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Start with the sale you want to be ready for
To prepare a New Zealand business for sale, establish what you intend to sell, test the earnings, identify what depends on you and build evidence that another owner can take over. Start with the issues that need a trading history or a tested handover. Collecting documents comes alongside that work.
This plan is for owners ready to sell in the next six to twelve months. The timing is a planning example, not a promise about how long a sale or a fix will take. If you need an urgent sale, speak to an appropriate broker and your professional advisers first.
Write down your intended timing, your role after a sale, whether the premises are included and the questions you cannot yet answer. Business value and the money you receive are different questions: debt, working capital, costs, tax and transaction terms need separate treatment.
The first month: find the gaps before choosing the fixes
Use your accountant's current financials, monthly reports and your knowledge of the operation to build a starting picture. Keep a list of facts, assumptions and unanswered questions. A rough figure in your head is useful only when you know what sits behind it.
- Reconcile monthly trading with the annual accounts and identify the owner pay and proposed earnings adjustments.
- List the decisions, customers, quotations and approvals that wait for you.
- Record the largest customers, key suppliers, premises arrangements and permissions the business depends on.
- Agree who will check the financial, legal, employment and operating questions.
The free business sale readiness check can help you organise those questions. A Sale-Readiness Review goes further by examining the supporting accounts and documents and producing a prioritised action list.
Months 2–6: make the operation easier to hand over
Choose a small number of material changes. Give each one an owner, a target date and a way of showing whether it worked. A longer checklist does not necessarily mean better preparation.
For owner dependence, hand over a recurring responsibility with the authority to make decisions, then test it. For a concentrated customer base, understand the contract, margin and relationship ownership before deciding whether to diversify. For an expiring lease or an important supplier agreement, ask your lawyer what needs resolving and how much time to allow.
Keep the evidence as you go: a later responsibility map, a reconciliation, an agreed contract register or an account meeting now led by a manager. The owner's diary exercise and customer concentration guide explain two issues that can need sustained work.
Before hand-over: test what has changed
A procedure on paper and a procedure used successfully by someone else are different evidence. Repeat the tests. Can the team quote work, resolve a customer issue and produce the month-end reporting without routing every decision through you?
Review trading performance while doing the preparation. A tidy document folder will not compensate for neglected customers, deteriorating margins or deferred maintenance. Update the plan from current evidence. Some conditions need longer than six months; identify what must be resolved and what can be disclosed and priced in before choosing a listing date.
| Issue | Work to do | Evidence to retain |
|---|---|---|
| Owner quotes every job | Train and authorise another person to quote | A sample of completed quotes and their actual margins |
| Reports do not reconcile | Resolve differences with the accountant | A repeatable reconciliation and explanation of adjustments |
| Key agreement is unclear | Ask the lawyer to check terms and required consents | A current agreement register and the matters still open |
Before listing: build a pack your advisers can use
Bring the important records into an organised, access-controlled folder. Use a consistent naming system, keep an index and identify the current version. Your broker and advisers should agree what is shared, with whom and at what stage. Do not put confidential staff, customer or financial records on a public website.
The 24-item business sale checklist covers starting financial, people, customer, property, compliance and operating records. It tracks the work; it does not hold your confidential documents. The seller's guide to due diligence preparation explains the checks that need professional input.
Choose the broker and agree the brief when the business and timing are sufficiently clear. Ask what the proposed price assumes, what documents are missing and how buyer questions will be handled. The guide to selling a business in New Zealand covers the wider sale process.
Decide which work needs help
Some owners need a clear starting report and can complete the actions with their existing team. Others need ongoing help assigning, checking and progressing the work. The Exit Programme is a separate paid engagement, typically two to six months with a scoped term and quoted total. It ends at hand-over to your licensed broker; the broker then handles the sale.
Keep the scope proportionate to the business and the time available. Your accountant, lawyer and broker retain their professional roles. For an independent overview of exit options, see Business.govt.nz on stepping away or selling.
About the author
Oscar Rodwell runs Rodara Advisory, preparing New Zealand businesses worth NZD 1–10 million for sale. His experience owning, running and selling businesses in retail, manufacturing, hospitality and property informs his work on earnings, people, agreements and handovers. About Oscar.
