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How to Think About an Exit Worth Millions and Millions of Dollars (With Todd Polyniak)
Selling your business should not be the moment you learn you were not ready, yet many successful business owners find out too late. Their books are a mess, the company still depends on them, and they have no plan for what comes after the sale.
In this episode of Built to Exit, Jason Sisneros sits down with Todd Polyniak, “The Todd Father.” Todd is a CPA and Certified Exit Planning Advisor with 35 years of experience helping business owners prepare for a sale. He shows what to fix long before a buyer is waiting.
Together, they cover:
- Why financial statements built to cut taxes can lower your sale price when a buyer begins due diligence
- How lifestyle expenses buried in company books can alarm buyers and weaken a deal
- What “pro forma adjusted EBITDA” means and why business owners should know it years before they list
- How business owners can sabotage their own exits without seeing the risk
- Why the 18-month retirement cliff can surprise even successful founders
- How a business owner’s death can leave a family with chaos instead of a plan
- Why an advisor who chases fees can do more harm than no advisor at all
Todd Polyniak
LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/todd-polyniak/
Sax Advisory Group — https://saxadvisorygroup.com/
Jason Sisneros
Built to Exit — https://builttoexit.com
Get The Show Notes
Timestamps
00:00 – Why most business owners are not ready when it is time to sell
00:39 – Welcome to Built to Exit with Jason Sisneros
02:59 – Todd Polyniak and the Todd Father’s 35-year track record
05:32 – What clean financials really mean before a sale
08:34 – The add-backs and lifestyle expenses buyers catch first
11:25 – Why exit planning starts 5-10 years before you sell
14:33 – The 18-month retirement cliff that catches every business owner
18:46 – Handing the business to your children before they are ready
26:20 – Contingency plans and buy-sell agreements most business owners skip
30:51 – How to build a team that runs without you
37:04 – The blind spots nobody on your team will tell you about
38:34 – One piece of advice — do not wait. Start now.