About Jared Ribley: Jared Ribley is Managing Partner at Capstone M&A and President of the Exit Planning Institute’s St. Louis Chapter. A Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA), Jared specializes in guiding business owners through high-stakes transitions with clarity, empathy, and precision. He leads M&A strategy, exit planning, and owner education initiatives, and is known for his ability to translate complex legal and operational frameworks into actionable, audience-ready solutions. With a background in law and a passion for storytelling, Jared blends technical expertise with emotional intelligence to empower owners, advisors, and professional communities alike.
In this episode, Ryan and Jared Ribley discuss:
- The evolving field of exit planning and its growing importance for business owners
- Methods and frameworks used to evaluate a company’s readiness for sale
- Common challenges and weaknesses that can reduce a business’s value before exit
- The timeline, due diligence, and process involved in executing a successful business sale
Key Takeaways:
- The “Ready for Exit” framework provides a structured 55-question assessment that quantifies both business attractiveness and personal readiness by reverse-engineering the most common reasons deals fail, giving owners a measurable score tied directly to their potential valuation range.
- Many owners discover through this process that weaknesses such as excessive owner reliance, unclear or disorganized financials, limited scalability, and high customer or vendor concentration are the main barriers preventing their business from being seen as transferable and attractive to buyers.
- Even when a company is fully prepared to go to market, completing a sale often requires six to eight months due to discovery, due diligence, financing logistics, and potential false starts, meaning owners must treat the exit as a long-term process rather than a quick transaction.
- Because tax strategies often minimize reported income, a crucial step in exit preparation is reconstructing and normalizing financial statements to reveal the business’s true earning power, which allows both the seller and the market to accurately understand its real valuation potential.
"It’s hard to understand if anything’s successful if you can’t measure it." — Jared Ribley
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