Diligence does not start with the controls you are proudest of. It starts with the ones a buyer expects to find broken.
Preparation is an ordering problem
Most readiness work is ordered by what is easiest to close. Diligence is ordered by what a buyer tests first. Those two sequences have very little overlap, and the difference between them is most of the value in preparing properly.
What gets tested first
The things that are cheap for a buyer to check and expensive for you to have got wrong: revenue recognition, customer concentration, key-person dependency, contract assignability, and whatever the last examination raised and you closed on paper.
Find what will be found, before someone else finds it.
The credibility mechanic
A finding you surface yourself, with a remediation plan and a date, costs you very little. The identical finding surfaced by a buyer costs you price and momentum, because it also raises the question of what else you did not surface.
When to start
Earlier than feels necessary. Readiness work compresses badly — the analysis can be done quickly, but remediation runs at the speed of the organization, and that speed does not change because a process has started.
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