Coaching for your team
Can the business run without you?
Buyers and banks will ask. Have the answer in writing.
Does this sound like you?
For owners of established private businesses who are one to five years from a sale, a succession or a handoff. You may recognize one of these:
- You can’t take two weeks off without your phone.
- A buyer walked, or cut the price, when they saw how much runs through you.
- The bank wants a succession plan before it renews the line.
- You have two people who could run it, and they can’t work together.
Before a sale or a handoff, the question is whether your team is positioned for what comes next without you. I call that Team><Market Fit.
The problem
When a deal stalls or gets repriced, the reason is often not in the financials. It is that too much of the business runs through one person: the decisions, the customer relationships, the knowledge of how things get done.
Owners usually feel this before anyone names it. Buyers and lenders name it quickly, and they price it. The time to find out what they will see is before they look.
Two steps
- Step 1: Transition Readiness Read. Three to four weeks. Find out what depends on you, in writing.
- Step 2: Transition retainer. Four quarters minimum. Close the gaps the read found.
Step 1: Transition Readiness Read
A fixed-scope read of the people side of your business.
It is a project, not a retainer. It ends with one written document.
- How your leaders work. Kolbe A Index across your leadership group, plus an A-to-A comparison between you and any successor candidate.
- Owner dependence. What actually routes through you, and what happens to each item if you are gone for 90 days.
- Bench. Who could run this, what is missing and how long it would take to close the gap.
- The written document. One document your advisor can put in front of a buyer or a bank.
What you leave with
- A clear list of what depends on you today.
- An honest read on your successor candidates.
- A document that answers the people question before someone else asks it.
| Format | Fixed-scope project |
|---|---|
| Length | Three to four weeks |
| Kolbe A Indexes | Included |
Step 2: Transition retainer
A Transition Readiness Read finds the gaps. This is the work of closing them.
The first quarter assesses and plans. Every quarter after that is a 90-day sprint. I work from the Exit Planning Institute’s Value Acceleration Methodology, the framework behind the CEPA credential.
- Four Capitals assessment. We score the business across human, structural, customer and social capital. You and your senior leaders score it separately, and I add my own read.
- Value Creation Plan. We turn the gaps into a plan: what to fix, in what order, who owns it and by when.
- Manager Decision Authority Framework. We write down which decisions your managers own, so they stop coming back to you.
- 90-day sprints. Each quarter your team takes on no more than five business actions and five personal ones. We close risks first, then build value.
What changes
- You and your leaders agree on where the value is and where the gaps are.
- There is a plan with owners and dates, and it is being worked.
- Your managers make named decisions without you.
| Commitment | Four quarters minimum. Many owners continue for two or three years. |
|---|---|
| Time | About 8 hours a month of my time |
| Starts with | A Transition Readiness Read, or the Four Capitals assessment |
How it fits with your advisors
I don’t replace your CPA, attorney or wealth advisor. They handle the numbers, the structure and the deal. I handle the question they all run into: whether the business can run without the owner.
Confidentiality
Transitions require discretion. We agree at the start what your leadership group is told and when. The written document belongs to you. Nothing goes to an advisor, buyer or lender unless you send it.
What this is not
- It is not a business valuation.
- It is not legal, tax or financial advice.
- It is not a recruiting service. If the read shows a critical seat is empty, I can run a Keystone Executive Search on a select basis.
Track record
Getting a business ready to run without its founder
A founder-owned specialty distributor with about 60 employees, selling into national retail. The question was whether the business could run without its founder. I ran a Keystone Executive Search that placed a President in 2025, then led the value creation work. I scored the business across the four capitals in separate sessions with the owner, the President and the finance lead, and added my own scores. The gaps were in the manager layer and in how decisions got made, not in senior leadership. From that I built the Value Creation Plan and the Manager Decision Authority Framework. The President now runs more than 90 percent of the business.
Who leads it
I am Mike Lee, founder of Peregrine Leadership. I hold the Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) credential and I am a Kolbe Certified Coach (Performance Specialist). I spent 25 years in talent and leadership, hiring and assessing the people who run companies. Head of Talent for four startups acquired by The Home Depot (QuoteCenter, BlackLocus, Askuity, TechShed).
Kolbe CertifiedKolbe Performance SpecialistCEPA
Find out what a buyer will see.
Thirty minutes, in confidence. Tell me your timeline and what runs through you today.
Start with a short check.
About four minutes. Our proprietary assessments are designed to give you a read on what you need at this stage of your career. You’ll receive your results right away and we’d love to meet with you to discuss how we can help you achieve your leadership and career goals.
Thirty minutes. A straight conversation, not a pitch.
Tell me what is in front of you. I will tell you whether I can help and which of these fits. If I am the wrong person, I will say so.