Stella and Main works with founder-led businesses preparing for a sale in the next 1–3 years. We start by identifying the risks a buyer is likely to find, then help you address them at the level of support that makes sense for your business.
Before you spend a dollar, get a free, private video walkthrough of what a buyer would see when they look at your business — recorded by me personally, not spit out by a quiz. It’s the fastest, lowest-commitment way to see where you actually stand. Request your Sellability Score →
Find what a buyer is likely to uncover — before you're in due diligence.
The Sellability Score is the outside-in view — what I can already see from outside your business. The Buyer-Ready Audit is where we go under the hood. Over 1-2 weeks, I examine the issues most likely to affect buyer confidence, transferability, due diligence, and deal terms, and turn the findings into a prioritized roadmap for what to address before you go to market. If you move forward into Fractional Exit Readiness within 30 days, the $1,500 fee is credited in full toward your first month. (The credit applies to Fractional Exit Readiness only, not Buyer-Ready Advisory.)
What we examine:
What you leave with:
This is a diagnostic, not a formal valuation, and not a substitute for legal, accounting, tax, or brokerage advice — and no diagnostic can guarantee every issue a buyer might find.
Once we know what needs attention from the Buyer-Ready Audit, the question becomes who is going to do the work.
You execute. I guide.
For owners who have the internal capacity to execute their Buyer-Ready roadmap but want experienced guidance along the way. We prioritize what matters most, work through obstacles, review progress, and keep the readiness work moving.
You and your team own implementation. Stella & Main provides guidance, review, prioritization, and support.
Best for: owners with enough internal bandwidth to implement the roadmap themselves who want expert guidance, prioritization, review, and accountability.
We execute together.
Hands-on fractional work addressing the highest-priority issues the Buyer-Ready Audit uncovers. I work alongside you and your team to strengthen the business before a buyer begins doing that same analysis for themselves. For the background on what exit readiness covers and how long it takes, start here. The Audit determines the work — not every client receives every item; the scope is built around what your business needs.
Best for: owners who need hands-on operating capacity and want Stella & Main actively working alongside the business to implement the roadmap.
3-month minimum at $5,000/month, then month to month for as long as the work requires. Limited to two active Fractional Exit Readiness engagements at a time. This is hands-on work inside your business, so I intentionally keep the fractional roster small.
Fractional Exit Readiness — depending on what the Audit finds, work may include:
Finishing the major readiness work doesn’t always mean you’re ready to call a broker tomorrow. These lighter retainers help maintain momentum, address smaller issues as they arise, and keep the business buyer-ready during the period between completing the readiness work and going to market.
$250/month
Monthly Check-In
A monthly one-hour accountability call to review progress and make sure you’re still on track to sell.
$500/month
Weekly Support
A one-hour accountability call every week to keep you on track as you head toward go-to-market.
These are continuity and maintenance retainers for after the major readiness work is complete — not an alternative to Buyer-Ready Advisory, which is for active implementation guidance while you’re still working through the Buyer-Ready roadmap.
Exit readiness doesn’t end when the operational work is finished. When the time comes, I help organize the information a buyer will expect, prepare for broker conversations, and make the transition from readiness work into the sale process cleaner. We build and organize your data room, help you find and vet the right broker, and I remain available as you navigate the go-to-market process. You won’t be navigating it alone.
A well-organized data room signals to buyers that you run a professional operation — and cuts weeks off due diligence. We build it before you go to market.
Broker selection included as a bonus with both post-engagement retainers. When you're ready to sell, I help you identify the right broker for your deal, prepare for interviews, get your documents in order, and navigate the go-to-market process — start to finish.
Stella & Main is not the business broker and does not provide legal, tax, accounting, or valuation services. I help you organize what a buyer will expect and prepare for the handoff — outside professionals take it from there.
The question isn't whether this is expensive. The question is what your sale price looks like with versus without it -- and whether the gap justifies the investment.
| Phase | What It Is | Investment | What It's Worth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sellability Score | A free, private video walkthrough of what a buyer would see — recorded by me, not a quiz | Free | Knowing what you need to do before you sell — before you spend a dime |
| Initial Conversation | Initial assessment of fit and timing | Free | Knowing if you're ready before you start a process that's hard to walk back |
| Buyer-Ready Audit | 1-2 week diagnostic with written roadmap; $1,500 credited toward your first month of Fractional Exit Readiness if you start within 30 days | $1,500 one-time | Finding out what buyers would find — before they do, and while there's still time to fix it |
| Buyer-Ready Advisory (optional path) | Guidance, prioritization, review, and accountability while you and your team implement the Buyer-Ready roadmap yourselves. | $750/mo | Steady, structured progress on your own timeline — so the business keeps getting closer to sellable while you own the implementation. |
| Fractional Exit Readiness (optional path) | Hands-on fractional execution on the highest-priority issues the Audit uncovers. 3-month minimum, $1,500 audit fee credited toward month one if you start within 30 days. | $5,000/month ($13,500 total with audit) | Businesses that go to market prepared typically command stronger buyer confidence, fewer price reductions, and smoother closings than those that don't. The goal is to close that gap — and eliminate the surprises buyers use as leverage. |
| Data Room & Retainer | Data room setup, broker selection, monthly or weekly meetings + hands-on support through go-to-market | $250 or $500/mo | The gains from the sprint don't fade, you go to market with the right broker instead of the first available one, and buyers have no reason to slow-walk or walk away |
"The businesses that close at full price aren't the ones that found the best broker. They're the ones that spent time before the broker making the business actually sellable."
A CPA files your taxes. A lawyer drafts your contracts. A broker lists your business. None of them do the work in between — cleaning up your financials so a buyer and an SBA lender trust them, finding what’s missing from your contracts, closing the operational gaps that kill deals. That’s what this is. I do that work with you, alongside your CPA and attorney — not instead of them, and not by handing you a to-do list.
What I Do — and Where a Licensed Professional Takes Over
| What needs to happen | Stella & Main | CPA | Lawyer | Broker | CEPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exit readiness diagnostic | ✓ | — | — | Partial | ✓ |
| Clean up financials for buyer review | ✓ | ✓ | — | — | — |
| SBA loan compliance prep | ✓ | ✓ | — | — | — |
| Reduce owner dependency | ✓ | — | — | — | — |
| Document SOPs & processes | ✓ | — | — | — | — |
| Assess customer concentration risk & help build a more transferable customer base | ✓ | — | — | — | — |
| Assess and improve online reputation | ✓ | — | — | — | — |
| Review & organize contracts | ✓ | — | ✓ | — | — |
| Build out the data room | ✓ | — | — | Partial | — |
| Broker selection & vetting | ✓ | — | — | — | — |
| Hands-on execution inside your business | ✓ | — | — | — | — |
| Tax planning for the sale | — | ✓ | — | — | ✓ |
| Business valuation | — | Partial | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Personal financial planning for the owner | — | — | — | — | ✓ |
| Negotiate deal terms (LOI & purchase agreement) | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Entity structure optimization pre-sale | — | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |