Marlborough's ExitKit Sells Sale-Prep Packages Online to Owners of Businesses Too Small for Brokers

ExitKit, a Marlborough, Massachusetts, company, now lets owners of small businesses buy a sale-preparation package directly on its website. The service is available at https://www.businessexitkit.com. Owners can purchase an Exit Snapshot for $99 or a Buyer-Ready Package for $299 at checkout. Both are one-time payments, and ExitKit says it never takes a commission. The offer is aimed at owners whose businesses fall below the size at which most business brokers will accept a listing. ExitKit turns an owner's own figures into the documents a serious buyer expects to see, and the owner handles the sale from there.

Business brokers typically work on commission, and ExitKit describes the usual range as 10 to 12 percent. Brokers also set a minimum deal size. According to ExitKit, most brokers will not take a sale under a few hundred thousand dollars, because the commission does not cover their time. That leaves owners of many Main Street businesses with two choices: a broker, if the business clears the broker's threshold, or doing it alone with free templates and a listing site. ExitKit says it is aimed at the gap between those two choices, for owners who want to run the sale themselves but need the paperwork buyers ask for.

The Buyer-Ready Package converts an owner's own financials into an SDE workbook, a confidential information memorandum, listing copy, and a handoff file for the owner's attorney and accountant. SDE, or seller's discretionary earnings, starts from the profit shown on the tax return and adds back the owner's own compensation, genuinely personal expenses run through the business, and certain non-cash accounting charges. ExitKit's guide notes that nearly every small business sold in the United States is priced as a multiple of it. Owners work through guided questions in plain language, and answers are saved as they go. An add-back worksheet explains each line as it is completed. Documents are delivered as DOCX and PDF files, and each kit is reviewed by a person before it is released to the owner.

The Buyer-Ready Package includes everything in the Exit Snapshot, plus the confidential memorandum in both full and blind versions, a one-page anonymous teaser, listing copy written to fit each marketplace's fields and limits, a guided placement walkthrough with current costs, a due-diligence preparation checklist, a buyer-inquiry guide, and a 12-month document room with revisions. The blind versions leave out the business name, location and contact details, so an owner can share them before anyone signs a non-disclosure agreement. The Exit Snapshot, at $99, covers the SDE calculation with the arithmetic shown, an add-back schedule, published market context for the owner's industry, an exit-readiness review, and the adviser handoff packet. Owners who start with a Snapshot can upgrade to the full package for $200.

ExitKit takes a deliberately limited role. It is not a broker, a law firm or an appraiser. It does not market the business, find or screen buyers, negotiate, or take part in the transaction. It does not supply the purchase agreement, letter of intent or other transaction documents, and it does not tell owners what their business is worth or what to ask for it. When an owner finds a buyer, the owner's own attorney writes the agreement. ExitKit's handoff packet is meant to give that attorney and the owner's accountant the relevant information at once, rather than an hour of interview, which the company says is where their bill gets smaller.

"A business too small for a broker can still be evaluated by a buyer if the numbers are laid out properly. ExitKit does that for a flat fee," said Bo Bennett, Spokesperson, ExitKit.

The pricing structure is the main contrast with the brokerage model. A broker's commission is tied to the sale. ExitKit charges a flat fee, paid once, for the preparation work, with no subscription, no success fee and no percentage of the sale. Owners post their listings themselves on the marketplaces of their choice, under their own names, and pay those marketplaces directly. ExitKit's pricing page puts typical marketplace listing fees at roughly $60 to $200 a month, depending on the site and package. Buyers contact the owner directly, and ExitKit says it never sits between the owner and the buyer.

The company is also candid about the market. Its site says most small businesses that are listed for sale never sell, and that no service can change that. ExitKit points to three things it says separate the businesses that close from the ones that sit: books a stranger can follow, a price grounded in earnings, and a willingness to consider financing part of the sale. ExitKit's workbook lists every add-back as a separate line with the total worked out, and notes which lines a buyer typically challenges. Where information is missing, the documents say [OWNER TO COMPLETE] rather than filling the gap, and they contain no valuation, recommended asking price or projection.

Owners can start with a free estimate at https://www.businessexitkit.com/what-is-my-business-worth, which needs no email address or account. Owners enter their industry and roughly what the business earns for them, and the tool shows the range that published sources put on similar businesses. Each figure cites where it came from and when it was published, and where ExitKit cannot corroborate a number across two independent sources, it says so rather than printing it. The site also offers sample documents, built by the same generator for a fictional landscaping business, so owners can read them before buying.

ExitKit's refund terms are set out on its pricing page. If documents fail to generate, arrive corrupted or contain another business's information, the owner receives a full refund, and errors in ExitKit's process are corrected at no charge. The company states that it cannot refund a business not selling, because it prepares documents and does not sell businesses.

About ExitKit: ExitKit is a document-preparation service operated by Archieboy Holdings, LLC, of Marlborough, Massachusetts. It turns a small-business owner's own financials into a buyer-ready sale package, including an SDE workbook, a confidential information memorandum, listing copy and an attorney and accountant handoff file, for a flat one-time fee and never a commission. Current offerings are the $99 Exit Snapshot, the $299 Buyer-Ready Package and a free business-value estimate. ExitKit is not a broker, law firm or appraiser. More information is available at https://www.businessexitkit.com.