Clean the story in the numbers
Books, add-backs, margins, receivables, and work-type performance need to be explainable.
Reduce owner dependence
A buyer wants to know who sells, manages, schedules, approves, and keeps customers after the owner leaves.
Document the operating system
Sales, estimating, dispatch, purchasing, job closeout, collections, payroll, and management rhythms should not live only in the owner's head.
Field note
Buyers notice what owners normalize
An owner may be used to informal approvals, undocumented process, unclear add-backs, and a team that waits for the owner. A buyer reads those as risk.
Preparation is the work of making the company understandable before someone else grades it.
Turn the question into evidence
The right next step is to compare what the owner feels against what the numbers, workflow, team, and customer cycle show.