Prepared business owners sell for more, close faster, and walk away with the number they negotiated. FCF does that work before the process starts.
How prepared you are before a sale determines everything that happens during it. FCF makes sure you arrive ready with clean financials, a defensible valuation, and a business that is built to command the price it deserves.
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Most owners never find out what their business is worth or what it would take to sell it for more until they are already in the process. By then there is very little left to do about it.
Want to see how this works?
Watch the 10-Minute TrainingGetting there first means the work is done before the sale process starts so when a buyer looks, everything holds up and the deal can move forward.
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Owner of Meraki Hospitality Group
Owner at Dynamic Specialty Inc.
Owner of Symmetrik MD
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Owner of Doral Billiards
Owner of DIVACO Pediatrics
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Know what your business is worth and what a buyer would find before you go to market → We assess your business across eight dimensions, identify the gaps that affect your sale price, and deliver The Exit Intelligence Report: a scored business exit readiness analysis with a current valuation estimate and a ranked priority plan for how to prepare your business for sale.
Result: Your roadmap to a higher sale price starts here.
How to get your financials ready for a business sale → We normalize your EBITDA, document every add-back, and build the financial preparation for your business sale that survives buyer scrutiny, so nothing in due diligence gives a buyer room to reduce your price.
Result: Defensible numbers before diligence starts.
Know exactly which financial levers increase your business value and what each one adds to your sale price→ We identify the margin improvements and revenue quality gaps that maximize your sale price, then model the financial impact of each change so you know what to fix, in what order, and what each improvement is worth to your exit number.
Result: More money at closing because you knew what to fix and fixed it.
Everything a buyer needs organized before due diligence begins→ Normalized financials, documented add-backs, a complete data room, and a sell-side financial review. Packaged so your broker goes to market immediately with a seller who is prepared. Prepared sellers attract better brokers, better buyers, and close at higher rates than those who show up hoping the numbers hold up.
Result: A faster close and a cleaner process.
Your business valuation tracked monthly, improved deliberately, ready when you are → For owners 2 to 5 years from a sale who want to build toward the exit on their own timeline. We update your EBITDA and business valuation monthly, identify the financial and operational issues, and meet quarterly to make sure the right work is getting done, not just identified. When your exit horizon tightens, everything we have built becomes the foundation of your full preparation.
Result: Your number moves every month. So does your exit outcome.
Build your exit planning team before you need them → Selling a business requires the right exit planning team: the right broker for your deal size, an M&A attorney who protects your interests, and a wealth advisor ready for what you walk away with. FCF connects you to vetted, deal-experienced professionals based on your specific situation so you are not building that team alone or relying on whoever picks up the phone.
Result: The right team around you before the most important financial transaction of your life.
Ray spent over 20 years in private wealth management and business financial advisory working directly with business owners, banks, and institutional investors. He knows how banks and buyers evaluate a business because he spent years doing exactly that. Over the past decade Ray has worked directly with founder-owned businesses across insurance, hospitality, professional services, and event production, giving him firsthand visibility into the financial gaps that cost owners money when they finally go to market.He founded FCF Consulting Partners to do the work that happens before those conversations start. As a Chartered Management Accountant with a Master's in Finance and a CEPA credential underway, Ray works with business owners in the 12 to 36 months before a sale, identifying what drives their valuation, closing the gaps a buyer would find, and building the financial picture that commands a premium when it goes to market. Based in Miami, Ray works with founders across South Florida and nationwide.
Paula brings over 15 years of experience in business development, Fortune 500 client leadership, and operations. She built her career winning and managing relationships at one of the largest global firms in digital marketing, advertising, and technology — leading multimillion-dollar accounts across multiple industries and building the cross-functional teams that delivered at scale. At FCF she runs the firm. Delivery, process, systems, team, and the referral network that positions FCF as the partner advisors trust when a client needs to prepare for a sale. She ensures every strategy gets executed and every client receives the level of care this work deserves. Paula and Ray founded FCF together and live in Miami with their three children.
Schedule a conversation to find out what your business is worth today and what it would take to go to market prepared.
