80% of businesses never sell. The hedge that taught me more than any business exit book.

Dominic Monkhouse26 September 2026

Happy wife, happy life.

The business runs better on it too, I’ve found. So you’d think I’d have got this one right.

Geri wanted the neighbours screened off. Something about sunbathing, and the peeping toms next door getting an eyeful.

Said it was a man’s job.I said leave it with me. 240 bare-root whips, in on the Saturday.

Sticks, basically. Told her it’d be sorted by summer. That was a year ago. You can still see straight through it.

Happy wife, that. The planting took a weekend. The hedge takes years. I’d planned the doing. I hadn’t planned the waiting.

No business book taught me that. A hedge did.

You’re doing the same thing with your exit. New Year’s Day. Shiny new notebook.

You slap “sold within two years” at the top and feel like you’ve won. Some of you will be manifesting that exit in the mirror. I’ve seen that too. Then there’s the list.

Build the leadership team. Sort the accounts. Fix the customer concentration.

All of it doable. Just not on the weekend you’ve set aside for it.

Everything on that list has two clocks on it. How long it takes to do, and how long before it shows up in a completed year. You’ve planned the first. A buyer only reads the second.

Get it wrong and you pay in one of 3  ways.  A lower number. More of it is tied to performance you haven’t delivered yet. Or more years running the company you were trying to leave.

I’ve taken 12 founders through exits. A ⅓  of them had a great outcome. Every one of these founders had a date in their head. Not one had worked out what the date meant.

Do the maths before you write the date down. Then move the date. 

You Don’t Have Two Years to Sell Your Business

Written by business coach and leadership coaching expert Dominic Monkhouse. You can order your free copy of his book, Mind Your F**king Business here.

In Partnership with CEOfriend

Revenue is up. So why does every big decision still feel like a guess?

I’ve seen this in every business past £5m. The problems get significantly bigger.

The support structure doesn’t. You’re still making £400k decisions alone, with the same accountant, the same lawyer, and the same mentor you had when you were half the size.

CEOFriend fixes that.

An AI team of advisors – a CFO, a COO, a CMO, & an Entrepreneur – built for founders at the £1m to £20m mark.

Business-grade confidentiality means you can upload your P&L and business plans safely. Ask the COO agent what’s breaking your operations.

Ask the CFO agent where the cash leak is. It routes your challenge to the right advisor and gives you a concrete answer.

Stop making six-figure decisions in a vacuum. First month is free. Use code STWTRIAL

Related Videos