Jennifer Yousem:
Let’s start with the basics — who are you?
Doron Abrahami:
That’s a simple question, but not an easy one. For the purposes of this chat, I’ll tell you who I am.
I am the son of a business owner and grew up in a family business. I spent 15 years in tech, starting at the bottom and working my way up to an executive role with a global network. I owned and sold a marketing agency, and now I help other business owners scale and prepare for their own successful exits.
I have seen it from every angle: I have been the owner’s kid, I have been the owner, and I have been just about every kind of employee you can be. That’s what motivates me. We spend most of our working hours working; it should be fulfilling for everyone involved. It should feel like being in a great band or on a winning team. And it’s the business owners who set the tone and make that possible.
On the other hand, I’ve also seen the darker side of it, business exits that didn’t go well or never happened at all. It genuinely bothers me that someone can spend their entire life building something, believing they’ve created real value, and then end up with nothing at the end.
Jennifer Yousem:
You mentioned that you help owners have a successful exit. How do you define that?
Doron Abrahami:
A successful exit means two things: first, that it actually happens, and second, that the owner is satisfied with the proceeds.
Jennifer Yousem:
What percentage of business owners even think about exiting? And when should they start? I started my own business six years ago, and “exit planning” wasn’t even on my radar.
Doron Abrahami:
They should start thinking about it right after they incorporate, get their EIN, and open their business bank account. Seriously. You have to begin with the end in mind.
If you don’t know where you’re trying to go, it’s pure chance that you’ll be satisfied when you get there. Every decision you make from day one affects your eventual outcome. I know that early on, business owners are just trying to survive; the odds aren’t great. But if you make those survival decisions in ways that also support a strong exit later, your odds of success actually improve.
The reality is, very few owners think about this early enough, probably single-digit percentages. And here’s the kicker: around 60% of business exits are non-deliberate. The owner didn’t plan to sell; something happened. Someone died, got divorced, became disabled, or had a major falling out.
Jennifer Yousem:
Financial reasons?
Doron Abrahami:
Yeah. I wouldn’t really call that an exit. If you just close the doors and walk away, that’s not an exit.
Jennifer Yousem:
Or if you sell it under pressure. The reason I ask is because we’ve seen a handful of companies we support that weren’t planning to exit last year but decided to this year, either because they don’t have the financial means to keep going, or they’re burned out.
Doron Abrahami:
Exactly. And both of those are symptoms of not planning for an exit early enough. Those are the red flags you see right before an exit that typically signals you won’t get as much for the business as you hoped.
That’s not a planned exit; that’s an “I’m done” exit, one driven by exhaustion or circumstance. Most exits are like that, forced by something outside your control. Someone gets divorced, someone dies, someone becomes disabled, or partners fall out and can’t reconcile. There has to be an exit in those moments.
Sometimes it’s macroeconomics, a pandemic, a market shift, interest rates, but more often, it’s those everyday life events that trigger the decision.
The people you’re describing, they’re choosing to exit, but it’s still reactive. It’s planned, but poorly planned.
Jennifer Yousem:
So, when you say business owners should think about exit strategy the second they incorporate, what does that actually look like? Because new entrepreneurs, they’re just trying to get clients and keep the lights on. What does “planning for an exit” really mean at that stage?
Doron Abrahami:
It means setting a goal. Saying, by this year, I will exit this business. And then defining what that looks like: after paying everyone and paying taxes, how much do I want in the bank? That’s the target.
Most of my clients have been in business for a while; they’ve built something substantial. They might have 10 to 500 employees, make a solid income, send their kids to private school, own a second home or a boat. They’re successful by all measures.
But because they never defined what “the end” should look like, they don’t actually have a sellable asset. What they’ve built is a high-paying job.
When you own a business, you have to wear two hats: the operator and the investor. As the operator, you deserve to be paid well. If you’re skilled enough to run a company, you’d be a top earner anywhere. But as the investor, you’re also putting your time and money into something that should produce a return, like the S&P 500. You’d never put money into an investment without expecting a payoff. Your business should be no different.
Jennifer Yousem:
So, let’s assume someone really has it together. They’re starting a business and thinking ahead. Ideally, they’d talk to you before they even launch, right? It’s like writing a long-term business plan that includes an exit strategy. Maybe they say I want to start this business next year and sell it in 20 years for X. That would let them plan accordingly. But let’s be honest, nobody’s doing that.
Doron Abrahami:
No, they’re not. Because for the first five years or so, they’re focused on survival. You have to make enough money to live, maybe support a family, maybe grow one, that’s just how most businesses start.
Of course, there are exceptions, people who are on their second or third business, or those who already exited one and want to do it again. But that’s rare. Most business owners only go through one exit in their lifetime. Usually, they start a business because they’re really good at something, and they don’t want a boss. It’s about freedom.
Jennifer Yousem:
Or, sometimes, they’re not good at what they do and don’t want a boss, but that’s another story.
Doron Abrahami:
Yeah, that’s a different story entirely.
