important questions, and determine what should happen next.
The goal is to get you moving in the right direction, not to keep you in consulting for months.
What Does an Exit Advisor Help With?
An exit advisor can help you look at the business and the decision separately.
That distinction matters.
A business may be financially valuable while its owner is completely exhausted. An owner may love the company and still be ready to leave. A company may be sellable today, or it may become considerably more attractive after another year of preparation.
Sometimes the right answer is to sell.
Sometimes it is to prepare for a future sale.
Sometimes it is to transfer the business internally, step away from day-to-day operations, sell certain assets, or wind the company down thoughtfully.
And sometimes the conversation makes it clear that leaving isn’t the right move yet.
The goal isn’t to push you toward an exit. It is to help you understand which path makes the most sense for you, the business, and the people affected by the decision.
What If I Want to Know What My Business Is Worth?
For some owners, the next question is financial:
What could someone realistically pay for this business?
Maureen also provides Broker Opinions of Value through her work with Lion Business Advisors.
A Broker Opinion of Value is a market-based assessment designed to help an owner understand the potential value of a business in the current marketplace. It can be particularly useful when you are considering a sale, evaluating an internal transfer, or trying to determine whether selling the company makes financial sense.
Understanding value does not obligate you to sell.
Sometimes having a realistic number simply makes the larger decision easier to think about.
What If I Am Ready to Sell My Business?
If you determine that selling is the right path, Maureen can also represent you through the sale process through her M&A work with Lion Business Advisors.
That can include preparing the business for market, positioning it for prospective buyers, managing buyer conversations and offers, navigating due diligence, and helping move the transaction toward closing.
The preparation matters.
The way a business is presented, the information available to buyers, the structure of a transaction, buyer quality, negotiations, and due diligence can all influence whether a transaction closes and what an owner ultimately walks away with.
Having experienced representation also allows the owner to continue operating the business while someone else helps manage a process that can quickly become complex and time-consuming.
Who Is Maureen Brown?
Maureen Brown is an M&A advisor and former founder who approaches business exits from the owner’s side of the table.
As co-founder of Mosie Baby, Maureen helped build the company from concept into a patented, FDA-cleared medical device business serving more than 125,000 families and selling through more than 4,000 retail locations. When it came time to explore an exit, she ultimately led the company through a strategic acquisition, including the data room, due diligence, deal terms, and post-close transition.
That experience shaped the way she works with other owners today.
She understands that selling a company is a transaction, but deciding whether to sell one is often something much more personal.
Maureen works with Lion Business Advisors and is a member of the International Business Brokers Association (IBBA) and the Texas Association of Business Brokers (TABB). She is based in Austin, Texas.
Can I Talk to Someone Before My Employees or Investors Know?
Yes.
In many cases, that is precisely the point.
There is a period in the life of many businesses when the owner needs to explore possibilities without creating unnecessary concern among employees, customers, investors, partners, or vendors.
Often, the people closest to the business are the very people the owner cannot comfortably talk to yet.
Having a confidential first conversation gives you room to think before you need to announce, explain, or commit to anything.
Do I Need a Long-Term Exit Consultant?
Probably not.
Exit with Mo is intentionally designed around short-term, situational advisory support.
You may need one conversation.
You may need two or three.
You may discover that you need a business broker, attorney, CPA, valuation professional, wealth advisor, or another specialist. Part of getting oriented is understanding who should be involved, and when.
The objective is not to assemble an army of advisors before you even know what you want.
It is to figure out the next sensible step.
What If I’m Not Ready to Talk to Anyone Yet?
Start privately.
The Exit Conversation is a guided tool designed to help business owners think through where they are today and what options may be available.
You can use it without providing your contact information.
It asks practical questions about your business, your goals, financial health, transferability, timing, and potential risks, then helps narrow a complicated situation into a clearer path forward.
You might discover that you are ready to sell.
You might discover that you need time to prepare.
Or you might discover that the question you thought you were asking isn’t actually the most important one.
That’s useful information too.
Where Do I Start If I’m Thinking About Leaving My Business?
Start before you have everything figured out.
You do not need a valuation.
You do not need a buyer.
You do not need an exit plan.
And you certainly do not need to announce anything.
You just need somewhere you can begin asking the questions honestly.
If you’re quietly wondering what comes next for your business, start there.
Book a free 20-minute call with Mo →
Written by Maureen Brown, M&A Advisor with Lion Business Advisors and co-founder of Mosie Baby. Maureen helps business owners think through selling, closing, transferring, or stepping away from their companies. She is a member of IBBA and TABB and is based in Austin, Texas.