Exit planning and valuation for owners.
The best time to plan your exit is years before it happens. Owners who plan formally sell for materially more, and in Ontario the tax structure can be worth as much as the price negotiation.
A multiple of earnings, driven by how dependent it is on you.
Trades and construction businesses are valued on a multiple of normalized earnings, and the multiple swings hard on how dependent the business is on the owner. A shop that runs without you in the truck every day, with documented systems, a real management layer, and clean job-costed financials, commands a higher multiple and a smoother sale.
Start these early.
- Get off the tools. Build a management layer and document your systems.
- Clean, job-costed financials and a credible WIP schedule.
- Spread out customer concentration and lock in recurring revenue.
- Three years of tidy books before you go to market.
The LCGE can shelter a large part of the gain.
The Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption can shelter up to $1,275,000 per individual for 2026, indexed annually, on a qualifying small-business-corporation share sale. Structured early, and sometimes multiplied across family members, it can save a great deal of tax. This is worth getting right well ahead of a sale. I led a sell-side M&A process to a strategic buyer, so I build the value story and clean the financials buyers and lenders actually scrutinize.
Selling in the next one to five years?
Book a free exit-readiness review and we will map the gap.
General information for Ontario businesses, current at the time of writing. Not tax, legal or accounting advice. Confirm your situation with a professional. Steel City CFO can help.