← For accountants and advisers

This is an example. Rivergate Grounds is an invented commercial-landscaping business — the same one in the clips on the homepage — and every figure, name and date below is fixture data. It is shown so you can see the shape of what a client brings you; a real Brief is assembled fresh from that owner’s own record.

Example — Rivergate Grounds is an invented business. Every figure, name and date in this document is fixture data.

Professional Handoff Brief

Prepared with Successor.pro from the owner’s own answers and self-reported figures — October 19, 2026.

These figures are the owner’s own estimates, not a professional assessment. They are provided here for context only and require professional verification.

Section 1

About this owner and their business

A 12-person commercial and residential landscaping and grounds maintenance business in Ontario, running two crews on recurring maintenance routes under annual commercial contracts. The commercial side is the backbone — roughly 65% of revenue across approximately 40 accounts — with seasonal residential work alongside it. An office manager handles invoicing and payroll; lead foreman Marcus directs field operations. The owner personally handles all estimating, client relationships, pricing, escalations, and new business development, as the owner described it at onboarding.

The owner is working toward a third-party sale, on a stated timeline of about 4 years (flexible).

Their Protect-stage plan is in place, grounded in a complete assessment picture.

Section 2

The financial picture (owner-stated)

These figures are the owner’s own estimates, not a professional assessment. They are provided here for context only and require professional verification.

What the owner believes they need from the exit (after tax, their estimate)CAD 1,200,000owner-stated estimatecaptured July 9, 2026
What the owner imagines the business is worthHow they arrived at it, in their words: “comparable sales heard and revenue anchor”$1,500,000owner-stated estimatecaptured July 9, 2026
Annual revenue bandas the owner selected at intake$1M–$3M
Personal income relianceThe owner describes their personal finances as primarily dependent on the business.
Records hygienewhat the accountant will encounterThe owner reports the books are mostly in order — the essentials are there, with some tidying likely before diligence.
Entity type, per the ownercorporation
The distance between what the owner believes they need and what they believe the business is worth is a question they are bringing to their professional team. It has not been computed or assessed here — firming both figures is one of this owner’s stated early priorities.

Section 3

Business risk picture

Owner dependencyowner-confirmed map (October 19, 2026)

The owner’s prioritized reduction list leads with:

  • The three property-management firms all deal with me personally — Relationship · introduce the relationship
  • I price every job over $5k myself — nobody else has ever quoted one — Operational · document the process
  • Spring schedule — I build the whole season plan in my head each February — Operational · document the process
  • Which crews suit which sites — I know who to send where and why — Knowledge · document the process
  • Clients say “Dana’s company” — the name on the truck is mine — Reputation · rebrand this element
  • Our main supplier gives us terms because of a 12-year handshake with me — Relationship · build a second contact
  • The irrigation systems on the older contracts — I installed most of them — Knowledge · document the process
  • I handle every complaint that reaches a client’s head office — Reputation · train a named person
  • Equipment repairs — I decide what gets fixed and what gets replaced — Operational · delegate gradually

The owner’s own intake assessment reads owner-dependency as high. This is a preliminary read (onboarding only) — the four-dimension map is the owner’s next diagnostic.

Revenue concentrationIntake read

At intake, the owner put top-customer share at “11–25%” — not yet reviewed in the coaching conversation.

Continuity & forced-exit

The owner reports no continuity arrangements are in place yet.

The owner’s forced-exit exposure self-read is elevated.

Section 4

Personal readinessexcluded from this download

This is the platform’s structured read of the owner’s own signals — not an assessment of the person.

“The owner is clear-eyed about the exit and commercially motivated — the financial stakes are real and understood, and the dependency work is framed directly as protecting the number he needs to retire on. At the same time, the personal picture of life after the sale is genuinely undeveloped: Monday morning is described as a blank, and the owner acknowledged he hasn't let himself think about it. After 15 years at the centre of this business, the identity and the work are closely bound — the owner sensed this himself and reframed the question as retiring to something, not just selling. That instinct is sound and worth holding as the exit gets closer.” — the onboarding synthesis, as recorded

Push / pull
Mildly pulled toward what’s next.
Identity fusion
The owner’s identity is closely tied to the business.
Monday-morning picture
The owner hasn’t yet pictured life after the exit.

Included because emotional readiness affects deal timing and outcomes — written for professionals who understand that.

Section 5

Questions for each professional

The accountantNow

Drawn from what the owner reported about their records, entity, and revenue picture.

  • How should I think about working capital — what would a buyer expect to stay in the business?
  • Is my entity setup something you’d flag for a structuring conversation with a tax specialist — better early than late?
  • What would my books look like to a buyer’s accountant today — and what would it take to make them diligence-ready?
  • Based on how the business actually runs, what would a normalized earnings figure look like, versus what shows on my tax return?
  • Are there personal expenses running through the business that would count as add-backs in a sale?
The financial plannerNow

Drawn from the owner’s stated Number, income reliance, and timeline.

  • I think I need about CAD 1,200,000 (my own estimate) from this exit — is that realistic against my full financial picture, and what would it take to get there?
  • I’m currently primarily dependent on the business for my personal income. What does the income bridge look like if I exit in 4 years?
  • This decision isn’t mine alone — my family are part of it. How do we plan this together rather than around them?
  • What other income sources should count in this picture, and how do they change what the exit actually needs to deliver?
  • If a sale alone can’t reach the number, what are the other ways to close that gap?
The lawyerNow

Drawn from the entity, contract, premises, and continuity facts the owner reported.

  • I currently have no arrangements in place for what happens if something happens to me. What documents should exist — buy-sell, power of attorney, shareholder agreement — and which first?
  • My premises are leased (3–5 years left) — is assignability something to sort out ahead of time?
  • Is there anything about my current entity structure to address now, before a sale is close — even if we wouldn’t execute for a while?
The industry / regulatory specialistNow

The owner’s licence and approval facts make transfer approvals long-lead work.

  • What approvals does an ownership transfer need in my industry — and when should we start them so they don’t hold up a deal?
The valuation professionalAt a milestone

The owner’s plan times a formal valuation to a milestone rather than now — these questions are for when that conversation opens (or sooner, if a dispute, a gift, or an offer makes it now).

Drawn from the owner’s stated value expectation and revenue quality.

  • I’ve been thinking the business might be worth around CAD 1,500,000 (my own estimate — comparable sales heard and revenue anchor). How does that compare to how you’d actually value it, and what drives the difference?
  • What two or three things most affect my multiple right now?
  • What would I need to demonstrate over the next 4 years to close the gap between where the business is valued today and what I’m hoping for?
The M&A advisor / brokerNear the sale

This conversation belongs near the transaction — the owner’s plan names it as the handoff point once the preparation work closes the gap.

  • What would make my business genuinely ready to take to market — and what would you want to see fixed first?

Section 6

Where the owner is in their journey

Plan confidence: full.

9 of 10 Protect criteria complete.

  • Continuity & Forced-Exit Basics documentedIn place
  • Critical Access Register completeIn place
  • Org & Roles snapshot builtIn place
  • Owner Dependency Diagnostic completeIn place
  • SOP Builder: 5 Level-1 certified SOPsUp ahead
  • Financial picture captured (owner-stated)In place
  • Revenue concentration documentedIn place
  • Exit posture declaredIn place
  • Personal-readiness baseline capturedIn place
  • Onboarding Diagnostic completeIn place

Plan generated August 26, 2026. This brief prepared October 19, 2026 from the owner’s current picture.