$53.1m
Enterprise value
What a buyer says the business is worth
VCI Institute · CEVP · Certified Exit Value Practitioner
Every owner has a number in their head. Almost none of them know which number it is.
CEVP, the Certified Exit Value Practitioner credential, is for practitioners who advise private company owners on what their business is worth, what it could be worth, and what stands between the two.
11 modules9 bonus units17 interactive instruments87 lessons12 months access
Ask which number they mean. It takes ten seconds.
When an owner says the business is worth fifty three million dollars, they may mean what a buyer will pay, or what will reach their own bank account. Those are not the same figure.
−$6.2m
Net debt
Settled at completion, not negotiable
−$12.7m
Costs and tax
Advisers, and the revenue authority
$34.2m
Net to the owner
The only figure they can actually spend
Roughly a third of the headline never arrives. An owner who has spent two years telling their family the business is worth fifty three million has been telling them something that was never true in the way they meant it. All figures in millions of dollars.
The idea the whole course turns on
Findings are sorted by lead time, not by severity.
In the case this course follows, the largest finding is one that cannot be fixed at all inside the timeline. The finding with the least slack, the one lost entirely if it slips a single quarter, is fourth by size.
An owner working from a severity list starts with the biggest problem, spends eight months on it, and discovers in month twenty that the thing they could have fixed cheaply in month one is now out of reach.
What most advisers produce
A list ranked by severity
Biggest problem first, smallest last. It is the natural way to write a diagnosis, and it is almost useless as a plan.
It tells the owner what is wrong. It does not tell them what to do on Monday.
What this course teaches
A register banded by lead time
Ordered by how long each finding takes to clear against the owner's stated date, so the plan can be started rather than admired.
And those two orderings rarely agree.
Four bands, set by the calendar
A band is not a property of a finding. It is a property of a finding measured against a date. Move the date and the whole register re-bands.
Immediate
0 to 3 months
Starts now, finishes quickly. Usually costs nothing and buys credibility for everything that follows.
Near
3 to 12 months
Fits comfortably inside most timelines, and is where the largest recoverable finding usually sits.
Structural
12 to 36 months
Must start first regardless of size. This is the band owners defer, because it is expensive and shows nothing for a year.
Frozen
Will not fit
Forces a decision rather than a task: move the date, move the price, or move the route. Say it out loud, early.
Ashgrove Controls · a constructed case, every figure reconciles
One company, followed for thirty three months
You meet the owner in Module 1, two years from an exit she has not prepared for. You are still working on the same business in Module 10 as the process runs. All figures below are in millions of dollars.
Month 0, as found
$34.2m
net to the owner
Enterprise value $53.1m at 6.25×. A register of 2.25 turns nobody had written down.
Month 25, readiness alone
$56.7m
net to the owner
The plan produced $22.5m. Of the 2.25 turns identified, 1.85 were recoverable and 0.40 were not.
Month 33, process run well
$59.8m
net to the owner
The room produced the last $3.1m. Which is worth having, and is not worth two years.
The gap is $25.6m. Of that, $22.5m was available on the day she first sat down with an adviser. It was not available two years later, and nobody had told her. That sentence is the argument for the entire discipline.
Included with the course
The Exit Readiness Ledger
The instrument you take to a client, not a worksheet you fill in for marking.
- It prices every finding. Enter a defensible earnings figure and each line values itself in dollars of enterprise value.
- It bands against your date. Enter a lead time and the band assigns itself. Anything that will not fit turns Frozen without you deciding it.
- It checks your bridge. A live reconciliation turns red the moment the earnings leg and the multiple leg stop adding up.
- It argues with you. If nothing is Frozen it says so, and tells you to check whether your lead times are honest rather than optimistic.
- It exports a finished document. Your entries rendered as a client-ready PDF, named after the company, in one click.
What it does for you
A credential you can put under your name, and work you can charge for
Exit readiness is one of the few advisory conversations an owner will pay for before there is a transaction, because the alternative is finding out during diligence when it is too late to act.
Letters you have earned, under your name
CEVP goes under your signature, on your profile and on a proposal. The certificate carries a named scope line stating exactly what was tested, so a client or an employer can read what you demonstrated rather than guess at it.
A fractional or interim engagement
Owners approaching a sale need someone senior for two or three days a month across eighteen months. Exit readiness gives you a defined remit, a visible deliverable and a natural end date, which is the easiest kind of fractional role to sell.
Sell-side advisory work
You arrive before the mandate rather than competing for it. An adviser who has already priced the register and banded the plan is the obvious choice to run the process, and has spent a year building the trust that decision requires.
Standing in the room
Being able to say what one turn of multiple is worth in dollars, and why a finding is Frozen rather than merely difficult, changes how you are treated in a meeting. You stop describing problems and start pricing them.
Deeper client relationships
For accountants and business advisers, this converts an annual compliance relationship into a multi-year advisory one. The same client, a far larger remit, and a reason to be in front of them quarterly rather than once a year.
