Financial Cleanup
Numbers buyers can trust
Financial statements are clean enough to explain earnings and add-backs.
12-Month Sale Readiness Field Guide
Find the Buyer Problems Before the Buyer Does
Use the guide to inspect financial cleanup, owner dependency, customer quality, people risk, and diligence evidence before a broker process or buyer conversation exposes the weak spots first.
$250 through Stripe. Reviewed before delivery. Most guides are delivered within 5 business days. 30 days. One email. Full refund if it misses.
If I had to sell within a year, what would hurt me first?
Where this fits
The Field Guide is the first paid step after the self-assessment.
The self-assessment tells you where to look. The 12-Month Sale Readiness Field Guide gives you a practical way to inspect the signal, avoid common false fixes, and decide whether you can start with internal action or need the 12-Month Sale Readiness Inspection.
- Self-AssessmentFree signal: what area appears most likely to be holding the business back.
- Field Guide - $250Standard answers to typical patterns, with practical fixes organized by cost and durability.
- Inspection - around $2,500Custom review when the issue is expensive, tangled, or too important to guess on.
Trust check
This guide is not for you if you need custom review before making a costly decision.
The Field Guide is a working tool for common patterns. It is not a substitute for a custom look when the wrong move could cost real money, damage a team, or disrupt customers.
What can be clearer in 30-90 days
12-Month Sale Readiness Field Guide should make the next practical step easier to choose.
Guide-level clarity means you should know what evidence to pull, what issue to inspect first, and what small test is reasonable before paying for a custom review. It is not a company-specific diagnosis.
- First 30 days: pull financial cleanup notes, customer concentration, contract records, owner-held relationships, key employee risk, and diligence files.
- Days 30-60: inspect which buyer-facing issue should be cleaned up first instead of trying to polish every part of the business at once.
- Days 60-90: choose one diligence packet, customer-risk review, or owner-dependency cleanup step before a broker process or buyer conversation adds pressure.
Sample guide preview
See the format before you buy.
The public sample shows how a Field Guide interprets a self-assessment signal, names evidence to pull, warns against false fixes, and compares Field, System, and Infrastructure options without exposing client-specific reports.
What this guide does
12-Month Sale Readiness Field Guide turns the signal into a working plan.
The guide gives standard answers to common 12-month sale readiness patterns: what evidence to pull, what conversations to have, which fixes usually fail, and how to choose the right level of effort.
This guide stays close to the actual operating problem: the owner wants to sell soon and needs to clean up the issues buyers will notice first. The language is direct because the work has to survive contact with employees, customers, schedules, cash, and the owner's actual day.
What the guide helps you inspect
Six places this problem usually hides.
Owner Dependency
Whether the business survives transition
Customers, vendors, employees, and managers can operate without everything routing through the owner.
Customer and Revenue Quality
What buyers will believe
Customer concentration, recurring work, contract quality, and revenue durability are visible.
Operations and Systems
Whether delivery is repeatable
Key processes are documented enough for buyers to understand.
People and Retention
Whether the team stays
Key employees are identified and retention risk is understood.
Diligence Readiness
Whether records survive scrutiny
Contracts, leases, licenses, equipment records, customer files, HR documents, and legal issues are organized.
Field Guide method
Confirm the issue before buying the fix.
The expensive mistake is rarely the guide. The expensive mistake is spending thousands on a fix that addresses the symptom while the real constraint keeps working against you.
The guide uses the same basic pattern every time: inspect real work, separate cause from symptom, choose a fix level, then decide whether the problem is safe to handle internally or needs a custom look.
Name the signal
Start with the primary and secondary 12-Month Sale Readiness signals instead of trying to fix everything at once.
Pull evidence from real work
Use jobs, calls, schedules, financial reports, handoffs, customer notes, and management conversations instead of opinions alone.
Separate cause from symptom
Ask whether the visible problem is the real issue or whether another area is creating the symptom.
Choose the right level of fix
Compare Field, System, and Infrastructure routes so the solution matches the size and future of the company.
Set a practical proof window
Pick the practical measures that will tell you whether the fix is helping before the next big spend.
Know when to get custom help
Use the 12-Month Sale Readiness Inspection when the issue is expensive, tangled, or too important for generic guidance.
Paid guide offer
12-Month Sale Readiness Field Guide
$250 working guide - buy now30 days. One email. Full refund if it misses.
$250 through Stripe. Reviewed before delivery. Most guides are delivered within 5 business days. Human review stays in the loop so the guide does not feel like an instant download with generic advice.
Guarantee
30-day Field Guide refund.
Every Field Guide is built from your assessment answers - a human reads them before anything ships. So here's the deal: read your guide, and if it doesn't hand you at least one change worth making this quarter, email me within 30 days. Full refund. No implementation logs, no six-month waiting period, no proof burden. The only thing I ask is one sentence on where it missed, so the next owner's guide is better.
The point is not to sell a generic PDF. The point is to help you find a constraint worth fixing and make a move that shows up in the business.
Secure checkout
Buy the 12-Month Sale Readiness Field Guide.
Use this checkout after completing the 12-Month Sale Readiness Self-Assessment. If you already took it, enter the same email here and we will attach that result to the order.
What happens after paymentStripe confirms the purchase, then SweetSpot prepares and reviews the Field Guide before delivery.
Use your assessment emailIf you reached this page directly, use the same email from the free self-assessment. If you have not taken it yet, start there first so the guide is tied to the real issue.
When this is the right stepBuy the guide when you want practical direction before hiring, buying software, changing pricing, or starting a larger engagement.
When to skip aheadIf the issue is expensive, tangled, or urgent, move straight to the Inspection.
Field Guide FAQ
12-Month Sale Readiness Field Guide FAQ
How do I prepare my small business to sell in 12 months?
Start with financial cleanup, customer and contract documentation, owner dependency, key employee risk, and buyer-facing operating evidence.
Read the full answer
What reduces small business sale value?
Messy books, owner dependence, customer concentration, weak contracts, employee risk, inconsistent margins, and late diligence surprises all hurt value.
Read the full answer
Should I go to market before cleaning up the business?
Sometimes timing requires it, but cleanup before buyer review usually improves credibility, price, and terms.
Read the full answer
Is this the same as hiring a broker?
No. Sale readiness is about preparing the business before or alongside a sale process.
Read the full answer
What happens after the self-assessment?
Use the result to choose the most urgent cleanup area, buy the Field Guide, or order an Inspection if the sale timeline is real.
Take the self-assessment first
What is the 12-Month Sale Readiness Field Guide?
It is the paid working guide for the 12-Month Sale Readiness owner situation. It turns the self-assessment signal into practical evidence to pull, false fixes to avoid, and Field, System, and Infrastructure options.
See what the guide includes
What does the 12-Month Sale Readiness Field Guide cost?
The Field Guide costs $250. It is designed as the first paid step before a larger consulting engagement.
Start secure checkout
Is there a guarantee?
Yes. 30 days. One email. Full refund if it misses.
Read the guarantee
How fast is the Field Guide delivered?
For now, Field Guides are reviewed before delivery. The expected delivery window is up to 5 business days after purchase.
Review delivery details
Do I need to complete the self-assessment first?
Yes for the best result. The Field Guide is most useful when it has the self-assessment context and can focus on the primary and secondary signals.
Take the self-assessment first