Is your business
ready
for the market
— or just ready to leave?
A working session for Colorado business owners. Most owners are ready to sell years before their business is actually ready to be sold. This session is the honest diagnostic — the gap between where you are and what the market will pay for.
There's a difference between a business you can operate and a business you can sell. Buyers don't pay for the work you've done — they pay for what they can take over. By the end of the day, you'll know exactly which version of your business is sitting on your balance sheet right now — and what it takes to move it to the other one.
Five pillars. One honest answer.
There's no single "is my business ready" question. There are five. Buyers run all of them — quietly, methodically — long before they put a real number on paper. Run them on yourself first.
Clean books, consistent margins, traceable add-backs. Buyers don't pay for the story — they pay for the spreadsheet. Three years of provable financials is the floor.
Can the business run for 90 days without you in it? If not, you don't have a business — you have a job. And jobs don't sell for a multiple.
Recurring beats one-off. Diverse beats concentrated. Contracted beats handshake. Buyers will discount every dollar of revenue that doesn't survive the change of ownership.
SOPs, key processes, vendor relationships, client handoffs — written down, not in your head. The undocumented business sells at a discount because the buyer is buying a guess.
Buyers aren't buying the past — they're buying the next five years. If you can't articulate exactly where the next dollar of growth comes from, neither can they.
Five hours.
One honest diagnostic.
We move from market context, through each of the five readiness pillars, into the multiples math, and end on the 12-month preparation plan. Nothing is theoretical — every session is built around real Colorado businesses we've helped get ready.
The 9-Stage Selling Journey
The full arc of a business sale — from the first conversation to the final closing wire — broken into the nine stages every owner moves through. Where the deal actually gets won or lost, and the stages most owners under-estimate.
Exit Planning — the FRB framework
The pre-listing readiness work that determines whether your business is sellable, and at what multiple. Financial defensibility, owner independence, revenue quality, documented operations, and a credible growth story — the five pillars FRB diagnoses before any deal goes to market.
Business Valuation — how buyers actually price you
SDE vs. EBITDA, the multiple ranges your industry actually transacts at in Colorado today, and the addbacks that move the number. Where most owner self-valuations are off by 30–50%, and the specific levers that close that gap before listing.
Going to Market — who sees the deal, and how
Confidential marketing, buyer targeting, and the difference between a broad auction and a tight strategic process. PE platforms, strategic acquirers, family offices, and individual buyers — who pays the most for your business, and why the choice of buyer pool changes the multiple.
Offers, Contracts & Closing — working with FRB & live Q&A
The mechanics of the back half of the deal — LOIs, due diligence, definitive agreements, and the closing wire. Where deals re-trade, the protections that matter, and how representation changes the outcome. We close with how FRB engages clients end-to-end, and open the floor for live questions.
Five hours in.
A clearer answer out.
Every attendee leaves with the same toolkit FRB uses with prospective listing clients — a real diagnostic, real numbers, and a real next step. Nothing hypothetical.
A complimentary Exit Readiness & Business Valuation Assessment
Every attendee receives a confidential, advisor-prepared readiness scorecard across the five pillars, paired with a preliminary valuation range for your business using current Colorado M&A comparables. Delivered at the spot — yours to keep, with no obligation to engage further.
The Colorado multiple range — for your industry
The real EBITDA / SDE multiple bands businesses in your sector are transacting at in Colorado today. Not national averages. Not Wall Street comps. The numbers FRB pulls from active deal flow in the Mountain West right now.
A 12-month preparation roadmap
Your morning's diagnosis turned into a sequenced 12-month plan — what to fix first, what to delegate, what to document, and when to bring representation into the picture. Specific to your business, not a generic template.
The buyer-type playbook
A side-by-side of what PE platforms, strategic acquirers, family offices, and individual buyers each actually pay for — and which one your business is currently best-positioned to attract. Plus what would have to change to widen that pool.
Direct access to FRB advisors
An optional follow-up call with the FRB principals to walk through your assessment, answer specific questions, and discuss whether engagement makes sense for you. No pitch. No pressure. The conversation goes wherever you want it to.
A working room.
Owners only.
This session is built for Colorado business owners doing $500,000+ in revenue who are quietly asking themselves: "Could I actually sell this if I wanted to?" If that question has crossed your mind in the last six months, the room is for you.
The question is already in your head.
- You own a Colorado or Mountain West business doing $500K+ in annual revenue.
- You've started asking yourself "what would this actually sell for?" — and you want a real answer.
- You sense your business depends on you more than you'd like, and you're not sure where to start.
- Your books are "fine for tax purposes" — but you suspect they're not buyer-ready.
- You'd rather spend a morning diagnosing the gaps than discover them in due diligence.
It's the wrong room.
- You're a buyer, broker, or service-provider hoping to network the room.
- You're more than five years from any consideration of selling.
Practitioners.
Then advisors.
Every advisor leading this session has bought, built, and sold companies of their own. We don't run readiness diagnostics from a textbook. We run them from the chair you'll sit in.
Luke Billiot
Luke leads FRB's M&A advisory practice across the Mountain West. He's walked dozens of owners through the pre-listing readiness process — including the hard conversations about which gaps to close before going to market. He runs the keynote and opens the day.
- Mountain West lower-middle-market M&A
- Seller-side representation specialist
- Private Equity & strategic deal experience
FRB Advisory Team
The wider FRB team supports every session — bringing live deal experience, current Colorado market intelligence, and the practitioner-turned-broker lens that defines our advisory work. Members of the team lead the readiness audit and the 12-month planning workshop.
- Active Colorado M&A deal flow
- Seller-side expertise
- Practitioner-turned-broker advisors
Ready,
or just ready
to be done.
Most owners can't tell the difference between the two until a buyer shows them — and by then, the price tag of that gap is already in writing. Spend five hours in Boulder finding out before the market does.
Is Your Business Ready?
Boulder · August 19, 2026
Get the honest
answer.
August 19, 2026 · Boulder, Colorado · 9 AM – 2 PM.