A route into operating partner work
Exit readiness is the discipline private equity applies to every holding in its final two years. Demonstrating it is a credible way into an operating partner or portfolio value creation seat, and it pairs directly with COPPE.
The practical version. After CEVP you can sit opposite an owner, ask for three documents, and come back with a priced register, a banded plan and a defensible net proceeds figure. That is a piece of paid work with a defined scope and a deliverable, and it is the natural front end of everything else you sell. Most advisers cannot currently offer it, which is exactly why it is worth holding.
How every module is built
Six beats, every time. And the scaffolding thins as you go: by Module 9 the guidance is gone, and by the capstone there is none at all.
01
The artefact
A real document lands on your desk, of the kind you will actually be handed.
02
Your call
You commit to an answer before any instruction. This is the part most people want to skip.
03
Both chairs
The owner's view, then the buyer's, side by side and priced differently.
04
Working the numbers
The arithmetic, line by line, with an instrument you build yourself.
05
The graveyard
A composite case where the same mistake went wrong in practice, and what it cost.
06
Two numbers
Where the owner stands before, and where they stand after. Always in net proceeds.
What you are actually buying
Every figure in this course reconciles.
You can rebuild any number in a spreadsheet and get the same answer. If you find one that does not, we would rather hear about it than not. A course about defensible numbers that carries indefensible numbers has no standing to teach the subject.
87
lessons across 27 modules
17
instruments you build yourself
22
videocasts and audiocasts
120
questions, all with worked answers
The full curriculum
Eleven modules and nine bonus units, in the order the variables bite. The bonus units hold the specialist corners so the spine stays clean.
CEVP curriculum
-
Start Here
9 lessons- Welcome to CEVP
- The Course Map
- How This Course Teaches
- Meet Ashgrove Controls
- Your Readiness Ledger
- Placement Diagnostic
- The Exit Readiness Ledger
- Videocast: Welcome to CEVP
- Audiocast: Welcome to CEVP
-
Module 1: The Exit Equation
4 lessons- Module 1: The Exit Equation
- Drill 1: Net Proceeds Waterfall Calculator
- Videocast: The Exit Equation
- Audiocast: The Exit Equation
-
Bonus 1: Tax, Structure and the Net Proceeds Arithmetic
1 lesson- Bonus 1: Tax, Structure and the Net Proceeds Arithmetic
-
Module 2: Pricing Through a Buyer's Lens
4 lessons- Module 2: Pricing Through a Buyer's Lens
- Drill 2: Multiple Bridge Builder
- Videocast: Pricing Through a Buyer's Lens
- Audiocast: Pricing Through a Buyer's Lens
-
Bonus 2: How to Read a Comparable Transaction Table
1 lesson- Bonus 2: How to Read a Comparable Transaction Table
-
Module 3: The Discount Register
4 lessons- Module 3: The Discount Register
- Drill 3: Risk Discount Scorecard
- Videocast: The Discount Register
- Audiocast: The Discount Register
-
Bonus 3: The Customer Concentration Playbook
1 lesson- Bonus 3: The Customer Concentration Playbook
-
Checkpoint 1: The Valuation Gate
1 lesson- Checkpoint 1: The Valuation Gate
-
Module 4: Earnings That Survive Diligence
4 lessons- Module 4: Earnings That Survive Diligence
- Drill 4: The Add-Back Adjudicator
- Videocast: Earnings That Survive Diligence
- Audiocast: Earnings That Survive Diligence
-
Bonus 4: Working Capital Pegs and the Cash-Free Debt-Free Convention
1 lesson- Bonus 4: Working Capital Pegs and the Cash-Free Debt-Free Convention
-
Module 5: Running Without the Owner
4 lessons- Module 5: Running Without the Owner
- Drill 5: Owner Dependency Index
- Videocast: Running Without the Owner
- Audiocast: Running Without the Owner
-
Bonus 5: Hiring a CFO Ahead of an Exit
1 lesson- Bonus 5: Hiring a CFO Ahead of an Exit
-
Module 6: The Turnkey Test
4 lessons- Module 6: The Turnkey Test
- Drill 6: The Turnkey Index
- Videocast: The Turnkey Test
- Audiocast: The Turnkey Test
-
Bonus 6: Related Party Items and the Property Question
1 lesson- Bonus 6: Related Party Items and the Property Question
-
Module 7: Exit-Ready AI
4 lessons- Module 7: Exit-Ready AI
- Drill 7: The AI Adjudicator
- Videocast: Exit-Ready AI
- Audiocast: Exit-Ready AI
-
Bonus 7: Shadow AI and the Data Rights Question
1 lesson- Bonus 7: Shadow AI and the Data Rights Question
-
Checkpoint 2: The Diagnosis Gate
1 lesson- Checkpoint 2: The Diagnosis Gate
-
Module 8: Route Selection
4 lessons- Module 8: Choosing the Route
- Drill 8: The Route Scorecard
- Videocast: Choosing the Route
- Audiocast: Choosing the Route
-
Bonus 8: Employee Ownership and Family Transfer
1 lesson- Bonus 8: Employee Ownership and Family Routes
-
Module 9: The Readiness Plan
4 lessons- Module 9: The Readiness Plan
- Drill 9: The Readiness Sequencer
- Videocast: The Readiness Plan
- Audiocast: The Readiness Plan
-
Bonus 9: The Seller's Head
1 lesson- Bonus 9: The Seller's Head
-
Module 10: Running the Process
4 lessons- Module 10: Running the Process
- Drill 10: The Process Simulator
- Videocast: Running the Process
- Audiocast: Running the Process
-
Checkpoint 3: The Execution Gate
1 lesson- Checkpoint 3: The Execution Gate
-
