If you’ve built a good business, you’ve done the hard part.
Getting sale-ready is mostly about making the business less dependent on you, and more predictable.
Here’s a simple 12‑month checklist you can actually work through.
Months 1–3: Clean up the basics
- Books are clean and up to date (monthly, not quarterly panic)
- Customer pipeline is visible (even if it’s simple)
- Quoting and invoicing are consistent (templates + clear stages)
- Job/project status is trackable (what’s in flight, what’s blocked)
Months 4–6: Document the core workflows
Pick the 5–10 things that break when you’re away:
- Quoting
- Scheduling
- Invoicing
- Ordering / procurement
- Onboarding a new staff member
Write them down in plain English. Two pages each is fine.
Months 7–9: Build basic reporting
You don’t need a BI stack. You need clarity:
- Weekly revenue and margin
- Cash position and forecast
- Pipeline value and conversion
- Capacity (people, jobs, utilisation)
Months 10–12: Reduce owner dependency
- Train a second-in-command for day-to-day decisions
- Put suppliers, logins, and key contacts in a shared place
- Create a weekly rhythm (ops meeting, numbers review)
The test
If you took two weeks off, would the business:
- keep selling?
- keep delivering?
- keep invoicing?
If the answer is “maybe”… systems are your easiest win.
Want a straight plan?
A business audit will show you what to fix first — and what you can ignore.