1
Big firms need big fees
A $2M or $8M business doesn't generate enough of a fee for most bankers and brokers to make it worth their time. So they say "too small" and move on to the next call.
Eastern Ontario · Owner-Led Businesses Under $15M
You built it to last.
Let's plan for what comes next.
Owner Exit works with owners of established, owner-run businesses who are starting to think about succession or sale — the ones too small for the big advisory firms to bother with, and too important to leave to guesswork. A steady hand, not a sales pitch.
75%+
of Canada's small business owners plan to exit their business within the next decade — more than $2 trillion in assets changing hands.
Source: CFIB, 2022 survey
The gap no one's filling
Most M&A advisors won't take a call under a certain deal size. That's not a judgment on your business — it's how their business is built. Ours is built for this end of the market on purpose.
2
Owners don't know where to start
There's no one obvious person to call. No professional body advertises to you. Most owners spend years wondering quietly before they say it out loud to anyone.
3
Closing the doors becomes the default
Without a plan or someone to talk to, a lot of good, viable businesses just wind down at retirement — taking jobs, customers, and decades of work with them.
How Owner Exit works
Nothing here starts with a contract. It starts with reading, then talking — and you decide, at every step, whether to keep going.
1
Learn on your own time
Free, alwaysPlain-language notes, checklists, and short self-checks on succession, valuation, and selling — written for owners, not other advisors. No sign-up required to read them.
2
Talk it through
Free, no obligationA real conversation about your situation — what your options are, what a timeline might look like, whether it's even the right time. No pitch at the end of it.
3
Get a straight number
Modest, fixed feeThe real answer to "what's my business worth" — not a formal valuation, and not a free online guess, just a grounded, personalized sense of where you stand today and what moves the number.
4
Prepare, then go to market
Advisory retainer or success feeWhen you're ready — whether that's next year or in five — ongoing succession planning, or running the actual sale process from prep through close.
Who this is for
- Revenue
- Roughly under $15M in annual revenue
- Ownership
- Owner-operated or family-led, often for decades
- Industry
- Any industry, really — if it's kept steady, local demand for years, it qualifies
- Stage
- Anywhere from "just starting to think about it" to "ready to talk numbers"
"Too small" is a line the rest of the industry drew for its own convenience. It was never a real ceiling on what your business is worth, or what it deserves in a transition.
The Notes
A growing library of plain-language notes, checklists, and short self-checks on succession and selling — practical, honest, and written for owners, not other advisors.
1
Getting ready
What to tidy up — financially, operationally, and personally — before you ever talk to anyone about selling.
2
What it's worth
How valuation actually works for a business like yours, and why the free online calculators get it wrong.
3
What happens next
For your team, your customers, and your family — the parts of a sale that have nothing to do with the price.
No sales pitches. Unsubscribe anytime.
Tom Whitfield
Founder, Owner ExitTen-plus years advising on business transitions — mostly for owners the rest of the industry considered too small to bother with. Owner Exit exists because that judgment was always wrong: these businesses employ people, anchor towns, and represent someone's life's work. They deserve the same care as any $100M deal, delivered in a way that actually fits how a small business owner wants to be treated.
If you're not sure whether any of this applies to you yet, that's exactly what the conversation below is for.
No forms. No obligation.
Ask a question.
Thinking about what's next for your business but not sure what to even ask? Send a note. There's no pitch waiting at the other end — just a straight conversation, and I read and reply to these myself.