You spent 30 years building it. Retire on what it's worth.
A 24-month marketing program for owner-operators planning to sell within 36 months. We build the parts of your business a buyer pays for.
For businesses between $1M and $5M in revenue. Application-only.
Most owners start thinking about a sale when they're tired. They call a broker 12 to 18 months before they want out. By then the numbers a buyer looks at are set: how much revenue repeats without you, how the phone rings when you're not answering it, what your reviews say, whether anyone can run your marketing after you leave. You're negotiating around what you have.
Between 70 and 80 percent of privately held businesses that go up for sale never close, according to the Exit Planning Institute. The three reasons they name: owners who expect too much, books nobody can verify, and businesses that stop working when the owner steps out.
The owners who sell, and sell at the top of their range, started 24 to 36 months earlier. They didn't run a sale-prep program. They ran a marketing program that built the things buyers pay for, and then they sold.
The Exit Accelerator is that program.
What a business your size sells for.
| Purchase price | Typical multiple |
|---|---|
| Under $500K | ~2.0x owner earnings |
| $500K to $1M | ~2.8x owner earnings |
| $1M to $2M | ~3.1x owner earnings |
| $2M to $5M | ~4.0x EBITDA |
Source: IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse, Q2 2026. Median multiples from 255 brokers and advisors reporting 181 closed deals. “Owner earnings” is seller's discretionary earnings, the number a buyer's lender uses for a business your size.
Over the last five years, HVAC businesses sold at 2.83x owner earnings, plumbing at 2.61x, electrical and mechanical contractors at 2.77x (BizBuySell closed-sale data, Q3 2021 through Q2 2026). Those are averages. Inside each band, the spread is the whole game. Businesses with recurring service revenue, a lead engine that runs without the owner, and books a buyer can verify sell toward the top. Installation-heavy, owner-dependent businesses sell toward the bottom. Advisors who work these deals put the recurring-revenue difference at half a turn to a full turn of earnings.
The variables a 24-month program controls.
Recurring revenue
The single highest-leverage variable. Buyers pay a premium for revenue that shows up whether or not anyone picks up the phone: maintenance agreements, memberships, service contracts, standing commercial accounts.
We run: maintenance plan design and launch, past-customer reactivation, membership enrollment sequences, renewal automation, a reporting line that shows a buyer exactly what repeats.
Target outcomea documented share of revenue on agreement by month 18, tracked monthly, renewal rate on the dashboard.
A lead engine that runs without you
Buyers discount a business whose leads come from the owner's phone and the owner's reputation. They pay for a system: Google Business Profile across every service area, a site built so Google and the AI answers can quote you, reviews that keep stacking, an owned customer list.
We run: the full get-found system, review automation on every closed job, missed-call text-back, answer-first service pages, AI visibility tracking, and monthly reporting a buyer can read.
Target outcome24 months of tracked lead flow by channel, with the owner's name nowhere in the funnel.
Brand and authority
Your reputation transfers in a sale. Your name does not. Buyers run the same searches a customer runs, and they read what they find. Most buyers of a business your size come from close by, and they already know what your trucks look like.
We run: brand refresh built around the company instead of the founder, review growth and response, local press and trade visibility, a customer story library, consistent presence across every place a buyer will look.
Target outcomea diligence team finds a credible, consistent, company-first brand at every touchpoint.
Marketing operations documentation
Buyers run diligence on marketing the way they run it on financials. Most owner-operators cannot show what a lead costs by channel or what happens to a lead after the phone rings.
We build: a buyer-ready marketing data room, a standard operating procedure for every recurring campaign, vendor and software consolidation, call and form attribution, and a 90-day transition plan for whoever takes over.
Target outcomeby month 18, a buyer can diligence your marketing in a day and run it without you in 90.
24 months. One fee. No surprises.
Scaled to business size and how much of the four pillars already exists. Total over 24 months: $72K to $120K.
The math: on the $1.5M plumbing company above, the difference between selling at 2.5x and 3.5x is $300,000. The base fee sits well inside that number. If the program doesn't move you toward the top of your band, you still finish with a business that runs without you, and that has a value of its own.
Month-to-month billing on a 24-month commitment. We treat the commitment as a team commitment, the same way we do on every retainer, and we put it in writing that way.
Who this is for. Who it isn't.
★ Who this is for
- Owner-operators doing $1M to $5M, planning to sell in 24 to 48 months
- Owners who've had at least one conversation with a broker, a buyer, or a CPA about selling
- Owners whose kids aren't taking the business
- Owners who'd rather build something a buyer wants than close the doors because nobody wanted what was left
If two or more of those are you, you're closer to selling than you think.
★ Who this is not for
- Businesses under $1M in revenue. The math doesn't work yet. Start with the R6 audit and a standard tier.
- Owners more than 48 months from a sale. Run a standard tier and revisit when the timeline is closer.
- Owners whose plan is to wind down and liquidate. This program builds something. It doesn't sell off what's there.
- Businesses where the books are the problem. Get a CPA first. We're a multiplier, not a turnaround.
- Family transitions where a child is taking over. Different program, different conversation.
Four steps to the Sellability Analysis.
- 01Submit applicationTen minutes. The form below.
- 02Strategy callSixty minutes with Steve.
- 03Sellability AnalysisDelivered in ten business days. Yours regardless of whether we engage.
- 04Engagement scopingScoping call and contract.
Apply for the Sellability Analysis.
Short form. Enough to qualify, nothing more.
Three questions owners ask first.
Are you a business broker?
No. We're a marketing agency. A broker sells your business. We build the parts of it a buyer will pay for, over the two years before you call the broker. When you're ready to list, we'll introduce you to brokers we trust, and we'll hand them a marketing data room that makes their job easier.
What if I get two years in and decide not to sell?
You own a business that runs without you, has revenue that repeats, and has 24 months of tracked marketing. That's a better business to keep, too. Nothing in the program only pays off at closing.
Why 24 months?
Because a buyer wants to see a trend, and one year is a data point. Two years of tracked lead flow, two renewal cycles on your maintenance agreements, and enough time to get your name out of the funnel. Owners who start at 12 months are negotiating around what they have.