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Business Exit Planning in Maine: Why Most Businesses Never Sell

A Maine owner’s guide to exit, transition, and succession planning, and how to beat the odds

Nate Moody, CPFA  |  Senior Financial Advisor & Partner  |  Employer Financial Services

Here’s a number that should stop every business owner in their tracks. Only 20 to 30 percent of businesses that go to market actually sell.¹ That means 70 to 80 percent of owners who list their company never close a deal. They spend years building something valuable, decide it’s time to move on, and discover the market won’t give them what they need.

The problem usually isn’t the business. It’s that the owner ran out of runway to fix what a buyer cares about. By the time the sale is on the table, the levers that drive value are locked in place. Good business exit planning changes that, and the earlier it starts, the more it’s worth.

Whether you already work with us on your retirement plan or you’re just starting to think about your eventual exit, this guide walks through how business transition planning and succession planning actually work: the framework we use, the value drivers buyers pay for, and how our RISR business insights reporting gives Maine owners a grounded valuation to plan around. Our goal is simple. Help you build transferable value, close the gaps buyers penalize, and reach the finish line on your own terms.

Why this matters right now, especially in Maine

The country is heading into the largest transfer of business ownership in modern history. McKinsey estimates that roughly six million small and midsize U.S. businesses will face ownership transitions by 2035 as Baby Boomers retire, with more than one million viable for sale, representing up to $5 trillion in enterprise value.² More than half of U.S. small business owners are now over age 55.²

Maine feels this more than most. Small and midsize businesses make up about half of total employment in the state, one of the highest concentrations in the country.³ When a Maine business closes for lack of a plan instead of transitioning to a new owner, it isn’t just the owner’s retirement at stake. It’s local jobs, a supply chain, and a piece of the community. That’s a big part of why we do this work here.

Now add the personal stakes. Research from the Exit Planning Institute finds that roughly 80 percent of the average owner’s net worth is concentrated in the business itself.⁴ That’s a remarkable amount of risk in one illiquid asset, and it stays locked up until a successful transition converts it to cash or a stream of payments. Put those facts together. Most of your wealth sits inside the business, a wave of companies is heading to market at the same time, and buyers can afford to be selective. That’s not a reason to panic. It’s a reason to plan early, while you still have time to move the numbers.

Exit, transition, and succession planning: what’s the difference?

People use these terms interchangeably, but they answer slightly different questions. Understanding the distinctions helps you know what you’re actually planning for.

Term	The question it answers
Business exit planning	How do I convert the value I’ve built into personal wealth, on my timeline and my terms? It’s the widest lens, covering value, readiness, and the financial plan for life after.
Business transition planning	How does the business move from me to whoever comes next, with minimal disruption? Focuses on the handoff itself, whatever form it takes.
Succession planning	Who leads and owns this after me, and are they ready? Often used for family or internal transfers, and for leadership continuity.

In practice they overlap, and a good plan covers all three. A family owner needs succession planning for the next generation and exit planning for their own financial security. An owner selling to a third party needs transition planning for the handoff and exit planning for the proceeds. We build the plan around your goals, not the label.

Why deals fall apart

When a sale collapses, it usually traces back to a handful of causes. Understanding them is the first step to fixing them, because every one of these is addressable with enough lead time.

Reason a sale fails	Share of failed sales
Unrealistic valuation expectations	35%
Poor financial documentation	25%
Excessive owner dependency	20%
Seller unreadiness	20%

Source: Exit Planning Institute 2025 State of Owner Readiness Report, as reported by DueDilio.⁶

Look at the top of that list. The single biggest killer is a gap between what the owner thinks the business is worth and what the market will pay. Sellers routinely price their companies well above comparable transactions.⁶ That gap doesn’t close itself. It closes when an owner understands the real number early and spends the intervening years earning a higher one.

The second and third causes are just as fixable. Clean financials and a business that can run without the owner in the building are exactly the things buyers pay a premium for. The failure rate itself confirms the pattern: it climbs to 85 to 90 percent for the smallest companies and drops to 40 to 50 percent for businesses above $3 million in EBITDA.⁶ Size helps, but preparation helps more.

