Stage 5 of five · Can I set my own price and terms when I sell?

The price, the timing, and the buyer are yours to set.

Readiness is a climb, and it has rungs. This is the command stage: what it means, what a buyer sees when he looks at a business here, and what moves you up.

You're here when

Your own number is settled.

✓You can show it withYour after-tax number, your walk-away floor written down, your team chosen, and a practice run done.
→What it unlocksYou set the price, the timing, and the buyer.

What this stage means

In the book's words.

“At the very top is to command, where the price, the timing, and the person you sell to are yours to set, which is what it means to own the decision.”

From Buyer-Ready, Chapter 6. The ladder measures one thing: how many kinds of buyer can actually reach you, because each kind prices you differently. Every kind of buyer can reach you: family offices, private equity, search funds, strategics, all of them. You stopped negotiating. They started competing.

What a buyer sees

When he looks at a business on this rung.

A buyer here sees an owner who has already written the buyer's memo himself. Nothing is loose. Every question has a page behind it.

He also sees an owner who can say yes, or no, or not yet, and mean it. That is the most price-raising thing an owner can be.

This is where Walt, the book's composite, stood when his call came. He had climbed on purpose, two years early.

The one thing holding you here: Staying here

Nothing holds you below. The work now is keeping it true: things come loose again, buyers change, and a big headline can still talk a good owner into the wrong yes.

The rows that matter most here

Where buyers look first on this rung.

●The earnoutEarnouts pay about 21 cents per negotiated dollar (SRS Acquiom).
●The working capital targetSettle the definitions before you sign, not after.
●The structureRollover, notes, and where you stand in line to be paid.
●Certainty of closeA smaller offer that closes can beat a bigger one that might not.

In no particular order. Which ones cost you most depends on your numbers and on who would buy you, and nobody honest can rank them from a web page.

Start with these five tools

From the 18 in the workbook.

1Walk-Away PageWrite down the offer you would refuse, while no offer exists.Tool
2Certainty SheetThe headline, minus the odds it dies and the share that comes off.Tool
3Structure PageWhat class of paper you are being handed, and where you stand in line.Tool
4Know Your NumberCheck it every year. Your core moves as your life does.Tool
5After-PlanWhat your life is for on the Monday after the wire, if you take it.Tool

Have the book? The code in the back unlocks all 18 blank tools free at offmarketmethod.com/book.

The top rung

There is no rung above. Here is how you stay..

1Run the loop again every year: map, rehearse, intervene.
2Re-sign your Evidence Lock at each year-end. Never edit the old ones.
3Walk the business twice a year and look for anything that came loose.
4Keep "not yet" as a complete answer, as long as you can name what would change it.

← Attract See all five stages

Not sure this is your rung?

The Map is 10 questions. It places you on a stage and shows you one thing a buyer would price that you may not have seen. Free. Nobody calls you.

Show me where I stand →

Already know your stage? The Buyer-Ready Kit hands you the Start Path for it: these five tools, in order, with the math done for you. $297.

If your business does $5 million to $50 million a year and you are honestly on this rung, there is one more step, when you want it. The Cordis MRI puts your real numbers against a live read of who is buying. Application only. No call unless you ask. Not sure? Take the honest self-check.