Jennifer Yousem:
So ideally, they should come to you while they’re thinking about starting the business, but they don’t. And I’m guessing by the time they reach out to you, it’s already too late. Because if they’re saying, “I’m done, I’m ready to exit,” they probably think it’s just a matter of calling you and selling tomorrow. But that’s not how it works, right? There’s prep time.
Doron Abrahami:
One hundred percent! When someone buys a business, assuming they’re not buying themselves a job, there’s a clear hierarchy of ideal exits.
At the top, you’ve got the IPO. No one’s doing that, so let’s skip it. Next is a strategic sale. Someone in your industry, larger than you, buys your business because it makes sense for them. After that, it’s a financial purchase, private equity, for example. Below that, an employee buyout, and finally, a family member purchases.
The multiple you get, meaning how many years of profit someone’s willing to pay you for, decreases as you move down that list. A strategic buyer pays the highest multiple. A family member usually pays the lowest.
People forget that even when you pass the business to your kids, they still have to buy it from you. You need that money for your next chapter.
That multiple, whatever it is, represents how many years’ worth of profit someone will pay for your business. And what determines that multiple isn’t just your profit or your industry; it’s how predictable your earnings are and how much opportunity there is for growth.
That’s what professionals like you, M&A advisors, and investment bankers call quality of earnings. In plain English: how confident can a buyer be that they’ll keep making money, and hopefully make more once you’re gone?
And here’s the surprising part: that confidence comes less from the profit side and more from the organizational side. When I owned my business, my North Star was in revenue. Revenue first, profit hopefully after. But revenue can be deceiving; you can do $350 million in revenue and still go out of business.
Profit, meanwhile, is subjective; that’s why your accountant can legally help you pay less tax by reporting less profit. It’s an opinion.
What’s not an opinion is the value of your business. That’s math: profit times multiple. Of course, the final price depends on what someone’s willing to pay, but before that, the business has to be purchasable.
If the business relies on you, if you’re essential to its daily operations, it may not be sellable at all. You could have 50 employees and take home nearly a million a year, but if your departure means the business can’t run without you, no one’s buying it.
Jennifer Yousem:
Putting aside the fact that most people don’t think about their exit early enough, that’s just human nature, how long is ideal to plan?
Doron Abrahami:
At least 10 years. Minimum.
Jennifer Yousem:
I get why you say that, but that’s just not the reality.
Doron Abrahami:
Right. The good news is that awareness is growing, partly because of demographics and culture. For the past 15 or 20 years, and for years to come, baby boomers have been exiting their businesses, willingly or not. And because there’s now a visible track record of how those exits have gone, people are starting to realize they can’t wait until 18 months before selling to start planning.
Jennifer Yousem:
Absolutely. And what you said earlier about quality of earnings really stuck with me. Take away the finance jargon; it basically comes down to: Can the business survive without me?
Doron Abrahami:
Exactly, and that’s probably the most important factor in determining quality of earnings. The phrase means exactly what it sounds like: are these earnings high or low quality?
High-quality earnings are predictable. They’re not dependent on any single point of failure, not one big customer, not one key employee, not the owner themselves. It’s about creating a business that’s a sure thing or as close as possible.
Jennifer Yousem:
That’s a great point. What are some of the red flags you see when assessing a business, the signs that the earnings might not be high quality? You mentioned the business being owner-dependent or only having one giant customer, what are some others?
Doron Abrahami:
I actually do an assessment with every client where we score how well their business performs across 24 different value drivers, grouped into six main buckets.
The “my business needs me” issue can show up in several of those buckets. It might be in customer service — if you’re the main person clients want to deal with. Or it might show up in sales — if you’re the only one who can reliably close big deals. Maybe you have a sales team that’s decent, but you’re the one who makes things really happen. That’s a sign of low-quality earnings.
High quality means you could walk away for three months, and the business would still run smoothly. It means there’s a repeatable sales system that generates predictable results and a marketing function that feeds it.
Because plenty of businesses have tons of leads, but they’re useless if the sales team can’t do anything with them.
Jennifer Yousem:
It’s not about volume of leads; it’s about quality.
Doron Abrahami:
If you want a volume of leads, just advertise free beer; you’ll get plenty! But that’s not the goal. The goal is to attract the right people, those most likely to buy.
So, if you’re the owner and your sales team keeps saying, “The leads are bad”, you don’t have a sales problem; you have a marketing and strategy problem.
If you’re a business owner and your marketing team is complaining that your sales team doesn’t sell what you actually do, that’s not a marketing problem—it’s a sales problem.
But the solution isn’t as simple as “just hire someone.” Let me give you an example. If your business offers a highly customizable product or service, something project-based or tailored for every client, then, in most cases, only the owner can effectively sell it. That’s because only they truly understand how everything connects to the company’s identity and capabilities. It’s often too complex to train a salesperson on all of that.
So, one way to strengthen your sales team is to look at your product mix. Ask yourself: Which of these products or services can actually be trained and sold effectively, and which are the most profitable? The narrower and more focused your offering, the easier it is to scale your sales function.
This also ties to client concentration. If one client accounts for more than 15% of your business, that’s a red flag. It often means the owner has a deep personal relationship with that client, usually one of the first big customers the business ever landed.
