For Perth Business Owners

Is Your Business Actually Ready to Sell?

The 40-point readiness checklist Perth brokers use before listing a business. Score yourself honestly in 10 minutes — and get a straight answer on whether you're ready to go to market, or whether 6 months of prep will get you a much bigger number.

Financial readiness — the 10 numbers your accountant and a buyer will both check
Operational readiness — how to tell if your business can actually run without you
Legal & structural readiness — the 10 legal gotchas that kill good Perth sales
Personal readiness — the non-financial things most owners skip until it's too late
A scoring system that tells you exactly what to work on first

Inside the Checklist

40 items across 4 sections

Every Perth broker I know runs a version of this list before taking a business to market. This is mine — refined across thousands of seller conversations.

Section 1 · 10 items

Financial readiness

3+ years of clean financials. Defensible add-backs. Market-rate owner salary. Debtor days. Bank recons that tie out. The stuff buyers' accountants will pull apart in due diligence.

Section 2 · 10 items

Operational readiness

2IC in place. Documented processes. Client concentration under 20%. Supplier diversification. Lease secured for 3+ years. Whether your business can actually run a month without you.

Section 3 · 10 items

Legal & structural readiness

Trademarks. Domain ownership. Licences and permits. Insurance coverage. Director loans reconciled. The legal housekeeping that can kill a deal in due diligence if it's not sorted.

Section 4 · 10 items

Personal readiness

Your "walk away" number (after tax, after debt). Your post-sale plan. Family alignment. Tax modelled with your accountant. The emotional stuff most owners don't think about until sale day.

How You Score

Four clear verdicts — no grey area

Tick the boxes honestly. Your total out of 40 tells you exactly where you sit. No sales pitch, just a real answer on where you are.

32–40

Ready to listYour business is genuinely sale-ready. Time to talk about going to market.

24–31

3–6 months of prep neededFixable gaps. The checklist tells you exactly which section to prioritise.

16–23

12 months of work firstListing now would leave real money on the table. Worth a conversation about what to fix.

Under 16

Not yet18–24 months of structured preparation. That's OK — better to know now than to waste a listing attempt.

This checklist is for you if...

You're thinking about selling in the next 1–3 years
You've been told "you should sell" but aren't sure if you're actually ready
You want an honest answer before talking to brokers
You'd rather know the gaps now than discover them in due diligence
You own a Perth or WA business doing $300k+ revenue

It's not for you if...

You're not selling any time in the next 3 years
You want a magic-wand assessment with no effort
You're looking for an online valuation tool (it's not that)
You've already signed an exclusive agency with another broker

Written by

Clinton Edwards

Perth business broker with Finn Business Sales. I wrote this checklist because I was sick of having the same conversation 200 times a year: "Am I ready to sell?" Short answer: most owners aren't — not yet. This list tells you exactly why, without the guesswork.

Honest score of your business takes about 15 minutes. If you're not ready, you'll know exactly what to fix. If you are, let's talk.

Finn Business Sales Licensed WA Broker 5.0★ Google Rating 3,000+ WA Businesses Sold