The diagnosis changed everything. You built this business over twenty years. It runs well, generates good income, supports your family. But now you're facing serious health challenges that make the daily grind impossible. Or worse, you're realizing you won't be around to run it much longer.
You need an exit plan, but the timeline isn't 3-5 years like the textbooks say. You have months, maybe a year. The business can't wait for gradual transformation. Your family can't afford a fire sale. And buyers can smell desperation, which tanks the price.
Health-driven exits require different strategies than retirement planning. The timeline is compressed. The stakes are higher. And the emotional weight of potentially walking away from your life's work while fighting health battles makes every decision harder. You need clarity fast, and execution that doesn't require the energy you don't have.
The timeline changes everything. Standard exit planning assumes you have 18 to 36 months to build transferable value, systematically reduce owner dependency, and position the business for maximum price. Health crisis compresses that to 6 to 12 months. Some of those months, you won't be available because you're in treatment. The strategies that work over three years don't compress to six months. You need a fundamentally different playbook.
Your absence from the business during treatment creates a cascading problem. Customers who only deal with you start calling and getting voicemail. Employees who rely on your daily direction begin making decisions on their own, sometimes poorly. Vendors who have personal relationships with you start wondering if invoices will get paid. The business you built around yourself starts showing cracks the moment you're not there to hold it together. And every crack reduces the value a buyer would pay.
Emotional decision-making compounds everything. You're simultaneously processing a health diagnosis, worrying about your family's financial future, trying to maintain the business, and making exit decisions that will determine whether your family is secure. The temptation to accept the first offer that comes along, even at 60% of fair value, is enormous. You just want it handled. But the difference between a well-executed health-driven exit and a panic sale can be hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Confidentiality adds another layer of complexity. If employees learn you're seriously ill, key people start job hunting. If customers find out, they hedge their commitments. If competitors learn, they poach your people and accounts. You need to maintain appearances while executing an accelerated exit, which requires extraordinary discretion from everyone involved in the process.
The fundamental challenge is clear: everything we normally do over 18 to 36 months needs to happen in 6 to 12, while you're simultaneously managing health treatment and maintaining business operations.
When you have 6 to 12 months instead of 3 years, we prioritize the 8 Drivers of Value differently. Not everything can be fixed. We focus on highest-impact, fastest-to-implement changes that move the valuation needle in weeks, not years.
Priority 1: Hub and Spoke (owner dependency). If the business collapses when you're unavailable for treatment, it has no value. Period. The first thing we do is identify and empower one person who can make daily operational decisions in your absence. We document critical processes. We create emergency decision-making protocols. This isn't perfect delegation. It's triage. The goal is making the business functional without you, not optimal without you. Functional is enough for a sale. Collapsed is not.
Priority 2: Financial Performance. Clean, current, auditable financials. Buyers need confidence in the numbers, especially if they suspect health-driven urgency. We bring bookkeeping current. We fix any accounting inconsistencies. We prove that profitability is real and stable, not dependent on the owner taking below-market salary or deferring expenses. In health situations, financial credibility is your strongest negotiating tool.
Priority 3: Customer Satisfaction. Reassure top customers that business continuity is solid. Transition key relationships to account managers or partners. Written contracts help because verbal relationships based on your personal rapport don't survive transition. If you can show a buyer that your top 10 customers are under contract and managed by someone other than you, that's worth real money.
Everything else gets evaluated for quick wins only. Can you convert three major customers to annual contracts in 30 days? Do it. Does building a full recurring revenue program take 12 months? Skip it. This is about the 20% of changes that capture 80% of available value improvement in the time you have.
The Love It or List It decision in a health crisis usually resolves to List It. The rare exceptions are when a family member or partner is genuinely ready to step in immediately, or when you're confident treatment will succeed and this is a temporary reduction in capacity rather than a permanent exit. In those cases, building operational stability still makes sense because it protects the business while you recover.
If you have 12 or more months, you can follow an abbreviated version of standard exit planning. Focus on the top 3 Value Drivers, get the business stable without you, and prepare for sale in months 9 through 12. This timeline gives you enough room to make genuine improvements that show up in valuation, and enough time to run a competitive sale process that generates multiple offers.
