The Next Move is a structured engagement for owners of established trade businesses. Whether the destination is a sale, a family or management succession, or stepping back while keeping ownership, the year builds the same foundation: reviewed and normalized financials, a calculated value, documented operations, and authority that has moved away from the owner.
Start where you are: take the Readiness Snapshot or begin the Value Orientation.
Exit & Transition Design explains why a profitable business and a transferable one are different structures. The Next Move is how we close that gap: one year, in sequence, with the progress measured rather than described.
A full operating cycle. Trade businesses are seasonal. A year inside the engagement covers four fiscal quarters, so the trajectory is measured against a complete cycle rather than a favorable window.
Evidence takes time to accumulate. A claim that the business runs without the owner is worth little. A twelve-month record of decisions made at the right level, documented as they happened, is worth a great deal.
Behavior changes through repetition. The work asks an owner to hand over authority held for decades, and to keep handing it over when doing it personally feels faster. Twenty-four sessions give that change the structure, accountability, and repeated practice it needs, and give the record time to show whether it held. A compressed engagement produces documents.
If your timeline is shorter than twelve months, we will tell you so rather than sell you a compressed version. We are not brokers, we take no transaction commissions, and we have no financial interest in whether you sell, pass the business on, or keep it.
The first session each month is a milestone and position check-in, where the phase work moves forward. The second is the monthly financial review. Two hours each, with the agenda set before you arrive.
Follows your fiscal calendar from month one. A monthly financial review of projected against actual, by revenue stream, and a quarterly close review at your real quarter ends. Financial performance never waits for an assessment to finish.
Follows the session count from the start of the engagement. This is where the structural work happens, in a fixed sequence of five phases. What varies between businesses is priority within the method, not the method.
Financials reviewed and normalized, the business measured across five results areas, and a projection that gives every later target a number.
The baseline value calculation, a roadmap, and priorities set against the assessment and the destination in view.
Where authority moves, processes get written, and the owner stops being the only person who can answer a given question.
What was built is pressure-tested, and early movement becomes measured movement across reporting periods.
Value recalculated against the baseline, each results area scored, and a decision on the next step.
A baseline calculation of value built on your reviewed and normalized financials in the second phase, once the first phase has put the numbers on a sound footing, and recalculated in the final phase so the year ends with a measured change. Included in the engagement. It informs planning and decisions. It is not a formal appraisal, which is a separate engagement when a lender, a court, or a transaction requires one.
Projected against actual, by revenue stream, with every forward-looking figure labeled as such. The numbers say what happened; a written narrative explains why, in language written for an owner rather than an analyst.
Held after your books for each fiscal quarter are closed. The projection restated with three more months of actuals and five results areas reassessed: Financial Performance, Operational Excellence, Leadership and Organization, Market Position and Growth, and Transition Readiness. Each carries our judgment, not a count of completed tasks.
Where you started, measured; where you finished, measured; and a recommended next step, whether a second year of preparation, a successor’s move into greater authority, preparation for a transaction, or a return to growth.
The first year builds the common foundation each destination requires. Where you intend to go sharpens the priorities inside the year. It does not change the year, which is why an owner who has not yet decided loses nothing by starting.
| Destination | What the work builds toward |
|---|---|
| Sale to an outside buyer | Evidence a stranger will accept under diligence: clean financial history, demonstrated independence from the owner, reduced concentration, and documentation that answers questions before they are asked. |
| Succession to family or management | A successor with tested authority, decision rights transferred in stages, governance that holds when owner and successor disagree, and financials a lender can underwrite if the successor is buying. |
| Stepping back, keeping ownership | A leadership layer that runs the business day to day, reporting that lets the owner govern without operating, and a business that stays transferable if plans change. |
| Not yet decided | The common year, with the destination itself treated as an outcome of the engagement rather than a requirement to begin it. |
The strongest position, and the least often recognized. The record of independence has time to persuade the people who need persuading.
Where most owners are when they first call. The same arc, weighted toward the gaps that matter most for the destination.
The floor. The full engagement runs, with sequencing tightened from the first session and the destination known at the start.
Not the right instrument, and we will say so. A shorter readiness assessment, or continuity work for an imminent internal handoff, serves you better.
The Snapshot is a quick self-check on the four decisions. The Value Orientation goes further, into how well the business runs without you. Neither commits you to anything.
About five minutes. Rate your business against the four decisions every transition turns on, and see where you stand right away.
Take the SnapshotAbout fifteen minutes. Answer questions about your business and see a plain-language read of how ready it is to run without you. We review your answers and follow up within two business days.
Begin the Value OrientationWe walk through what your answers show, test the destination and the runway, and tell you plainly whether this engagement is the right next step.
Book a discovery callTransitions touch tax, estate, and wealth planning, and those decisions belong with the owner’s CPA, attorney, and wealth advisor. The engagement is built to hand them evidence they can use: reviewed and normalized financials, a calculated value, and a documented picture of how the business runs.
If you advise business owners, the Readiness Snapshot and the Value Orientation are the simplest way to make an introduction. We will confirm we received it, and what the owner shares stays confidential unless the owner chooses otherwise.
Start with where the business stands today. It takes a few minutes, and it costs nothing.