You scanned my shirt
Find out how a buyer would read your numbers
I'm at Ideas Fest this week and I'm opening five spots. Send me your financials and I'll personally tell you exactly what an acquirer would see — the good and the awkward.
RC
Ryan Clark · Exitwise
Managing Partner & Head of Finance · CMA, FMVA · 200+ businesses valued
5
spots left
First five qualifying businesses, and that's the lot. I do every one of these personally, so five is genuinely all I can take.
$2M – $20M
Annual revenue
£1.5M – £15M
Or turnover in sterling
Any sector
Founder or family owned
Here's exactly what happens
No valuation, no report to buy, no engagement letter. Five steps and you're done.
1
A short intro call
Ryan gets to know your business — who your customers are, what you're trying to do, any context that shapes what he'll look at.
2
You send two years of numbers (post-NDA)
P&L and balance sheet, whatever your accountant already produced. Standard NDA in place first, then a secure link follows.
3
Ryan spends two hours on them
Him, personally. Not an analyst, not a template.
4
We talk for 30 minutes
Ryan walks you through what he found. Your schedule.
5
You get a one-page written summary
Yours to keep. Nothing follows unless you ask for it.
What you'll actually learn
-
✓
What a buyer questions first when they look at your numbers, and how much they'd typically discount for it.
-
✓
Which of your add-backs would survive diligence and which would get thrown out. This is where most owners lose value they didn't know they had.
-
✓
What's stronger in your financials than you probably think, and how to present it.
-
✓
What to fix first, with a sense of what it's worth to fix it.
-
✓
Whether your numbers are ready to show anyone yet. Sometimes the honest answer is no, and that's worth knowing before a buyer tells you.
This is a read on the state and readability of your financials, not a valuation. No number, no certificate, and not for use with a lender, a court, or the tax authorities.
Fifteen years in finance. I've valued more than 200 businesses, worked through 20 transactions, and built and led the finance function at organisations that scaled past $1 billion in enterprise value.
I'm a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) with the IMA and a Financial Modeling & Valuation Analyst (FMVA) with the Corporate Finance Institute.
Reading a set of accounts the way an acquirer will is not a side project for me. It's the thing I do.
What doesn't happen
- ✕Your numbers going anywhere but my desk
- ✕A buyer being contacted, or anyone being told you're looking
- ✕An engagement letter, a fee, or a commitment of any kind
- ✕A follow-up you didn't ask for