Business Growth Framework - Exit Stage

This framework is the starting point for much of the work we do at Build Grow Last.

You might never reach this stage, for lots of folks running the business at the maturity stage is the goal and they don’t want to leave the business or sell it on. If that’s you, don’t read on, enjoy what you built because this part is tough.

  • We’re going to optimise for value and leverage in a deal situation

  • That will involve removing some things we’ve built and changing the way people work

  • And that all happens in the background, so you find yourself with two jobs now

Marketing

We’ll need to be selling the business with a solid pipeline of work for the coming one to two years to the marketing function needs to be as systematised as possible and clearly demonstrate the values of the business in a way that the future buyers of the business can understand and integrate into their own ways of working.

  • Demonstrate a clear market position over a long period of time.

  • Show that the brand is bigger than you as a founder, it stands on it’s own.

  • Understand that the business can consistently attract business in a mechanised way.

Sales

Sales at the exit stage is about repeatability, reliability and consistency. If there are still significant proportion of the sales that are founder led, or led by a small proportion of the sales team that is a red flag for an acquirer.

  • Concentrate on the key metrics of customer acquisition and how you show those over multiple quarters.

  • Show how the sales function is operated at scale, think about team, incentives and a calendar of sales events across the year.

  • Demonstrate that the client relationships are business to business, not personal.

You’ll need to leave some room to experiment and innovate in the sales process and team, but 90% of this should be on rails.

Operations

You prospective buyers want to see that the business can run on it’s own for at least 12 months. They won’t want to buy an asset that they then have to learn and fix so you need to be able to demonstrate that the operations of the business are predictable, documented and scalable.

  • You need to live and breathe the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that can be run without you or the leadership team stepping in.

  • Think about the KPIs for operations, these could be utilisations, call rates, resolution rates, mean time to failure. You need to be tracking these over multiple quarters to show you have a handle on operations.

Think about this from your point of view too - you don’t want to handle a sale process and still be trapped in the day to day of the business.

Finances

The financial lens at the exit stage shifts from sustainability to value and investor readiness. Whether we’re selling up, seeking investment or preparing for management succession the books need to be airtight. .

  • There’s a few more items to start tracking now; EBITDA will become your daily phrase and recurring revenue will go alongside that. Your CFO will spend much more of their time on these ideas that maximise value.

  • Finance systems need to become automated and auditable, there are many due diligence templates available online that can be useful to ‘test yourself’ against before the time comes for real.

Legal

At this stage, legal readiness is essential. Your contracts, IP, employee agreements, and governance structure need to be clean, current, and easily transferable. Any uncertainty here becomes a risk factor for exit.

  • A legal audit, using the firm who will support you at sales stage, is very useful and can place you in a string negotiating position later.

  • You ownership structures need to be certain at this point. Better to have any tricky conversations now than under the pressure of sale.

  • Take time to understand the legal implications of a sale, you will have to sign off on warranties, liabilities and earn out clauses.

Compliance

Compliance at the exit stage is about demonstrating rigour and readiness. You’re no longer just avoiding fines—you’re proving that the business has a culture of responsibility and a system of control that outlives its founders.

  • Whether or not you’re in a regulated industry there needs to be codes around your compliance. This shows that that is a way things are ‘done around here’ that ensures quality, care and security.

  • If there are compliance burdens that do, and do not, apply it a string position to show that you have considered all of them and ruled them in, or out, of your business model.

R&D

In this stage, R&D shifts from breakthrough innovation to sustainable improvement. Our goal isn’t disruption—it’s maintaining competitiveness and future-proofing the business.

  • We should not bet everything on new products—but we do need an innovation pipeline. Show that you have structured R&D or service development: ideas being tracked, customer feedback loops, regular evaluation.

  • You may still innovate, but the focus is stability: Can we keep evolving without destabilising the core? A potential acquirer or successor will want to see that the business isn’t standing still—but also isn’t gambling its future.

Leadership

Here, leadership is about succession and legacy. You're either stepping out—or stepping back. Either way, you’re creating space for others to lead.

Which means:

  • Developing a leadership team that works together and showing you have the maturity to help that to happen

  • Transitioning relationships from founder-led to business-led

  • Putting in place the habits and systems that survive you

This is the moment to stop being essential and it brings about some more questions and choices, it’s a good idea to think about your own personal three to five year plan at this point.

You’re not abandoning the business but you’re proving it can thrive without your constant involvement. You’re moving from leader to steward.

Mindset

This may be the most personal shift of all.

You’ve built something. You’ve fought fires, ridden waves, made it work. Now your job is to let it go.

The mindset here is about trust, legacy, and release.

  • What will you do when you’re not needed every day?

  • Can you let others run with it—even if they do it differently?

  • Can you be proud from the sidelines?

Whether you're selling or handing down, exiting isn't failure—it’s a new kind of leadership.