The Value Acceleration Methodology

The framework we work from for exit and transition planning is the Value Acceleration Methodology, developed by the Exit Planning Institute and taught through the Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) designation.⁷ Its central idea is simple and freeing: exit planning is just good business strategy. You don’t plan for an exit only when you’re ready to leave. You build value now and keep your options open, so that when the moment comes, you can transition on your terms.

The methodology moves through three gates.

Discover

This is where you get an honest baseline. It combines a business valuation with an assessment of your personal, financial, and business readiness. Two outputs matter most here. The first is the value gap, the distance between what your business is worth today and what you’ll need it to be worth to fund the life you want after the sale. The second is a prioritized action plan that tells you exactly where to focus.⁷

Prepare

This is the work. You execute the plan through short, focused sprints that build transferable value and de-risk the business. Reducing owner dependency, strengthening recurring revenue, documenting processes, building a leadership team. Each sprint moves a value driver that a buyer will pay for.⁸

Decide

By the time you reach this gate, you have real options. A third-party sale, a transition to family, an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or simply continuing to run a more valuable, less owner-dependent company. You decide from a position of strength rather than reacting to whatever offer happens to appear.⁸

Underneath all three gates sits what the methodology calls the three legs of the stool: your business goals, your personal goals, and your financial goals, aligned so they support each other.⁷ When those three fall out of alignment, transitions go sideways. The personal leg is the one owners skip most often, and the data shows why that matters. More than three in four owners report significant regret within a year of selling, and most trace it to the same root cause: no plan for life after the business.⁹

Where RISR comes in

The methodology is only as good as the clarity behind it, and clarity starts with knowing what your business is actually worth. This is where our RISR business insights reporting drives the work.

RISR is a business owner engagement platform built for financial advisors. It connects to a company’s financials, including QuickBooks data and business tax returns, and turns that information into a clear, data-rich picture of the business.¹⁰ Instead of a rough guess about value, you get a grounded analysis we can build a plan around.

A RISR business insights report brings several things into focus at once:

• Business valuation: A valuation estimate with profit-and-loss and balance sheet analysis, industry benchmarks, and valuation risk overlays that show what’s pulling your number up or down.¹¹
• Value gap and goal analysis: A clear read on the distance between today’s value and what you’ll need to fund your goals, tied directly to your personal financial plan.¹²
• Succession and exit readiness: An assessment of your exit goals, ideal timeline, readiness, and preferred paths, delivered as a client-ready roadmap.¹¹
• Risk assessment: A view of the risks that erode value or scare off buyers, including key-person dependency and buy-sell arrangement gaps.¹²
• Liquidity projections: Analysis of how net proceeds from a sale would support your post-exit financial plan, so the number on paper connects to the life you’re planning.¹¹

Here’s why the valuation piece matters so much in practice. Remember that 35 percent of failed sales come from unrealistic price expectations. A grounded valuation, understood years ahead of a sale, is the antidote. It also works in the moment. RISR shares a case where an advisor ran a report for an owner who’d received a $3 million private equity offer. The report pinpointed value just under $4 million. The owner took that number back to the buyer and closed at $3.5 million.¹³ Clarity was worth half a million dollars at the table.

We pair the RISR report with the Value Acceleration Methodology to give you a complete picture. The report tells you where you stand. The methodology tells you what to do about it.

The value drivers buyers actually pay for

Buyers aren’t just buying revenue. They’re buying a de-risked, transferable asset that can run without you. When we work through the Prepare gate, these are the drivers we focus on, because they’re the ones that move a valuation multiple.

Value driver	Why a buyer cares
Low owner dependency	If the business needs you in the building every day, it’s a job, not an asset. A leadership team that can run it without you protects the value after you leave.
Recurring revenue	Predictable income lowers perceived risk. Contracts, subscriptions, and long-term relationships command higher multiples than one-time sales.
Clean financials	Buyers walk from deals when owners can’t produce several years of reviewed statements. Documentation is often the difference between an offer and a pass.
Documented processes	When knowledge lives in the owner’s head, it walks out the door at closing. Written systems make the business transferable.
Diversified customers	Heavy concentration in a few accounts reads as fragility. A broad base signals durability.

Value drivers reflect factors cited across Exit Planning Institute and industry research on transferable business value.^6,14

None of these change overnight. That’s the whole point of starting early. An owner who begins this work five years out has time to build a leadership team, convert one-time customers to recurring contracts, and get the books in order. An owner who starts when the offer arrives is stuck with the business as it is.

