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Business Exit Readiness Index

Are you ready to exit or just ready to think about it?

The Business Exit Readiness Index measures your real readiness for a business transition across five dimensions: financial, personal, planning, team and contingency and tells you exactly where you stand today.

Find Your Exit Readiness Score
20 Questions  ·  Personalized Report  ·  Confidential
BERI Dashboard  ·  Sample
Not Ready Developing Ready Exit-Ready
Financial independence
88
Exit planning
55
Personal readiness
68
Business independence
40
Contingency planning
60
Sample  ·  your results will reflect your business
An IEPA-Certified Exit Readiness Assessment
20 Questions Across 5 Readiness Dimensions
Delivered through the Family Business Flywheel Framework
Designed for $10M–$250M Family Enterprises
The readiness gap most owners discover

Most owners think they’re ready to exit.
Most are not in at least two of five dimensions.

Financial readiness without a plan
Personal finances are strong but there is no written plan for how to turn the business into cash or how to invest what comes out.
Personal readiness without a vision
The owner is emotionally ready to leave but has no clear, written vision of what comes next which creates hesitation when the moment arrives.
Business still depends on the owner
The team has not been prepared for ownership or management. The business cannot function at its current performance level without the owner present.
Legal and tax preparation incomplete
The legal and tax implications of a business transition have not been fully modeled. The most expensive surprises happen when the owner is in the middle of a transaction.
Contingency planning deferred
No plan exists for an unexpected, catastrophic event. The business and the family have no documented response to a forced transition.
What the BERI measures

Five dimensions of exit readiness.
Twenty questions. One honest picture.

The Business Exit Readiness Index was developed by the International Exit Planning Association to give business owners a first, honest read of where they stand across the five dimensions that determine whether a transition happens on their terms or someone else’s.

Dimension 01

Financial Independence

Whether your personal finances, savings and income sources are strong enough to support your lifestyle independent of the business and whether you know what that number is.

Could you fund your lifestyle today if the business stopped generating income?
Dimension 02

Exit Planning

Whether you have a written plan for how you will transition the business, what you will receive for it, when you intend to exit and whether you understand the legal and tax implications of doing so.

Do you have a written exit plan with a specific timeline and structure?
Dimension 03

Personal Readiness

Whether you are emotionally and personally ready for the change with a clear sense of what comes next, a plan for your time and genuine excitement rather than avoidance.

Do you have a clear, written vision of what your life looks like after exit?
Dimension 04

Business Independence

Whether the business can operate, perform and be transitioned without your daily presence including whether your team has been prepared for future ownership and management.

Could your business be transferred today without losing significant performance?
Dimension 05

Contingency Planning

Whether you have prepared for an involuntary exit with legal documents, insurance products and a plan that protects your family and your business if something unexpected forces the transition.

Does your family have a documented response if you cannot continue tomorrow?
How it works

Three steps. Twenty questions.
Your first honest measure of exit readiness.

01

Answer 20 questions

Twenty questions across the five dimensions of exit readiness: financial, exit planning, personal, business independence and contingency. Honest answers take about ten minutes.

~10 Minutes  ·  20 Questions  ·  Confidential
02

See your BERI score and stage

Your score is calculated across all five dimensions and returned as a Business Exit Readiness Index: a number and a readiness stage: Not Ready, Developing, Ready or Exit-Ready.

Instant Results  ·  5 Dimensions Scored
03

Receive your readiness report

Your personalized report identifies exactly where your readiness is strongest, where the gaps leave your family most exposed and what to address first to move toward a planned, intentional transition.

Personalized  ·  Immediate
Business Exit Readiness Index  ·  Confidential Report Developing  ·  64/100
Sample Report   [Your Name]
[Your Company]  ·  [City, State]
64
Developing Stage
Strong financial foundation but gaps in business independence and exit planning. A forced transition today would expose the family to significant risk in two of five dimensions.
Exit Readiness Stage
Not Ready Developing Ready Exit-Ready
Financial independence
88
Exit planning
55
Personal readiness
68
Business independence
40
Contingency planning
60
Priority recommendations
Begin structured preparation of your leadership team for future ownership and management.
Develop a written exit plan with a specific timeline, target structure and tax strategy.
Review and update legal documents and insurance coverage for an involuntary exit scenario.
What you get

Your report shows exactly where a transition would be smooth and where it would not.

Every insight in your BERI report is generated from your specific answers. It names where your readiness is strong, where your family is exposed and what to address first to move toward a planned, intentional exit.

✓
Your BERI Score and readiness stage
A number and a stage: Not Ready, Developing, Ready or Exit-Ready across all five dimensions.
✓
Your highest-exposure dimensions
The specific areas where readiness is weakest and what a forced transition would cost your family in each one.
✓
Three priority recommendations
Specific, sequenced actions to close your biggest readiness gaps so that when the transition moment arrives it happens on your terms.
✓
Confidential by default
Your results are yours. You choose whether to share them with an advisor. No obligation attached.
“The families that exit well are not the ones who had perfect businesses. They are the ones who knew exactly where they stood and started building toward readiness before the moment arrived.”
Michael Palumbos  ·  Founder, Family Business Flywheel  ·  Family Wealth & Legacy
Business Exit Readiness Index  ·  Free Assessment

Know exactly where you stand. Exit on your terms, not theirs.

Twenty questions. A personalized report that tells you exactly where your exit readiness is strong, where your family is most exposed and what to address first so the transition happens by design, not by default.

See How Ready You Are to Exit
20 Questions  ·  Free  ·  Confidential by Default  ·  No Sales Call Required