Module 11: Capstone, Meridian Fabrication
4 lessons- Module 11: The Capstone, Meridian Fabrication
- Drill 11: The Meridian Register
- Videocast: The Capstone, Meridian Fabrication
- Audiocast: The Capstone, Meridian Fabrication
-
Quizzing Practice
4 lessons- How the Practice Quizzes Work
- Practice Quiz One: Modules 1 to 4
- Practice Quiz Two: Modules 5 to 8
- Practice Quiz Three: Modules 9 to 11
-
Quizzing Answers
4 lessons- How to Use These Answers
- Answers to Practice Quiz One
- Answers to Practice Quiz Two
- Answers to Practice Quiz Three
-
Certification
7 lessons- Certification: How It Works
- Building the Exit Readiness File
- Readiness Screener
- The Final Examination
- Submitting for Certification
- The Faculty Interview
- What Comes Next
What the Certified Exit Value Practitioner credential asks of you
Two required components and one optional. Not everyone passes, and that is what makes it worth holding.
70%
Exit Readiness File
Your ledger applied to a company you choose, real and anonymised or entirely constructed. Marked on completeness, banding, arithmetic, route reasoning and the first conversation.
80%
Final examination
Fifty questions drawn from a bank of seventy five, seventy five minutes, supervised. Weighted towards the modules that carry the arithmetic.
Optional
Faculty interview
Forty five minutes, recorded, and it cannot fail you. For anyone who wants to test whether they can defend their own numbers out loud.
Why the file passes at the lower mark. Because it is the harder task, not the lesser one. A paper on material you have just studied should be answered correctly four times in five. Producing a defensible register on a company nobody has pre-digested for you is a different order of difficulty entirely.
Who it is for
You do not need to have run a sale process before. You need to be the person an owner asks what the business is worth.
Corporate finance and transaction services
Practitioners who advise on sale readiness and want a method that survives the buyer's diligence rather than one that reads well in a proposal.
Accountants and business advisers
Anyone working with owner managed companies who is asked what the business is worth, and wants a better answer than a multiple from a table.
Operating partners
Value creation professionals working towards a defined exit, where the sequencing problem is the whole problem.
Owners preparing their own business
Founders and shareholders who want to know what a buyer will actually price, early enough that it can still be changed.
Questions
How long does it take?
Around thirty to forty hours to work through properly. The eleven drills are what take the time, because you build each instrument from a blank state rather than reading a finished one. Access runs for twelve months, so most practitioners take it over six to ten weeks.
Do I need to have run a sale process before?
No. Start with the Placement Diagnostic in the Start Here section. Fifteen minutes, and it tells you which modules you can move through quickly and which you cannot.
Most practitioners are surprised by the result. Strong valuation mechanics do not predict strength at sequencing against a date, and people who find the arithmetic hard often have the best instinct for what an owner will actually do.
Is this a regulated qualification?
No. CEVP is a professional education credential, backed by VCI Institute and its faculty. It is not a licence or a regulated qualification, and it does not authorise the holder to provide legal, tax, investment or corporate finance advice.
The course is explicit about where a specialist is needed. Your role is to identify the item, price the exit consequence, and bring the specialist in early.
Is there anything I can use with a client on Monday?
The Exit Readiness Ledger, and it is included. Enter a defensible earnings figure and every finding prices itself. Enter a lead time and the band assigns itself against your date, so anything that will not fit turns Frozen without you deciding it.
It checks that your bridge reconciles, warns you when nothing is Frozen (which usually means your lead times are optimistic), and exports a finished document you can send to a client.
Are the case numbers real?
They are constructed, and deliberately so. A real client engagement cannot be published, and a sanitised one loses exactly the detail that makes it teachable.
What matters is that every figure reconciles. You can rebuild any number in the course in a spreadsheet and get the same answer, and if you find one that does not, we would rather hear about it than not.
What if I change my mind?
Full refund within seven days of purchase, no questions asked, provided you have not taken any assessment. Assessments means the Placement Diagnostic, the three checkpoints, the practice quizzes and the final examination.
Opening a lesson, watching a videocast, running a drill or reading a bonus unit does not affect your refund. Only taking an assessment does. After seven days the sale is final.
The value was never created in the negotiation.
Twenty two and a half million of it came from the plan. Three point one came from the room. Learn to build the part that matters.
$399 · Twelve months of access · Seven day refund before any assessment is taken