X18 Exit Advisory
Sell your business for more.
We work inside your business for six months — bringing in more customers, lifting your margins, building systems that run without you. Then you sell at a much bigger number.
No upfront fees — if your value doesn't go up, you don't pay us. For $2M–$40M businesses, five-plus years in.
What we've done
+$4M
valuation added to a printing factory — $1M of new annual EBITDA at the industry's 4× multiple, deployed over six months
100 hrs
handed back to an accounting firm's team every single week
2×
the valuation for a pallet distributor — unprofitable and hard to sell, now profitable with a plan a buyer can run
Real things we've done for real businesses
Who we help
We know how to achieve a higher valuation for these businesses
A printing factory
- Full catalogue repriced with automation instead of guesswork
- Quoting and design-to-production workflows that run without the owner
- Machine and job data turned into margins a buyer can verify
A wholesale liquor business
- Hundreds of SKUs priced by habit, repriced with automation and margin data
- Dormant venue and bottle-shop accounts reactivated systematically
- Phone-and-email orders captured automatically instead of retyped
An accounting firm
- Recurring revenue packaged and priced as recurring revenue
- Client-book data cleaned until the fee base is provable
- Workflow automation that adds capacity without adding headcount
If your industry isn't here, ask — the two-week assessment answers whether the uplift is real.
We know how to do all of it — efficiently, without charging Deloitte prices.
Senior people, our own AI systems, no armies of juniors. You pay from the uplift, not by the hour.
Most businesses sell below their number
Buyers discount what they can't verify and what they can't run without you. A broker can only market the business that exists on listing day — so we change what exists.
Founder-dependent operations
If the business only runs because you're in it every day, the buyer is pricing in the cost of replacing you.
Messy or missing data
Unclear margins, undocumented processes, revenue that lives in someone's head. Every unknown becomes a price-chip in due diligence.
Dormant revenue
Lapsed customers, unpriced catalogue drift, channels nobody has touched in years. Value that exists but isn't on the P&L yet.
The work
What we actually do in the sprint
Financials, ready for sale
Invoices scattered across computers and inboxes, extracted with AI into one clean, provable ledger. Revenue and margins a buyer can trace line by line — your accountant gets order instead of chaos.
Operations that run without you
Order entry, quoting, scheduling and follow-ups automated; the way the business actually works, documented. The buyer stops pricing in the cost of replacing you.
Revenue, recovered
Lapsed customers reactivated, the catalogue repriced on margin data, channels nobody has touched in years switched back on. Value that exists, put on the P&L.
The strategy to sell it
With your broker: what to fix first, what to highlight, when to list, and the story buyers pay for. The sale is planned like a project, not an afterthought.
The toolbox
Examples of what we can do inside yours
This is a toolbox, not a menu. After the two-week assessment we pick the three or four moves that actually change your number — and then we build them, inside your business, with your team.
Bring in more customers
- A website built to bring traffic — or a second one aimed at a niche
- Ads that prove their return, down to the enquiry
- Content that sells while you sleep — articles, socials, newsletters
- Old customers found and reactivated
Run the place better
- Operations that run themselves — invoicing, ordering, rosters
- A CRM your team actually uses
- An AI agent doing the bookkeeping, daily
- Dashboards that show your real numbers every morning
- Processes documented so it runs without you
Buy and sell smarter
- Suppliers consolidated into one buying flow
- Better importing — landed costs you can actually see
- Pricing that protects margin, quote by quote
- AI sales agents answering every enquiry in minutes
- Stock that stops tying up your cash
Grow into new ground
- Partnerships and referral channels that feed you work
- New markets — interstate, export, marketplaces
- Reviews and reputation that win the local search
- New lines and seasonal ranges with real demand behind them
Something your business needs that isn't here? That's what the assessment is for — if it moves the valuation, we'll build it.
How it works
Assessment
Two weeks inside your operations, revenue, pricing and data. Together with your broker's industry multiples, we model where the valuation is today and what's realistically addable. Both sides make a go / no-go call.
Value sprint
We build and run the improvements: automation that removes founder dependence, reactivation of dormant revenue, repricing, clean dashboards and documented processes. The buyer-ready version of your company.
Your broker lists
Your broker runs the sale exactly as they normally would — with better numbers, a cleaner data room, and a growth story that survives due diligence. We don't broker, list, or negotiate.
You sell bigger
The sale settles at the higher number, and you walk away with money that didn't exist six months earlier. Our fee comes out of that uplift — never out of your pocket, and only if the uplift is real.
Illustrative example — modelled scenario, not a client engagement
$2.0M
Baseline appraisal, agreed with the broker before the sprint
$3.0M
Sale price after a 6-month value sprint
$1.0M
Uplift shared between seller and X18 at settlement — money that didn't exist before
Figures and splits are illustrative only. Actual baselines, percentages, and terms are agreed in writing per engagement, before any work begins. No outcome is guaranteed.
