Business Sale Preparation
Preparing Your Business for a Successful Exit—With Clarity, Stability, and Stewardship
Whether your sale is one year away or five, we help Spokane business owners build the financial infrastructure that protects your legacy and maximizes your valuation.
Selling a business is one of the most meaningful transitions an owner will ever make. It carries the weight of decades of effort—early mornings, late nights, sacrifices, and risks that no one else ever fully sees. When the time comes, you deserve a sale process marked by peace, confidence, and readiness. We help you get there.
The Pain / Problem
For many owners, the first hint of trouble comes when a prospective buyer, broker, or lender requests financial statements—and the numbers don’t tell a clear story.
The books are behind. Payroll reports don’t line up. Inventory isn’t reconciled. Personal and business expenses are blended together. And year after year, the financial picture becomes harder for an outsider to interpret.
This is where many Spokane business owners feel a quiet panic. Your business is valuable. It’s strong. But the financials don’t reflect the real health of your operation.
This gap creates doubt—for buyers, for lenders, and for you.
Unchecked, it leads to:
- Reduced valuation
- Delays in due diligence
- Increased audit requests
- Buyer distrust
- Deals falling apart at the finish line
Most owners feel the pressure intensely. You want to honor what you’ve built. You want to provide for your family and your future. You want the transition to bless—not burden—the next owner.
But you also know that selling a business requires a level of financial discipline that’s difficult to maintain alone while still running day-to-day operations.
You need a guide. Someone who can bring clarity where things feel tangled, order where things feel overwhelming, and stability where things feel uncertain.
Testimonial:
“The Shepherd Financial Group team has treated us like family and provided timely and accurate accounting services. We highly recommend Shepherd Financial to anyone looking for world-class service with a personal touch.”
— Boris Borisov, Pacific Keep Church
The Shepherd Solution
Shepherd Financial Group exists to serve Spokane business owners who want to prepare their companies for a successful transition—whether the buyer is internal, external, or within the family.
We combine rigorous financial systems with thoughtful advisory, helping you build a business that is sale-ready, not just for sale.
Our approach is shaped by five core values:
- Faithful Stewardship – We treat your company’s financials as a trust to manage with integrity and care.
- Teachable Spirit – We listen deeply to understand your operations, margins, and long-term goals.
- Humble Accountability – We identify gaps honestly and work with you to resolve them fully.
- Resourceful Resolve – We dig into the hard problems—cleanups, reconciliations, payroll mapping, and multi-entity complexity.
- Diligent Service – We act proactively, communicating clearly and consistently as we strengthen your financial foundation.
Our Business Sale Preparation service includes:
- Full financial cleanup (books, payroll, categorization, and reconciliation)
- Accurate, trustworthy year-over-year financial statements
- Owner compensation and adjustments for normalized EBITDA
- Inventory and cost-of-goods accuracy (offline or in-system)
- Entity structuring coordination with attorneys and CPAs
- Buyer/lender-ready reporting
- DSCR and cash-flow visibility
- Advisory for internal succession or partner buy-in
- Removing personal expenses from the books and documenting add-backs
- Establishing weekly bookkeeping and monthly close cycles for ongoing accuracy
We don’t just clean the past—we build a system capable of supporting due diligence, valuation analysis, lending requirements, and buyer confidence.
Our goal is simple:
A clean, credible financial story that honors the business you’ve built and strengthens the transition ahead.
Benefits & Outcomes
Preparing for a sale with disciplined financial systems produces benefits far beyond the closing table.
You gain:
- A stronger valuation backed by trustworthy financials
- Shorter, smoother due diligence
- Increased buyer confidence and reduced renegotiation risk
- A clearer picture of normalized earnings
- Confidence in your numbers throughout the process
- Protection against costly errors or surprises
- More negotiating leverage
- Peace knowing you’re doing what’s right for your legacy
A sale is not just a transaction—it’s stewardship. It’s preparing the next owner to succeed while safeguarding the value you spent a lifetime building.
Client Story
One Spokane business owner came to us four years before a planned sale. Two companies under a single owner, shared expenses, intercompany transfers, payroll complexities, and years of inconsistent bookkeeping created a financial picture that even the owner struggled to interpret.
He felt overwhelmed, unsure whether the business would be viewed as credible by buyers or lenders. And the internal buyer he hoped would take over lacked confidence because the numbers were too tangled to rely on.
Shepherd Financial Group stepped in to rebuild the entire system: reconciled accounts, cleaned up intercompany balances, established consistent cost-of-goods tracking, mapped payroll correctly, and implemented disciplined weekly and monthly cycles.
As clarity returned, trust followed—both for the owner and the buyer.
By the time the transition discussions resumed, the business had clean financials, predictable cash flow, and a clear story that supported valuation and buyer financing. The owner gained peace. The buyer gained confidence. And the business stepped into its next chapter on solid ground.
Our Simple Process
1. Diagnose & Clarify
We review your books, payroll, debt, inventory, and operational structure to clarify what must be corrected for a sale-ready financial system.
2. Clean & Strengthen
We rebuild the financials with accuracy, consistency, and transparency—removing noise, correcting errors, documenting add-backs, and updating systems.
3. Prepare for the Transition
We support you with lender-ready reporting, buyer documentation, normalized earnings, and advisory that protects value and supports a smooth transition.
You gain stability. Your buyer gains confidence. Your business gains clarity.
Schedule your consultation today and take the next step toward a peaceful, prepared, and well-stewarded business transition.