Start at the
objective.

Work back to what has to be true. Reverse Thinking — the method, the lens, and the four phases.
Close-up of white capital letters spelling 'See' on a worn black surface with chipped paint.

Reverse Thinking

SKELA is ALEKS, reversed. Thirteen years flying search and rescue taught me that
the objective comes first, and everything else is planned backward from it.
Start at the objective
Conventional planning starts from where you are and asks what comes next.

It produces a list of improvements.

All defensible. None prioritized. Most of them irrelevant to the price you finally get.
Definable end state
An exit is one of the few business events with a definable end state — a buyer, a number, a structure, a date, and a life afterward.

So you specify the destination, then work back to what has to be true for it to happen.

Everything is derived from that. Which weaknesses matter. Which don’t. What gets fixed first. What gets left alone entirely.
Exit options
Three years out, though, the end state isn’t one thing. It’s a set of options - trade sale, private equity, management buyout, partial liquidity, merger.

Each implies a different buyer, a different value driver, and a different set of things worth fixing.

So, the first work isn’t assessment.

It’s deciding which objective you’re flying to.

The Lens

Progress and Potential are what you’re selling. Peril is what gets used against you.
PROGRESS
What you have demonstrably done.

Revenue quality and durability. Margin. Growth. Retention. Concentration. The evidence a buyer can verify.
POTENTIAL
The story a buyer can believe and underwrite.

Market position. Headroom. Scalability. What a strategic acquirer could do with this that you can’t.
PERIL
What diligence will surface?

Owner dependency. Undocumented process. Key-person risk. Contracts that don’t assign. IP that isn’t cleanly owned. Data that doesn’t reconcile.

The Four Phases

Experience a 4D approach to exiting your business.
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Phase one
Discover
Know where you stand, which exits are open, and what the gaps are costing you.

A fast, structured read of the business against the three prongs, scored against the profiles of different buyer types. Not a full diligence exercise — a triage.

Sort by urgency. Quantify the exposure. Rank by value at risk.
The critical move is translation. Not “customer concentration is high” but “40% concentration is likely costing you 0.5–1.0x EBITDA — roughly $600k to $1.2m on your numbers.”Findings create nodding. Numbers create decisions. Buyer desires overlap more than they diverge. Clean financials, reduced owner dependency, durable revenue and documented process pay off whoever buys you. The last twenty percent is where the paths separate — and that twenty percent is often the difference between a good price and a great one.

You get: a scorecard across Progress, Potential and Peril · findings ranked by value at risk · assessment against buyer types · value-improvement opportunities · a 90-minute readback session.
Peeling paint on a textured surface partially revealing orange letters in the background.
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Phase two
Design
Choose the exit. Build the plan to reach it.

Discover surfaces the options. Design is where you select one — the optimal exit for this business, this owner, this timeframe — and everything works back from that decision.

Some things take two years. Some take two weeks. Some aren’t worth doing at all. Knowing which is which is the entire value of working backwards, and it only becomes knowable once the objective is fixed.

You get: exit path selection — buyer type, price, structure, timing, your role afterward · a prioritized roadmap sequenced by impact over effort · the targeted work specific to your chosen buyer · owner and resource mapping · a milestone plan to the target date.

Red arrow painted on rough surface with the word 'Direction' and three white arrow marks.
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Phase three
Deliver
Close the gaps. Build the value. Take it to market.

The long phase, and the one that creates the value. Strategy, innovation, growth and operational work — not as separate services, but as the specific things that move the number.

This is where owner dependency gets designed out. Where the commercial engine gets documented. Where the management layer gets built. Where revenue quality improves.

Twelve to thirty-six months of work, done in the right order. Then the business goes to market. Which buyers get engaged, how it’s presented,
what’s disclosed and when, and how multiple parties are managed to create real competitive tension. Expect one to three months of tire-kicking and negotiation before anything is on paper.

Deliver ends at the letter of intent.

You get:
weekly sessions and priority support · the sequenced gap-closure work · progress reviewed and re-cut as reality intervenes · buyer engagement strategy and presentation · negotiation support through to LOI.

Close-up of frosted glass with white embossed letters spelling 'PUSH'.
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Phase four
Defend
Get every penny you’re owed — including the money that arrives years after close.

Defend begins at the letter of intent — the moment the buyer stops forming an impression and starts building a case. Often a case for paying less.

Everything before this was aspirational. Defend is the reality.

In deals of this size, the headline number isn’t what lands in your account. The rest sits in holdbacks and earnouts, paid over years, measured by accounting you no longer run. And the terms that govern all of it are written before close — while everyone is focused on the headline and celebrating.

The money you lose after the deal is lost in the drafting.

Then, at close, your leverage inverts. The buyer owns the products and the
customers. Your team is being dismantled — your best people leaving or hired by the acquirer. You’re contractually obliged to support the buyer through the TSA while your own company degrades underneath you.

Every incentive the buyer had to be reasonable disappeared when the first cash moved. And you’re exhausted, because you thought it was finished. Most advisors leave at signing. That is precisely when you become most vulnerable. This period is brutal and all-consuming. It is also where the last of your money is decided.

You get: diligence preparation and response · anticipating and countering
buyer tactics · holdback and earnout structure, definitions and measurement · TSA scope, resourcing and dispute terms, agreed pre-deal · retention of the people you still need · management of the post-close period through to final payment.

Close-up of word 'defense' in black on orange background with white upward arrows.

On Success Fees

Some advisors take a percentage at closing. I don’t.

An advisor paid at completion is structurally motivated to get the deal done —not to tell you the offer is poor, or that you should walk, or that this is the wrong time to sell.

Being the only person in the room who isn’t paid by the deal closing is the point.

Where an upside component makes sense in Defend, it’s tied to value protected — money recovered or preserved against the buyer’s position. Never to completion.

Pricing At A Glance

Fees to meet your budget and needs. Phases can be taken separately. Most clients start with Discover. Schedule a free 45-minute first meeting.
Discover
Know where you stand, which exits are open, and what the gaps are costing you.
From
$5,250
Typical one-time. Increasing to $10,500 for larger or more complex businesses. About two weeks from receipt of information. That timeline is often the first thing we find.
Design
Choose the exit. Build the plan to reach it.
From
$15,250
Typical one-time. Three to six-week delivery.
Deliver
Close the gaps. Build the value. Take it to market.
From
$2,450
Typical monthly. Scoped from the Design plan. Reviewed quarterly against the milestones.
Defend
Get every penny you’re owed — including the money that arrives years after close.
From
$8,500
Typical monthly through the transaction. Or $3,000/day ad hoc where support is genuinely occasional. LOI through to final payment.

Start With A Conversation

I’m based in Austin and always happy to meet in person, but video or phone works too. Let’s keep it to 45 minutes — no charge, no obligation. And if we meet for coffee, it’s on me.
Testimonial
"Aleks is a rare gem with a ridiculous amount to offer anyone managing a business."
Man, Joe F., in a light shirt, sitting at a desk with a laptop, smiling and holding a pen, with plants in the background.
Joe F.
Founder

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