The Seven Steps · Step two
The Gap Table, course edition
Playbook 01, the Gap Table calculator and six lesson emails.
Off-Market / Store / Tool packs
Close one gap tonight. Each pack fixes one thing a buyer would cut.
Small, focused tools for the owner who wants to fix one gap now, not buy the whole method.
These fix specific gaps a buyer prices. They do not value your business.
From Ron’s articles in Forbes Business Council and Fast Company Executive Board.
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Add-Back Defender
The owner expenses you want counted are the first ones a buyer throws out. Get them back.
The first thing a buyer tests is your add-backs, and the rule is simple: no document, no add-back. Walt (a composite) lost about $108,000 of price on one undocumented truck. This prices and defends every add-back you have.
What it does. Walks each add-back you plan to claim through the three questions a buyer’s diligence team will ask: is it real, is it yours, and would it leave when you do. You come out with an add-back schedule that survives the room instead of shrinking in it.
Who it is for. Any owner who runs personal or one-time costs through the business and expects credit for them at sale. At a four or five times multiple, one add-back that will not hold can move the price by six figures.
What is inside. The add-back test, a line-by-line schedule you fill in, the evidence each line needs, and the five that get retraded most.
Included in Know Your Number.
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Working Capital Peg
The quietest six figures in your deal is the working capital target. Set it before the buyer does.
There is a number in every deal that quietly decides how much cash you keep. Most owners let the buyer set it. This sets yours, from your own history.
What it does. Shows you how the working capital peg is built, why it moves the cash you actually walk away with, and how to set a number you can defend instead of accepting the buyer’s. This is the line most owners never see coming and never negotiate.
Who it is for. Owners whose receivables, inventory, or payables swing through the year, which is almost all of them. If you have not set your peg, the buyer sets it, and it is rarely in your favor.
What is inside. The peg explained in plain language, a worksheet to calculate your own range, the seasonality adjustment, and the two moves that shift it back toward you.
Included in Know Your Number.
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CPA Pack
Clean books are not the same as provable books. A buyer pays for the second kind.
What it does. Turns what your accountant keeps into what a buyer accepts. It closes the gap between books that are correct and books that are proven, which is the gap a quality-of-earnings review lives in.
Who it is for. Owners on cash-basis or owner-kept books, and anyone whose accountant has never been asked to produce numbers for a sale. Your CPA reads your books. A buyer reads them differently, and this gets you ready for the difference.
What is inside. A CPA letter template your accountant signs, the Evidence Lock that ties every claim to a document, and the data-room checklist a buyer will send you anyway.
Included in Know Your Number.
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Deal Math
Read any offer the way the buyer’s lender reads it.
What it does. Takes the three things that decide whether a deal closes and at what price, buyer financing, deal structure, and the real cash to you, and puts them on one page you can run against any offer. You stop reacting to a headline number and start reading the actual deal.
Who it is for. Owners who want to understand an offer before an advisor explains it to them, and owners weighing a seller note, an earnout, or an SBA-backed buyer.
What is inside. The buyer financing primer, the structure guide (seller note, earnout, escrow, working capital), and the Deal on One Page worksheet that shows headline price versus cash in hand.
Included in Defend Your Number.
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Offer Arrived Kit
For the day the call comes. Everything you need in the first week, in one place.
What it does. Gives you the full plan for the moment an offer or a serious buyer shows up, so you move from a position of preparation instead of scrambling. It is the difference between running the process and being run by it.
Who it is for. Owners who are not for sale but know the call can come anyway, and owners who already have a buyer at the table.
What is inside. The first-week plan, the walk-away page (your number and your terms, decided in advance when your head is clear), and the offer comparison sheet for weighing more than one bid without getting anchored.
Included in Defend Your Number.
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Working Documents Library
Eighteen documents a buyer will ask for, already filled in.
What it does. Hands you the fillable version of every working document the first two steps call for, plus the Trade Pack tuned to how buyers price a trade business. You fill each one once, and it sharpens everything downstream.
Who it is for. Owners who would rather start from a document than a blank page, and advisors preparing an owner for diligence.
What is inside. Eighteen fillable documents covering the Map, the Gap Table, add-backs, working capital, proof, and the data room, plus the Trade Pack.
Included in Defend Your Number.
Use it, do the work, and if you are not better off than when you started, email me within 30 days and I will refund you in full. You keep the tools.
Educational estimates only. Not an appraisal, valuation opinion, or tax, legal or investment advice. Your results depend on the numbers you enter and on facts we do not see. Talk to your own CPA and attorney before you act.