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What most business owners ready to sell are asking:
Exit readiness advisory is the financial and operational preparation that happens before a business goes to market. FCF works with business owners in the months and years before a sale to normalize financials, document add-backs, improve EBITDA quality, reduce owner dependency, and build the financial picture that holds up when a buyer looks. The result is a business that commands a better price, attracts stronger buyers, and closes without surprises. Most owners who try to sell without this preparation either leave money on the table or never find a qualified buyer at all.
According to the Exit Planning Institute, only 20 to 30 percent of owners who attempt to sell actually find a qualified buyer. Preparation is what separates the ones who do.
Earlier than most owners expect. The 12 to 24 months before a sale is the most intensive preparation window, but the owners who get the best outcomes start 2 to 5 years out, when there is still time to make meaningful financial improvements that move the sale price. If an exit is anywhere on your horizon, the right time to understand what your business is worth and what needs to change is now, not when a buyer is already at the table.
Most deals that fall apart after an LOI fail because of what a buyer finds in due diligence. Not because the buyer lost interest. Undocumented add-backs, owner dependency, revenue concentration, and financials that cannot withstand scrutiny are the most common causes. The Axial 2025 Dead Deal Report confirmed that diligence issues (not financing) are the primary cause of failed lower middle market transactions. The preparation that prevents this almost always starts too late or never happens at all. FCF does that preparation before a business goes to market so when due diligence starts, the findings support the asking price rather than undermining it.
EBITDA normalization is the process of adjusting your reported earnings to reflect the true ongoing earnings power of the business: removing one-time expenses, owner-specific costs, and non-recurring items a buyer would not expect to continue after a sale. A normalized EBITDA tells a buyer what the business actually earns under normal conditions, which is what determines the multiple they apply and the price they pay. In the lower middle market a difference of just 0.5x in the EBITDA multiple on a $3M EBITDA business equals $1.5 million in exit value. Undocumented or poorly normalized EBITDA is one of the most common reasons that gap exists. FCF normalizes EBITDA as part of every engagement so the number is defensible before a buyer ever looks at it.
The starting point is knowing exactly where the gaps are. FCF's Pre-Market Diagnostic delivers The Exit Intelligence Report: a scored business exit readiness analysis that identifies the specific margin improvements, revenue quality gaps, and EBITDA changes that increase your business value before you sell. In the lower middle market, a difference of just 0.5x in the EBITDA multiple on a $3M EBITDA business equals $1.5 million in exit value. FCF's business value optimization work models the financial impact of each improvement so you know what to fix, in what order, and what each change is worth to your exit valuation. Giving you a specific plan to maximize your sale price before you go to market. The founders who get the most out of their exit are not the ones who prepared fastest. They are the ones who started early enough to actually move the number.
FCF works upstream from all of them. Your CPA handles compliance and tax. Your financial advisor manages your personal wealth picture. Your broker runs the deal. FCF prepares the business financially before any of those conversations start — so when they do, the numbers hold up and the process moves faster for everyone.
That is exactly why CPAs, financial advisors, and M&A brokers across South Florida and nationwide refer clients to FCF. When a business owner is thinking about selling but the financials are not buyer-ready, the valuation expectations are off, or the business is too dependent on the owner to close well, that is when they make the call. FCF does the preparation work that makes every downstream advisor more effective and every deal cleaner. We are based in Miami and serve founders and referral partners across South Florida and nationwide.
Fractional CFO firms manage ongoing financial operations. General exit planning advisors focus on personal financial readiness and succession. FCF is exit-specific and financial-first: focused on the work that determines what a business sells for. EBITDA quality, financial normalization, add-back documentation, margin improvement, and transaction readiness. We do not manage your back office. We do not run your deal. We prepare you and your business for the most important financial transaction of your life.
Most owners assume readiness means the business is profitable and running well. Buyers define readiness differently. They look at whether the financials are normalized and documented, whether the EBITDA story holds up under scrutiny, whether the business runs without the owner in every key decision, and whether revenue is stable and not too concentrated in a handful of customers.
The gap between what an owner thinks their business is worth and what a buyer will actually pay is almost always a preparation problem, not a business quality problem. FCF's Pre-Market Diagnostic delivers The Exit Intelligence Report — a scored assessment that tells you exactly where your business stands against what buyers look for, and what needs to change before you go to market.
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