Five Questions to Answer Before You Call a Buyer

Most owners I talk to have thought about selling for years before they pick up the phone. What they have not done is write down the answers to a few plain questions. When they do, the first conversation with a buyer goes better, the process goes faster, and they are far less likely to agree to something they regret.

Here are the five I would ask any owner to answer first, on paper, before calling anyone, including us.

1. What do you actually want to happen?

Not the price. The outcome. Do you want to walk away at closing, or stay for two or three years? Do you want your name on the building after you leave? Is it important that your managers have a shot at owning part of it? Different buyers are built for different answers. A buyer with a fund to return will usually want a clean exit and a sale in five to seven years. A long-term owner, which is what Creek Equity is, can say yes to things a fund cannot. If you do not know what you want, you will end up with whatever the buyer wants.

2. Who runs the company if you are gone for a month?

This is the question that moves value more than any other. If the honest answer is "nobody," a buyer is not really buying a company. They are buying a job that comes with your phone number. The fix takes time, which is why I tell owners to start years before they plan to sell, not months. Name the person, or the two people, and start handing them real decisions now.

3. Can you explain your numbers in ten minutes?

You do not need audited statements to start a conversation. You do need to know your revenue, your margins, your largest customers, and how much of your earnings will still be there the day after you leave. If your personal expenses run through the business, write them down so they can be added back honestly. Buyers do not walk away from imperfect books. They walk away from surprises.

4. What would a buyer worry about?

Every company has something. One customer who is a third of revenue. A key employee with no agreement. A lease that ends next year. Equipment that is due. Write the list yourself before someone else writes it for you. Owners who raise their own problems early get treated as partners. Owners who hide them get treated as risks, and the price shows it.

5. What happens to your people?

Your employees will hear about a sale eventually, and how they hear about it matters. Think now about who needs to know, when, and what you want to be true for them on the other side. I wrote about this in more detail in What Happens to Your Employees When You Sell Your Company. The short version: the owners who protect their people best are the ones who decided it mattered before the first meeting.

Why this matters to us

At Creek Equity we invest our own capital, not a fund's, so we have no deadline to sell what we buy. We look for founder-led and family-owned Michigan businesses in essential services, and we hold them for the long term. The owners who have answered these five questions are the ones we can move with quickly, and the ones who end up with a deal that fits what they wanted in the first place.

If you are a few years from that conversation, start the list this week. If you are closer than that and want a sounding board, my door is open. If your managers might be the buyer, read Selling to Your Management Team: How a Management Buyout Works.

Also published on Substack and LinkedIn.