3 One-off Expenses That Can Add Serious Value to Your Business Sale
The best time to make these investments is when you:
- Haven’t reached the “I’m totally cooked” stage,
- Are still actively engaged in the business, and
- Are ideally 2–3 years out from a potential sale — with time to fix issues, make improvements, and see the results flow through your profit.
If you’re going to spend money anywhere, these three “expenses” are high-impact, ROI-positive, and ones I recommend often.
1. Learn what levers you can pull to increase profit
Get a valuation of your business as it stands today. Pay a valuer or business sale professional who knows the market — but isn’t trying to sign you up to sell.
Ask them to:
Give you a realistic value based on what you’d achieve if you had to sell in the next 3 months, and
Identify the priority profit levers you need to pull.
The number itself is just a starting point. The real gold is understanding what drives it and how to shift those drivers. For most owners, this is an “Aha” moment. From here, you can interrogate the numbers, get the right support, and build a plan to lift value.
2. Create a 3-year business plan
Forget the shelf-sitting plans written for banks or grant applications. This plan is about execution.
If your valuation result is short of where you want it to be, the plan becomes your framework for GSD — getting stuff done. It spells out the specific work to be done, by who, and by when.
It also becomes the story you’ll tell buyers. What feels obvious to you as the owner is rarely obvious to them. A clear plan brings out the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and risks — and demonstrates a future pathway for the business. Buyers put real value on that clarity.
3. Build a database of every contact that matters
Most owners I meet have customer and partner information scattered across phones, laptops, black books, and even old USB sticks.
Aggregate it. Build a clean, usable list of:
- Customers (past, present, prospective)
- Referrers
- Alliance or collaboration partners
In most businesses I’ve worked with, this information exists — it’s just scattered everywhere:
- The owner’s mobile phone
- A battered “black book”
- Laptops and secret paper files
- Old USB sticks
- Disconnected systems like POS or accounting software
When it comes to showing a buyer how the business really works — and how it will survive without you — pulling all this together is powerful and persuasive. You don’t need the world’s greatest CRM to start. Even a simple, consolidated list of names, emails, and phone numbers lets you:
- Quantify your relationships (buyers love numbers)
- Spot the gaps in what you’re missing
- Build towards a stronger CRM
- Communicate across multiple channels
A buyer will want proof the business can keep running without you. A simple consolidated database is persuasive evidence that relationships belong to the business, not just the owner.
Final thought
I don't see these as fluffy, “tidy up before you sell” tips. They’re one-off investments that 'cost' you today but create a higher sale value later. The earlier you act, the stronger the outcome.