# Getting a business sale-ready takes years, so start while you have them. > Owners who get their price start preparing three years before the sale. Here is what buyers check online, and where the online side fits. Source: https://b-sideprojects.com/shop-talk/sell-ready/ Most owners call a broker a few months before they want out. Ask any broker which owners got their full price, and it is the ones who started three years earlier. [Book a 30 minute call](https://b-sideprojects.com/book/) ## Three things a buyer pays for. Clean books, a crew that runs without you in the building, and customers who show up without you working your phone at night. The first two are yours to sort out with your accountant and your foreman. The third one is my department, and it is the one most owners leave until last. ## What buyers check online. When a serious buyer looks at your business, someone on their side runs the same checks every time. They read your Google Business Profile and its reviews, and they check your website and whether you come up when they search your trade in your area. What they want to know is whether the work keeps coming when the owner leaves. A shop that runs on the owner's reputation makes buyers nervous, and a shop that can show where the work comes from does not. [The strategy I offer](https://b-sideprojects.com/services/seo-audit/) runs that same inspection for your side first. _Drawing: A buyer's file on a plumbing company with four checks, where one passes and three count against the price._ _Drawing: A scale from two to four times owner earnings. Most shops land near 2.5. A shop where work arrives without the owner lands near 3.8._ ## Why it moves the price. Small service businesses sell on a multiple of profit. Anything that proves the profit repeats without you pushes the multiple up. Anything that looks like it leaves with you pulls it down. Of everything that moves the multiple, your online footprint is the cheapest to fix and the easiest to prove, because calls and booked jobs show up in [reports a buyer can read](https://b-sideprojects.com/services/seo/). Three years is the comfortable runway, which is enough time to get the website earning and hand over two full years of reports. ## Start with your trade. Or start with the numbers, if that is the question on your mind. [ _Drawing: A recast statement: profit on the books of 148,000, plus the owner's salary and truck added back, for owner earnings of 257,000._ Selling ### What is my business worth? The range brokers quote, and what moves you up or down it. Updated October 26, 2026 Read it → ](https://b-sideprojects.com/shop-talk/sell-ready/what-is-my-business-worth/) More on selling [ Selling ### Selling your HVAC business. The most shopped-for trade business in North America, and what its buyers pay for. Updated October 26, 2026 _Drawing: A yearly HVAC service agreement for one household: a furnace tune-up in October, an AC tune-up in May, priority call-outs, 289 dollars a year, renewed six years running._ ](https://b-sideprojects.com/shop-talk/sell-ready/hvac/)[ Selling ### Selling your plumbing business. Why word of mouth stops working the day you list, and what to build instead. Updated October 26, 2026 _Drawing: A card showing that one click on the search 'seo for plumbers' costs 126 dollars, and one click on 'sell my plumbing business' costs 38 dollars._ ](https://b-sideprojects.com/shop-talk/sell-ready/plumbing/)[ Selling ### Selling your landscaping business. Why maintenance contracts decide the price range. Updated October 26, 2026 _Drawing: A grid of 28 properties for the 2026 season: most signed, four new this year, three still open._ ](https://b-sideprojects.com/shop-talk/sell-ready/landscaping/) ## Or skip ahead. Thirty minutes on the phone, and I'll tell you what a buyer sees when they look you up. [Book a 30 minute call](https://b-sideprojects.com/book/)