A transaction-ready company should be able to answer five questions quickly: Which earnings are genuinely recurring? Which expenses would disappear or remain after a change of control? What working-capital level is required to operate normally? Which contracts, employees or customers represent material concentration? What operational dependencies remain with the owner? This is where m&a advisory services can become useful. The objective is not simply to produce a valuation. It is to identify the issues that could cause buyers to discount that valuation before the business enters a competitive sale process.