Who it's for
Built businesses, not startups
The model works where there's real substance to improve: manufacturing, wholesale and distribution, professional services, import and export, logistics. The best fits are often older businesses that never went deep on technology — that's exactly where the uplift hides. We don't take on pre-revenue companies or distressed turnarounds.
- Operating for five years or more in your industry
- Annual revenue between $2M and $40M
- Real substance — data, plant or a factory, stock, a client base
- Considering an exit in the next 6–24 months
Tick most of these? The two-week assessment will tell us both whether the uplift is real.
From our operating portfolio
We do this to real businesses, including our own
We don't arrive with a slide deck telling you what to do. We come in and add things — or change things — so the business works better and wins more clients. Everything below was deployed, not recommended. And we run our own software business, built exit-ready from day one, so we practise on ourselves first.
Printing factory
+$4M in valuation, in six months
- First improvements were live within two weeks of starting
- $1M of new annual EBITDA — repricing, automated quoting, and production numbers a buyer can verify
- At the industry's ~4× multiple, that's roughly $4M added to the sale number
Accounting firm
100 hours a week, handed back
- Recurring compliance work automated end to end
- Around 100 team-hours saved every week — capacity without hiring anyone
- Recurring revenue finally packaged and priced as recurring revenue
Pallet distribution
From unprofitable to 2× the valuation
- Every supplier consolidated into one buying flow
- Selling flows rebuilt end to end — back to profit
- A continuous plan a buyer can actually run — roughly twice the valuation of the hard-to-sell business it was
Who you'll deal with
Real people. Straight answers.
I'm Leeor, the founder. When you reach out, you're talking to me — not an account team, not a call centre. We're operators who build and run businesses ourselves, and we work with owners in any industry that fits the criteria above: factories, wholesalers, professional firms, family businesses.
The first conversation is honest, confidential, and free. If the uplift is real, we'll show you the plan. If it isn't, we'll tell you that too — and you've lost nothing but half an hour.
For brokers
Bigger deals. Easier sales.
You know six months out when an owner is thinking about selling — and you know which listings will be hard work at today's numbers. Send those our way first.
Commission on a bigger number
Your fee is a percentage of the sale price. When the business is worth more at listing, everyone's economics improve — including yours.
Listings that survive diligence
Clean books, documented processes, and systems that run without the founder mean fewer price-chips and fewer deals that die in due diligence.
We stay out of the transaction
X18 does the operational work before the listing. The appraisal, the campaign, the negotiation, the close — that's yours.
Questions
The fine print, up front
How does the exit advisory work, step by step?
We agree a baseline valuation with your broker, then work inside the business for roughly six months: revenue recovered, margins repriced, operations automated and documented so the place runs without you. Your broker then appraises, lists and sells. X18 takes an agreed percentage of the uplift above the baseline, paid at settlement — nothing upfront.
How long does it take?
The sprint runs about six months from kickoff to sale-ready, with the first systems live inside the first two weeks. Listing timing is set with your broker once the numbers and the operating story are in place.
What does it cost upfront?
Nothing. No retainers, no day rates, no big-firm overhead. X18 is paid an agreed percentage of the valuation uplift — the difference between the baseline valuation set at the start and the price achieved at sale — out of the proceeds at settlement. The exact percentage is agreed per engagement, before any work begins.
How is the baseline valuation set?
At the start of the engagement, with your broker: their appraisal and current industry multiples establish the baseline in writing. Uplift is only ever measured from that agreed number, so there is no ambiguity at settlement about what X18 contributed.
Do you replace our business broker?
No — the model only works with one. X18 is an operations and AI consultancy: we improve the business before it lists. Your broker appraises, lists, markets, negotiates and closes the sale. We don't arrange or effect the transaction, and we're happy to work with a broker you already have or introduce you to one we partner with.
What if we decide not to sell?
It happens — sometimes a business that runs without you every day is one you'd rather keep. That scenario is covered in the terms we agree before the sprint starts, so both sides know exactly where they stand either way.
Which businesses qualify?
Established private businesses with five or more years in their industry and roughly $2M–$40M in annual revenue — a printing factory, a wholesale liquor business, an accounting firm, an importer, a logistics operator. Businesses still run on phone calls and spreadsheets are often the best fits: that's where the uplift headroom is largest. What matters is real substance: data, assets, stock, production capacity, or a provable client base. We don't take on startups or distressed turnarounds.
We agree a baseline valuation with your broker, then work inside the business for roughly six months: revenue recovered, margins repriced, operations automated and documented so the place runs without you. Your broker then appraises, lists and sells. X18 takes an agreed percentage of the uplift above the baseline, paid at settlement — nothing upfront.
Speak with me.
A confidential 30-minute call and a two-week assessment will tell you what your business could be worth — before a buyer decides for you.
X18 provides operational and technology consulting services. We are not business brokers, licensed estate agents, or financial advisers, and we do not arrange, negotiate, or effect the sale of any business or securities. Scenarios marked as illustrative are modelled examples only, not client results, and no valuation outcome is guaranteed.