How do I know if my business is actually ready to sell?

Buyers aren't just buying your numbers. They're buying the certainty that the numbers will keep happening after you're gone. A business that depends on the owner for every key relationship, every major decision, and every piece of institutional knowledge is a business a buyer has to discount, no matter how strong the financials look on paper.

The clearest test is a simple one. Could you leave for three weeks, no calls, no email, and come back to a business that ran fine without you? Most owners answer no, and that answer alone tells you more about your timeline to sale than any valuation does.

Getting to yes on that question usually takes one to three years of deliberate work: documenting processes, building out a leadership layer, and diversifying past any single customer or relationship the business currently leans on. That's not a reason to delay selling. It's the actual work of exit planning, whether the sale is next year or in five.