Most founders think of selling as something they will get to later in the year, or early in the next one. The instinct is understandable and it is also where a lot of good intentions quietly slip a year, because a sale is not an event. It is a process, and the process takes months.
Here is roughly how the months go. Preparing the business and the materials, the financials, the memorandum, the data a buyer will ask for, takes a few weeks to a couple of months if the house is in reasonable order. Going to market and generating real interest takes another month or two. Then come offers and negotiation, and after that diligence and legals, which is usually the longest stretch of all. Even a well-run lower-middle-market process rarely closes in under a few months, and plenty take six to nine.
So the arithmetic is simple. To sign and close before the year is out, you begin now, in late summer, not in October.
There is also a rhythm to buyer behaviour worth knowing. Deal-making slows over the summer and picks up sharply once people are back at their desks in September. Buyers, private equity in particular, come into the autumn with capital they need to deploy and a preference to get deals closed within the year. Starting now means your business is in front of them when both attention and capital are at their highest, rather than competing for a slice of a crowded January.
Waiting carries a cost beyond the calendar, too. A business that waits for an inbound offer is negotiating against one buyer and one number. A business that runs a proper process, started in time, creates competition between buyers, and competition is the single most reliable thing that moves a price upward.
None of this is an argument for rushing a sale you are not ready for. It is an argument that if a sale is anywhere on your horizon for this year, the preparation window is open right now, and it closes quietly. Every week of delay does not just cost a week. It nudges the closing date into next year.