Some businesses only think about CFO support for mergers and acquisitions once an unsolicited offer has already landed on the table, but the strongest outcomes usually come from preparation well before that point. If your financial records are inconsistent from month to month, if the business has never been formally valued, or if you are genuinely unsure how a potential deal would affect your tax position, these are all signs that outside financial expertise should be brought in early rather than at the last minute, when options are limited and negotiating leverage has already narrowed. Businesses that wait until a deal is already in motion often find themselves negotiating from a materially weaker position, simply because they cannot answer basic financial questions with the confidence a serious buyer expects.

This is particularly true for owner-managed businesses considering a sale for the first time. Buyers will scrutinise financial statements closely during due diligence, and any inconsistencies or gaps discovered at that stage can materially affect both the final valuation and the buyer’s overall confidence in the deal proceeding at all.

Preparing financial records, resolving outstanding compliance issues, and building a clear, defensible narrative around the business’s performance well ahead of any formal approach puts a seller in a substantially stronger negotiating position than starting this work only once a buyer has already expressed interest.