More than $1 trillion in private equity capital is looking for businesses like yours.
Most owners first see their company through a buyer's eyes when an offer is already on the table. By then, the buyer sets the pace, the diligence list, and the terms. Every problem a buyer uncovers becomes a reason to lower the price, and owners who never saw it coming pay for it at the closing table.
This book won't try to convince you to sell. It hands you the buyer's playbook years early, because the same work that protects your number in a sale also makes the business stronger, steadier, and more valuable to own. "Not for sale" should never mean not prepared.
Two owners. Same kind of business. Very different outcomes.
Gene owned a respected, 22-year-old mechanical services company. He started getting ready the day the phone rang. His $14 million handshake became $9.8 million at the wire, carved away by an earnout, a working-capital adjustment, a last-minute price cut, and escrow. Walt, a county over, did the work two years early. When his offer came, he knew what his business was worth, what a buyer would challenge, and which terms to walk away from. He kept his number.
The difference wasn't luck or timing. It was preparation, and this book shows you how to do it.
Inside, you'll learn:
- The different types of buyers (private equity, strategic acquirers, family offices, search funds) and which one is the right fit for your business
- Why the headline price is not the deal, and how cash, rollover equity, earnouts, and escrow change what you actually take home
- Where buyers cut the price: adjusted earnings, working capital, customer concentration, and how much of the business depends on you
- Which improvements raise your value, and which only cost you time and money
- How to read your own company the way a diligence team will, and fix what they'd find before they find it
- How to build your deal team, rehearse the process, and say no to the wrong offer with confidence
Written for owners, not bankers. Every industry term is explained in plain English the first time it appears. The book is built for the owner of an established, founder-led or family-owned business who wants the truth about how buyers think, in language you could explain to your spouse over dinner. It includes worked examples, exhibits, and practical exercises you can start this week.
Built on one doctrine: Protect the asset. Defend the number. Own the decision.
About the author
Ron Smith has sat on every side of the transaction table. He grew up inside the HVAC business his parents built. After a decade on Wall Street in capital formation, he led a wealth advisory team at a global asset manager, advising ultra-high-net-worth families on capital, tax, and trusts, then joined the largest independent research firm on Wall Street, where he guided business owners through complex transactions and exit planning. Today he is the founder of Cordis Group and Head of Research at the Cordis Institute, where he publishes research at the intersection of M&A, wealth planning, and family business. He is a Forbes Business Council member, a 2026 Forbes Business Council Editor's Choice author, and a member of the Fast Company Executive Board.
Buyer-Ready is the first book in The Off-Market Method series.