The Exit Readiness Assessment
Some $3M+ businesses are assets. Most are jobs with a logo.
Sixteen questions tell you which one yours is, and what a serious buyer will see when they look at it.
Five minutes. Built for owners doing $3M+ in revenue or $300K+ in EBITDA. Instant tier result.
What due diligence actually looks like.
A buyer's lawyer doesn't care how good you think your business is. They care about what they can verify in writing. Financials a bank would accept. Revenue tied to contracts, not handshakes. And decisions that don't all come back to your phone, daily.
Most $3M+ owners go to market thinking the multiple is the variable. The multiple is downstream. The variable is what diligence finds. Every weak spot becomes either a discount, a retrade, or a walked deal. The ones that hurt most are the weak spots the owner didn't know were weak.
The Exit Readiness Assessment shows you what they'll see. Before they see it. While there's still time to fix it.
The six things a buyer is actually looking at.
Diligence reduces to six pillars. Your score on each tells you whether your business looks like an asset or a job from the buyer's seat.
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Owner Independence.
How much of the business actually runs without you. If revenue, decisions, and operations all route through your phone, the buyer isn't buying a business. They're buying you.
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Leadership & Sales Bench.
Whether the people on payroll can run the company. A leadership team that needs your input on every important call isn't a leadership team. It's an audience.
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Systems & Documentation.
SOPs that exist on paper, not in your head. If your operations need your memory to function, a buyer can't verify any of it.
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Customer & Relationship Risk.
Whether the contracts and revenue belong to the company or to you personally. Personal relationships look great until the buyer realizes they're buying nothing transferable.
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Financial Health.
Clean books, predictable cash flow, financials reviewed monthly instead of when the accountant nags. Most owners think they're stronger here than they are.
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Strategic Vision & Valuation.
A documented plan and a recent third-party valuation. Going to market without one is like listing a house without an appraisal and hoping the buyer's number is generous.
Four results. Pick the one you'd want to be.
When you finish, you'll land in one of four tiers. The honest version of where your business stands today.
"You built a job. With a logo."
The business doesn't survive without you. A buyer would walk before the first call ends.
"The bones are there. The cracks will cost you."
You've built something real, but the places you're still the glue are exactly where the buyer will pay less or walk.
"A serious buyer will take the meeting."
Leadership runs without you. The books are clean. There are still one or two pillars a sharp buyer will fixate on.
"You built the asset. Now protect the outcome."
Top percentile. The business passes diligence on its own. The conversation isn't whether you can sell. It's how, when, and on what terms.
Most $3M+ owners think they're Close. Most aren't.
How it works.
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Sixteen questions, five minutes.
Multiple-choice. No prep required. Designed for owners running $3M–$20M companies, not generic small-business quizzes.
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Instant tier result.
When you finish, you'll see exactly where you land, with a written breakdown that names the pillars holding you back from the next tier.
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Optional 60-minute Exit Readiness Review with Jason.
If you want to walk your result with someone who's done this before, Jason books a limited number of reviews each month. He'll tell you what a sharp buyer will fixate on and what it'll take to tighten before you list.
Sixteen questions. Five minutes. Your tier.
Who this is for.
Owners running $3M to $20M businesses, within 12 to 36 months of a potential exit, who want an honest answer about what kind of exit is actually on the table.
If you're under $3M in revenue or you're not thinking about an exit at all, the assessment will still work, but the framework is calibrated for owners with real diligence risk. If you're over $20M, we can offer deeper assistance than this assessment provides through our team of M&A attorneys and investment bankers. It just requires a few extra steps.
When owners fix the cracks, here's what changes.
Owners who tightened the same pillars this assessment scores share what changed.
I started thinking like a builder, not just a doer. I raised up leaders inside my companies and created space to actually enjoy what I was building.
My biggest accomplishment has been delegating my day-to-day tasks to my A-Team, which has allowed me to work more on issues that will improve our overall business value.
Most of my team saw each project as ‘Richard's Project' and they were just helping out. Now it's ‘Our project' and the supervisor has clear goals and accountability.
Find out where your business stands.
Why this assessment exists.
Jason Duncan built a multi-million-dollar company on his own back. The 60-80 hour weeks. Hero of every fire. When he tried to step away, the business stopped working. He'd built a job. With a logo. Not an asset.
He spent the next several years reverse-engineering what it actually takes to fix that. The result is the XOS Method™ – the same six pillars this assessment scores. He used it to walk himself out of his own company while keeping ownership and profits intact, and he's repeated the pattern since. The 16 questions in this assessment are the diagnostic he wishes someone had handed him before he spent years building a trap. If you book the Review, he's the one who walks you through your result.
FAQ.
How long does it actually take?
Sixteen multiple-choice questions. Five minutes if you don't overthink. Most owners finish faster than they expect to.
Is this a sales pitch dressed up as an assessment?
No. The result is the result. The 60-minute review at the end is optional. The report stands on its own. If you want to walk it with Jason, the booking link will be there. If you don't, your tier and pillar breakdown still tell you what you need to know.
How accurate can sixteen questions really be?
The questions map to the six pillars that show up in nearly every diligence process. Sixteen questions can't replace a forensic diligence package, but they can tell you within minutes whether you'd survive one, and where the cracks are.
What happens with my information?
Your name and email are used to send your result and, if you opt in, follow-up from Jason. Nothing gets sold. Nothing gets shared. One-click unsubscribe.
I'm not sure I'm ready to exit. Should I still take it?
Especially if you're not sure. The assessment doesn't tell you whether you should sell. It tells you whether your business could survive a sale at all, which is the same question as whether it could survive a year without you. Most owners take it because they want option B in their pocket, even if they never use it.
Find out which one your business is.
Five minutes. Sixteen questions. One honest answer about where you actually stand.
No payment. No signup until the end. No follow-up call unless you ask for one.