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Exit Planning Readiness Assessment (EPRA)

Deciding how and when to exit a privately owned business is perhaps the single most important financial and personal decision in a business owners lifetime. Despite this fact, most owners are not prepared for this lifetime event. For most owners, 90% of their wealth is tied up in their business. Unfortunately, most owners will never harvest this wealth. The US Small Business Administration estimates that only 20% of the privately held businesses available for sale each year are successfully sold.

Exit Planning Readiness Assessment (EPRA) is one of two critical starting tools in the exit planning process. It focuses on two important questions: How attractive is your business from a buyer’s perspective? Are you ready to transition your business? The EPRA is a 25 category, 146 questions, assessment that evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of a business and personal and financial plans of the owner(s). It rates each question on a scale of one (weak) to six (strong) and produces an overall score. This score is used to help determine the business value and shows the business owner what aspects of their business and personal plans are weak and need improvement and what aspects of their business and personal plans are strong. The scores from the assessment help the business owner start the “de-risking” process.

BENEFITS from the EPRA

1. Benchmarks current condition of the business
2. Quantifies strengths and weaknesses of the business
3. Provides a list of personal, financial & business actions to improve value and readiness
4. Identifies areas of risk which lower value
5. Determines where you fit in the business valuation matrix (low score low value, high score high value)
6. Determines if you trade high (premium) or low (discount)