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Field notes · For owners · 5 min read

Find the value in your company before a buyer does

A buyer will study your records for the upside you left on the table. You can read the same records first and decide whether to capture it or price it in.

Justin Jarvinen · September 26, 2026

The short answer

A buyer pays for today’s earnings and keeps the upside they find. If you read your own records first, for pricing, quoting, inventory, and routing gaps, you can either capture that value before a sale, which raises the earnings you are valued on, or document it so it is priced in. Either way, the value found goes to you rather than the next owner.

The clock most owners are on

According to the Exit Planning Institute, 58 percent of Baby Boomer owners plan to exit within five years, yet only 13 percent of owners surveyed have a formal exit plan, and a business can represent 80 to 90 percent of an owner’s net worth3. There are 2.9 million US businesses owned by people 55 or older, with $6.5 trillion in revenue and 32 million employees2.

What a buyer is looking for

A good buyer, especially a financial sponsor, will read your records for exactly the things you have stopped noticing: prices that have not moved in years, customers who quietly cost more to serve than they pay, discounts that became habits. They will pay you a multiple of today’s earnings and keep what they find.

Read your own records first

  • Pricing and quoting: are repeat customers paying less than they need to? Does the discount follow the order or the person who quoted it?
  • Customer mix: which accounts are profitable once the cost to serve them is counted?
  • Inventory: how much working capital is tied up in stock that moves slowly or not at all?
  • Routing and fulfillment: which routes, depots, or delivery rules were designed around customers you no longer have?

Then decide: capture it or price it in

If you have a year or two, capturing the value is usually better. Earnings improved before a sale are valued at the sale multiple. If the timeline is shorter, documenting the opportunity with a sized range and the evidence behind it gives you something concrete to negotiate with. What you want to avoid is the buyer finding it first.

Not only for sellers

The same applies if you plan to hand the business to family or managers. Value found now compounds for whoever owns it next.

Sources

  1. 2Project Equity, “20 Key Business Owner Statistics on Exits & Succession,” April 2025.
  2. 3Exit Planning Institute, State of Owner Readiness: Generational National Report, 2025.

Market figures describe the landscape and are not Modven results.

Questions

Asked often, answered plainly.

How can I increase my business value before selling?

Find and capture operational gaps in pricing, customer mix, inventory, and fulfillment from your own records before a sale, so the improvement shows up in the earnings you are valued on.

How many business owners have an exit plan?

The Exit Planning Institute’s 2025 State of Owner Readiness report found only 13 percent of owners surveyed have a formal exit plan.

What records does this need?

Twelve to twenty-four months of invoices, quotes, customer and product lists, and inventory or routing data the business already keeps.

Keep reading

Operators · 6 min read

How to find the margin your sales team is giving away. Pricing leakage in distribution and manufacturing rarely shows up in a P&L. It shows up in invoice lines, one discount at a time.

Sponsors · 6 min read

Value creation when multiple expansion won’t carry the return. Sponsors now need roughly twice the earnings growth they needed a decade ago. Most of it has to be found inside the portfolio companies, during the hold.

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