Grow to Exit with Den Unglin
Your tactical edge for a higher-value business sale

In owner-operated businesses, valuation is mostly a transferability problem. Buyers pay for future cash flows they trust, assets they can use, and risks they can price. 

Exit-Readiness Audit: buyer-grade readiness for owner-operated businesses. Defendable valuation range, proof pack checklist, owner dependency score + transfer plan, working capital peg risk, and 30/60/90 remediation plan to reduce price chips and protect terms.

I build systems that turn an owner-operated business into a verifiable, transferable, financeable asset. The output is not “work performed”. The output is enterprise value delta: a higher defendable valuation and cleaner terms that hold under buyer diligence.

Most listings fail because they fail one of four buyer gates: price-to-proof, transferability, financing, or deal mechanics. The listing is not the event. Diligence is the event. If your numbers and operations can’t survive scrutiny, the deal dies or the buyer moves value into structure (earnouts, holdbacks, tougher terms).

Selling is not “listing”. Selling is getting paid for a verifiable, transferable, financeable asset. That asset is built over time. If you start when you feel ready to escape, you are already late—because buyers will still require proof, and proof requires a track record.

You are not choosing “broker vs no broker”. You are choosing a risk profile. Selling on your own can work when you already have qualified buyers, clear evidence, and time to run a controlled process. A broker or M&A advisor becomes rational when confidentiality, buyer quality, deal complexity, financing, or negotiation risk can destroy valuation and terms.

The “cost to sell” is not just the broker fee. It’s a full stack: advisor fees, legal, accounting/QoE, tooling (data room), deal-mechanics friction, and the internal cost owners ignore (time, distraction, performance dip). If you budget correctly, you reduce price chips and term pressure. If you under-budget, you get forced into a weak deal structure.

The Exit-Readiness Fit Check is a fast screening step before any sell-side work. It protects confidentiality, prevents guesswork, and ensures the next step is correct: Exit-Readiness Audit, a focused “fix-first” plan, or a different priority entirely.