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Exit Readiness Assessment · for design and construction owners
Buyers do not pay for what you built. They pay for what runs without you. This assessment tells you where your design or construction business stands on that, while there is still time to change the answer.
A construction company is valued on what it earns, multiplied by how confident a buyer is that those earnings will keep arriving after you leave. The earnings part is arithmetic, and your accountant can do it. The confidence part is where owner-run businesses lose money, and almost nobody tells you about it until a broker has looked at the file.
Most owners find out the business is not sellable at the worst possible moment, which is when they are finally ready to leave. The assessment tells you now, while there is still time to fix it.
Put in three numbers you already know and choose a multiple. The point is not the answer. The point is how much one turn of multiple is worth, because that is what a buyer's confidence in your business is really priced in.
What the arithmetic says
| Multiple | Value | Against 2.0x |
|---|
This is arithmetic, not a valuation. Nothing you type here is sent anywhere.
Published figures for small owner-run contractors commonly sit in the low single digits of seller's discretionary earnings, which is why the table runs from 2.0x to 4.0x. They vary a great deal by size, trade and region. One US acquirer's 2026 analysis of construction deals (CT Acquisitions, June 2026) reports that owner involvement in estimating, project management and customer relationships holds prices down, while recurring service revenue and crew leaders who run jobs without the owner support higher ones. That is US data from a single source, so read it as a direction rather than a quote for your business.
For the longer explanation, see how to value a construction company.
Owner dependence hides inside the first five of the eight fundamentals. Weak process, knowledge that lives in your head, and a team that routes every decision through you each read as risk in due diligence, and risk comes off the multiple. The last three are about you. Plenty of owners get the business ready and then find that they are not.
The free Exit Readiness Scorecard looks at the same ground from the other side, scoring eight sale drivers: Owner Readiness, Growth Story, Revenue Predictability, Management Depth, Financial Clarity, Operational Resilience, Transferability and Execution Record. The scorecard tells you where to look. The assessment goes in and looks.
A short call first, to understand your timeline and what leaving actually looks like for you.
I go through the business with you and interview you as the owner, in person in Vancouver or online.
Where the business stands on transferability, and the major steps to closing the gaps before you go to market.
Run the plan yourself, or bring me in to drive it through the Master Plan Program, with the Self-Sustaining Business Program where the business itself needs rebuilding. Most owners at this stage do not have the time to do both.
Group coaching is never offered to owners preparing to sell. A group moves at the group's pace, and an owner selling in three years cannot wait for the module they need. If you are heading for an exit, the work has to be specific to your business and your deadline.
The assessment is a one-time fee, confirmed when you book. If you go on to work with me within one month of receiving your Roadmap, the full fee is credited, so you are not paying twice.
Tell me roughly when you want out and whether a broker is already involved. Those two answers change the conversation more than anything else.
A confirmation is on its way to your inbox. Eric reads these himself and replies personally. While you wait, the free Exit Readiness Scorecard shows you where the business stands.
Most small and mid-sized construction companies are valued as a multiple of earnings. For an owner-operated firm the usual measure is seller's discretionary earnings: profit before tax, plus the owner's pay and any one-off or personal costs the business carries. Larger firms are more often valued on EBITDA. The multiple depends on size, trade and region, and above all on how much of the business runs without the owner. The calculator on this page does the arithmetic, and the assessment works on the second part.
A business is ready when a buyer can see that it will perform without you. That means documented processes, a management team that makes decisions, clear numbers, and revenue that does not depend on your personal relationships. The free Exit Readiness Scorecard gives you a first read in a few minutes, and the assessment goes into it properly.
Ideally three to five years before. About three years is roughly the minimum runway for this work to show up in the financials a buyer sees. If you plan to sell within six months, most of the value-building window has closed, and Eric will tell you so rather than sell you a program.
No. It is an assessment of sale readiness: how transferable the business is and what a buyer will price against you. A formal valuation for a sale, a tax filing or a legal matter should come from a chartered business valuator.
Often yes, especially if the broker has told you the business is not ready. The assessment turns that verdict into a specific list of what is wrong and what it takes to fix, and your broker is welcome to join the walkthrough session.
No. Group coaching is never offered to owners preparing to sell. A group moves at the group's pace, and an owner selling in three years cannot wait for the module they need.
The Exit Readiness Assessment is a one-time fee that is confirmed when you book. It is credited in full if you go on to work with Eric within one month of receiving your Roadmap.
Start with the free Exit Readiness Scorecard. It takes a few minutes and tells you where the business stands before you speak to anyone.
Eric Lee · Starfish Coaching · 1937 Triumph St, Vancouver BC V5T 1C5
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