The Value Bridge Read · Owner Edition

The number in your accounts is not the number a buyer will pay

It may be higher than you think. It may be lower. Either way these corrections surface in due diligence — the only question is whether you find them first.

For business owners|Before you go to market|10–20 working days
5
Reasons tested
10–20
Working days
100%
Fee credited
Why it matters

Both directions, not just up

Your own salary, family employment and personal costs carried in the business routinely understate what an acquirer is actually buying. Equally, three years of “exceptional” costs that never went away will be treated as run-rate by any competent buyer.

A buyer who finds these before you do prices the uncertainty into the offer. A buyer who is handed them, quantified and evidenced, has far less room to.

1
Owner economics
Compensation above or below a replacement market rate, related-party terms, personal cost carried in the P&L, family employment an acquirer will not inherit.
2
Recurring versus one-off
Items misclassified in both directions — exceptional costs that quietly became permanent, and one-off gains presented as run-rate. Sometimes the honest answer is that earnings are lower than stated.
3
Price and mix leakage
Realised versus list pricing, discount authority, contract escalators never applied, and the unprofitable tail.
4
Working capital and cash conversion
The peg, true-up exposure, trapped cash, and where the collection cycle sits against the sector.
5
AI-addressable cost and capacity
Named processes where automation removes cost or releases capacity — sized with an implementation cost, an owner and a date, not as a theme.
Discipline

Every finding is labelled

Verified
Evidenced
Supported by a document or a source we can point you to.
Inferred
Reasoned
A defensible estimate from observable signals. Labelled as such, never presented as fact.
Could not determine
Your first-call agenda
Handed over as the diligence questions to ask. Owners find it disarming; acquirers find it useful.
Already run the assessment?

From score to quantified gap

The Exit Readiness Assessment scores your position and identifies a value gap. The Read quantifies that gap and names what closes it.

Fixed fee, scoped on a short call. The fee is credited in full against our transaction fee if you appoint us within 12 months.

Two or three years from an exit?

That is the right time to run this. Thirty minutes to establish whether it would change what you do next.

Book a 30-minute scoping call →

Value Bridge Partners