Most owners think profit equals sellable, but buyers see something else: key man risk, overworked operators, and books a lender won’t touch. We sit down with Evan Poling, founder of BizRetire.com and former financial crimes investigator, to unpack why so many small businesses never sell and how to flip the script by building true transferable value. Evan’s reviewed hundreds of company financials, and his take is blunt and useful: if your numbers aren’t clean and your operations depend on you, you’re not selling a business, you’re selling your job.

We dig into the mistakes that quietly kill deals, from aggressive addbacks and mismatched tax returns to handshake supplier terms that vanish post-closing. Evan explains two paths to credible financials, retroactive cleanup with an owner-focused accountant or a “day zero” reset, and why three years of consistent, lender-ready books change everything. For law firm owners, we talk brand strategy beyond surnames, SOPs that codify expertise, and cross-trained teams that de-risk delivery. The legal angle runs through every phase: pre-sale contracts that lock in relationships, diligence that protects trade secrets, and post-sale enforcement of non-competes and earn-outs without choking a fair deal.

We also pressure-test the role of brokers versus curated marketplaces. Evan’s model charges buyers for access, filtering tire-kickers and creating space for real conversations between principals. That trust accelerates problem solving, cleaning up books, formalizing contracts, and aligning on legacy, so both sides can move with confidence. If you want to stop trading time for money and start building an asset someone else can run and finance, this conversation gives you the roadmap, the pitfalls to avoid, and the legal to-dos that keep value intact.

Reach Evan here:
BizRetire.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanpoling/

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