How we help at Lebel & Harriman

Lebel & Harriman has advised Maine businesses and families for over 45 years. Business exit planning, transition planning, and succession planning are a natural extension of that work. For owners, these are deeply connected to the retirement plan you sponsor. The 401(k) or cash balance plan you offer is part of your personal wealth picture and part of what makes your company attractive to a buyer. When we understand your business, we can help you protect and grow the asset it represents.

Our role is to serve as the quarterback of your transition. We coordinate the personal and financial side of the plan and bring in the right specialists, valuation experts, M&A advisors, attorneys, and tax counsel, at the right time.⁸ You keep running your business. We keep the plan on track.

The engagement follows the methodology:

• Start with a RISR business insights report to establish your valuation, value gap, and readiness baseline.
• Build a prioritized action plan that targets the value drivers with the most room to move.
• Work the plan in focused sprints, revisiting your numbers as the business improves.
• Keep your personal and financial plan aligned so the proceeds actually fund the life you want after the sale.

Everything stays grounded in the fiduciary standard we bring to every client relationship. We’re independent, we’re not selling a product, and our job is to give you the clearest possible picture so you can make informed decisions about the biggest financial event of your life. You don’t need to be an existing client to start. Many owners come to us years before they plan to exit, which is exactly when this work is worth the most.

The Bottom Line

Most owners never sell because they run out of time to fix what buyers care about. You don’t have to be in that group. The owners who transition successfully are the ones who started early, knew their real number, and spent the intervening years building transferable value. Here’s where to begin.

1. Get a real valuation. Request a RISR business insights report so you know what your business is worth today and where the value gap sits.
2. Assess your readiness. Look honestly at owner dependency, recurring revenue, financial documentation, and customer concentration.
3. Close the personal gap. Decide what life after the business looks like before a deal is on the table, not after.
4. Build a prioritized action plan. Focus first on the value drivers with the most upside.
5. Start now. Every year of lead time is a year to move your number. The work makes your business better to own in the meantime.

Frequently asked questions

What is business exit planning?

Business exit planning is the process of preparing to convert the value you’ve built in your company into personal wealth, on your timeline and your terms. It combines a business valuation, a readiness assessment, and a financial plan for life after the sale. Done well, it starts years before an actual exit so you have time to build transferable value.

When should I start exit or succession planning?

As early as you can. The value drivers buyers pay for, like reduced owner dependency and clean financials, take years to build. An owner who begins five years out has time to move their number. An owner who starts when an offer arrives is stuck with the business as it is. Even if you have no plans to sell soon, an early baseline valuation is worth having.

Why do so many businesses fail to sell?

Roughly 70 to 80 percent of businesses that go to market never close a deal. The most common reasons are unrealistic valuation expectations, poor financial documentation, excessive owner dependency, and seller unreadiness. Every one of these is fixable with enough lead time, which is the core argument for planning early.

What’s the difference between exit, transition, and succession planning?

Exit planning is the widest lens: how you convert business value into personal wealth. Transition planning focuses on the handoff itself, moving the business from you to whoever comes next. Succession planning focuses on who leads and owns the business after you, and is often used for family or internal transfers. A complete plan addresses all three.

How does Lebel & Harriman help Maine business owners plan an exit?

We serve as the quarterback of your transition. We start with a RISR business insights report to establish your valuation and value gap, build a prioritized action plan using the Value Acceleration Methodology, and coordinate the specialists you need. As an independent fiduciary advisor based in Maine, our job is to give you a clear picture so you can make informed decisions. You don’t need to be an existing client to begin.

This article is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as legal, tax, or investment advice. The information is based on publicly available sources believed to be reliable as of July 2026, but accuracy and completeness are not guaranteed. Business valuations are estimates based on available data and assumptions, and actual sale prices and outcomes will vary. Statistics reflect third-party research and are not predictions of results for any individual business. Readers should consult with qualified legal counsel, tax advisors, valuation professionals, and transition specialists before making decisions based on this information. This article does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any security or to adopt any particular investment strategy.

Securities offered through Valmark Securities, Inc. Member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory services offered through Valmark Advisers, Inc., a SEC-registered investment advisor. Lebel & Harriman Retirement Advisors is a separately owned entity from Valmark Securities, Inc. and Valmark Advisers, Inc.