Exit Planning
73% of business owners plan to exit within 10 years. That is $14 trillion in business wealth in motion.
Half of those exits will be forced by one of the 5 D's: Death, Disability, Divorce, Disagreement, or Distress. A forced exit typically sells for 20–50% less than one the owner saw coming.
Source: Exit Planning Institute, 2023 National State of Owner Readiness.
Exit planning is not a sale. It is a methodology. We run yours through three gates, in the right order, with the right work in each.
Most owners think exit planning is something you do when you are ready to sell. By then it is too late. Exit planning is the multi-year work of getting the business, the owner, and the personal financial picture into shape so the eventual sale happens on your terms instead of by accident. At Duran, that work runs through the Exit Planning Institute's Value Acceleration Methodology™, three gates, tied directly to our sell-side M&A practice.
Where many owners first meet us
Exit Planning is not a remedial track for owners who are not ready. It is often where owners first walk in the door. Some are genuinely 12 to 36 months from a sale and need the multi-year preparation. Others are ready to sell now and want to see the methodology before they commit to a path. The same toolset runs underneath either way: a NACVA Professional Standards valuation, a Value Builder Score read of the 8 Drivers, and Duran Advisors' CEPA-credentialed senior advisors leading the work.
The work we do in Gate 1 (Discover) and Gate 2 (Prepare) also feeds the pre-market diagnostics every sell-side client receives. Same tools, different timeline. Whichever door you walk through, the diagnostic comes first.
The Three-Gate Framework
Three phases, run in order, executed as continuous 90-day sprints — until the owner decides to either grow the business further or initiate an exit. Adapted from the Value Acceleration Methodology developed by the Exit Planning Institute.
Discover
Prepare
Values
Mitigating Risk
Decide
Grow or Exit?
The methodology runs as continuous 90-day sprints. Owners who choose to keep the business cycle back through Discover and Prepare until an exit event takes place. The decision itself is revisited every cycle — this is the design feature, not a bug.
Adapted from the Value Acceleration Methodology © Exit Planning Institute.
Three legs of the stool
A successful exit holds up three things at once. Skip any one and the stool falls over, usually after the deal closes, sometimes before. The 3-gate methodology exists so all three stay standing from the first conversation to the final closing.
Business
The company is genuinely valuable, transferable, and ready to be owned by someone other than you. Gates 1 and 2 do that work.
Personal
The owner has done the personal work. What is next, what role you want to keep, what life looks like, what conversations you need to have with family. Gate 1 starts this. It carries through Gate 3.
Financial
Your personal financial picture supports the timing and the structure of the exit. Gate 1 produces that plan with a vetted financial planner partner.
A note on methodology
The 3-gate framework comes from the Exit Planning Institute's Value Acceleration Methodology™. Duran Advisors holds the CEPA (Certified Exit Planning Advisor) designation from EPI, which is what earns the right to use the framework natively.
Gate 2 layers in the Value Builder System's 8 Drivers of Value as the diagnostic and the CVGA 8 Functions as the prescriptive. Our senior advisors are credentialed in both, with our AI and automation implementation engine doing the actual work.
Gate 3 execution draws on IEPA methodology training (the firm's senior leadership completed the CBEC education program and serves on IEPA's Membership and Education Committees) and plugs directly into Duran Advisors' sell-side M&A practice.
Why most exit plans never work
- Started too late. The 5 D's hit before the planning ever gets done. The exit becomes a reaction, not a strategy.
- No business-side valuation. The owner does not actually know what the company is worth, so the personal financial plan is built on a guess.
- No buyer-alignment plan. When offers come in, there is no framework for picking the right buyer. Just the highest one.
The process at a glance
Business valuation, personal financial plan, readiness assessment.
90-day sprints lifting the Value Builder Score across the 8 Drivers.
Run the exit with the buyer most aligned to your goals.
Credentials & methodology authority
Duran Advisors is the only exit-planning firm in the Gulf South that pairs CEPA with full sell-side M&A credentialing, the Value Builder System, the CVGA framework, and active IEPA committee involvement, all backed by 15+ years of deal-making across our senior leadership.
- CEPA
- CM&AA
- M&AMI
- Certified Value Builder™
- CVGA
- CM&AP
- CAIM
- CMSBB
- IEPA Board
- IBBA Past Educator
- 15+ Years
Start the conversation
Take the free Value Builder Score as a starting point, or skip ahead to a direct conversation about where you are.