If you have 6 to 9 months, you're in triage mode. Shore up operations, clean financials, identify buyer prospects immediately, whether that's strategic buyers, competitors, or employees. Prepare the data room in months 1 through 3 and go to market in months 4 through 6. You won't get maximum value, but you can get fair value if the business demonstrates stability.
If you have 3 to 6 months, you're looking at emergency sale. Focus entirely on operational stability during your absence, financial documentation, and direct outreach to the most likely buyers. Pricing will reflect the urgency. The goal becomes getting the best available deal in the timeframe, not maximum theoretical value. Every week of delay costs more than every percentage point of negotiation.
The earlier you start relative to when you need to be out, the better your outcome. Starting exit planning the day after diagnosis gives you options. Starting when you're already too sick to work gives you fire sale pricing. If you know something is coming, the best time to start is now.
We start with a Reality Check, but structured differently than our standard engagement. What's your actual health timeline? What's non-negotiable about the exit, whether that's a completion date, minimum capital for family security, or a specific outcome for employees? And critically, what can you personally handle given the energy constraints you're dealing with?
The Value Builder Assessment identifies which drivers we can move in your timeline and which we can't. This creates realistic expectations from day one. You're not getting a perfect exit. You're getting the best exit possible given the constraints. Knowing the difference between those two things prevents the kind of disappointment and regret that comes from unrealistic goals.
We build a 90-day sprint plan focused on operational stability without you. Who makes decisions when you're unavailable? How do critical processes run? What breaks first if you disappear for two weeks, and how do we fix that before it happens? This isn't theoretical planning. It's practical triage that gets tested immediately as you begin treatment.
Financial documentation becomes top priority. Buyers need bulletproof financials when they know about a health situation, or even suspect one. We help you bring bookkeeping current, document revenue sources, and prove profitability in ways that withstand skeptical due diligence.
If you're selling to a family member or employee, we structure the transition so you can step back immediately while they grow into the role. If you're selling to an outside buyer, we prepare the data room and identify prospects who are most likely to move quickly at fair prices.
Most importantly, we handle execution. You make the strategic decisions. We do the work. Your energy goes to health and family, not fixing bookkeeping or writing process documentation. We bring in the resources needed to get it done on your timeline, not ours.
The goal is straightforward: sell for fair value in a compressed timeline, ensure the business survives the transition, and protect your family's financial security. A perfect exit? No. The best possible exit given health constraints? Yes.
"If you're online searching for a coach, a framework, or just someone who can actually help your business, stop searching. My challenge to you is to try this."
— David Roberson, Founder of Ignis
"It's scary to think about what decisions I might have made and where I'd be stuck right now without the structure, support, and frameworks Kevin and this group provided."
— Molly Lopez, Founder of Sparo Marketing
Depends on timeline and buyer type. If selling to strategic buyer or competitor who wants your business anyway, health situation can actually help because you're motivated to sell now, not play hard to get. If selling to financial buyer or investor, focus on business metrics and operational stability, not personal health. Never lie if asked directly, but you control the narrative. Position it as pursuing other priorities rather than desperation.
Grant power of attorney to spouse, business partner, or trusted advisor who can make decisions and sign documents. We work with them directly. You stay informed on major decisions but don't need energy for daily execution. This is why starting early matters. Giving someone time to understand the business before you're incapacitated preserves options that disappear later.
Yes, if business can operate without you. That's why operational stability is priority one. Buyers need to see the business runs during your treatment. If it collapses when you're out for medical appointments, it has no transition value. Build stability first, then sell.
Twenty to forty percent discount compared to perfectly-timed exit if buyers know you're desperate. Zero to fifteen percent if you've built operational stability and have competitive buyer interest. The key is not looking desperate even if timeline is tight. Multiple interested buyers creates negotiating leverage even with health timeline.
Structure seller financing or earnout that keeps you connected. Or sell to employee or partner with buyback option if circumstances change. We've seen sellers return as consultants or advisors after successful treatment. The door doesn't have to close permanently if you build that flexibility into the deal structure.
Health challenges don't wait for perfect timing. Whether you're in Overland Park, Leawood, Olathe, Lenexa, Shawnee, Prairie Village, Lee's Summit, Blue Springs, Liberty, Gladstone, Independence, Parkville, Brookside, Waldo, or the Plaza, we help Kansas City business owners navigate accelerated exit planning when health issues force compressed timelines.