ARH Consulting LLC helps owners prepare for a potential sale, partner buyout, internal transition, or other ownership change. The advisory work focuses on readiness and coordination with qualified valuation, transaction, legal, and tax professionals.
Separate readiness, value, and price
Readiness concerns the business's ability to support a transition. A valuation addresses value for a defined purpose and set of assumptions. A negotiated transaction price also reflects the deal terms and the parties' circumstances. These questions should be considered together without treating them as interchangeable.
Identify what a successor or buyer will need to understand
- Financial visibility: reliable records, earnings explanations, cash flow, and working-capital needs.
- Owner dependency: the work, decisions, relationships, and knowledge concentrated in the owner.
- Client and referral concentration: the durability of business relationships and the risks of concentration.
- Operating capability: documented workflows, leadership, staffing, and technology responsibilities.
- Ownership and obligations: entity records, agreements, debt, commitments, and transfer restrictions.
Prepare for a valuation engagement
Clarify the purpose, relevant date, ownership interest, required records, and the intended use of the valuation with a qualified professional. Do not assume that a general market estimate is suitable for a tax filing, dispute, financing requirement, or contractual buyout.
The SBA's management guidance discusses business valuation when preparing a business for sale and points to appraisal resources.
Turn readiness gaps into a work plan
Some improvements require time: building a management bench, reducing owner dependency, cleaning up reporting, documenting processes, or stabilizing the client-development system. Prioritize the work based on the desired exit path and timing.
Law-firm transition considerations
A law practice is not evaluated solely as a stream of revenue. Professional ownership, client choice, confidentiality, ongoing matters, and transition obligations require counsel's review. Financial preparation should be coordinated with the professional rules applicable to the practice.
Deliverables
- An owner exit-objectives brief
- An exit-readiness and owner-dependency assessment
- A records preparation checklist
- A specialist coordination and decision schedule
- A prioritized readiness roadmap
Define the desired future
Begin with the owner's preferred timing, continuing role, potential buyers or successors, and existing agreements. ARH Consulting provides business preparation and coordination; a formal valuation, securities activity, transaction representation, and tax or legal opinions are separate specialist engagements.