A better sales structure can help fix that, but again, it goes back to your product mix and overall productivity. From a financial perspective, when we analyze revenue and profit by product line, we often find that some offerings don’t make money—or even lose money.
When I bring that up, owners usually say, “I know, but this helps me build the relationship that leads to the profitable work later.” And that might be fine, if it’s the CEO doing it. But it doesn’t work once you try to delegate it to a sales team. You can’t train that kind of nuance.
Jennifer Yousem:
100% agree and we see that A LOT.
Doron Abrahami:
Another area we always evaluate is financial discipline.
Jennifer Yousem:
Now you’re talking my language!
Doron Abrahami:
Do you have a 12-month cash forecast? Do you review your books with your leadership team regularly? Does everyone understand what the numbers actually mean?
In many businesses, the answer is “no” simply because no one knows. That’s usually when they need someone like you to come in, ask the tough questions, and help build that financial clarity.
Jennifer Yousem:
That’s a great segue. Let’s talk about what a typical engagement with you looks like. Let’s say I come to you planning for an exit in five plus years. What does that engagement look like, beyond the tough questions?
Doron Abrahami:
Fair question—and I promise the questions sound much nicer in real life!
Step one is establishing a baseline. I help the owner understand what their business is worth today and what they want or need it to be worth when they exit.
As part of the initial assessment, we measure the company’s health across 24 key areas. Based on those results, one of three types of engagements usually follows.
The 1st, we meet twice a month for two hours and together, we identify and prioritize what needs to be done, and then we create a clear plan to execute those priorities.
Jennifer Yousem:
Now, in that plan, are you helping clients actually execute—like if finance is a weak area, are you telling them, “You need a better bookkeeper or CFO”? Or are you more so identifying what’s missing rather than filling those roles yourself?
Doron Abrahami:
I’m not the one doing the work for them. What I am doing is giving them the tools—often something as simple as a few Excel sheets to fill out. Then we meet again two weeks later, and if those sheets aren’t completed, I’ll ask why.
Usually, the answer isn’t time—it’s that they don’t know how to get the information. That’s when we uncover the real issue: they lack the systems, processes, or people to access the data they need. From there, we identify who or what can solve that gap—maybe a better bookkeeper, maybe a new process.
The 2nd type of engagement is a bit more involved. We meet for a full day each quarter, plus additional two-hour sessions. In the months when there’s a quarterly meeting, we add one two-hour follow-up; between those months, we meet twice for two-hour sessions. So essentially, we’re meeting every two weeks.
The owner can invite anyone they want to participate—ideally their leadership team. In fact, those full-day sessions work best when the entire leadership team is at the table.
Jennifer Yousem:
Are the lengths of both of these engagements the same?
Doron Abrahami:
We charge monthly and typically work under a one-year contract—that’s usually how long it takes to see real change. The owner knows upfront exactly what they’ll pay over that year. There are no hidden fees, no hourly billing, no nickel-and-diming for phone calls or copies.
And importantly, clients get unlimited access. I don’t want someone sitting on an urgent question for two weeks until our next meeting. If something comes up that can be handled with a quick call or email, we handle it. They’re not paying for hours—they’re investing in an outcome.
Jennifer Yousem:
Makes sense. So, what’s the third engagement?
Doron Abrahami:
The third engagement is similar to the second—quarterly full-day meetings and biweekly check-ins—but it’s more intensive upfront. Instead of one full-day session at the start, we do three or four. And in the final quarter, we add another full-day session, so they end the year with two full days instead of one.
Jennifer Yousem:
And why would someone choose that over engagement two?
Doron Abrahami:
It depends on two things: speed and structure.
First, how quickly do you want to make change? The faster you want to move, the more time we need together. More meetings mean we can tackle more problems, align more moving parts, and accelerate the process.
Second, who’s doing the work? If a business doesn’t yet have a leadership team, it doesn’t make sense to do four full planning days upfront. In that case, we can build a plan in one day, and one of the first priorities will likely be hiring that first key role.
So really, it’s about balancing how fast you want to go with how much internal support you already have.
Jennifer Yousem:
Okay. And it sounds like a lot of what you’re doing involves accountability. These owners are juggling a hundred things, and you’re keeping them focused. Beyond the exit planning piece, and don’t jump through the screen when I say this, how do you differentiate yourself from traditional business coaches?
Doron Abrahami:
That is what coaching is—holding people accountable and asking the tough questions—and that’s definitely part of what we do. But we’re also consultative. We don’t just ask questions; we bring answers, frameworks, and data.
And to be clear, I have tremendous respect for business coaches—they’re incredibly valuable. The difference is that while a coach helps you achieve whatever you want to achieve, we go a step further. We’ll tell you what you should want to achieve, why it matters, and how to make it happen.
We prioritize everything based on one central question: What will have the greatest impact on the enterprise value of your business?
Jennifer Yousem:
That’s interesting, because I’ve always felt like—outside of tax strategy—every part of a business should be focused on increasing enterprise value.
Doron Abrahami:
I agree, but most business owners aren’t thinking that way. Their focus tends to be on cash flow—specifically, “How much do I get to take home?” They want that number to grow each year, and eventually they want a big payout when they sell.
The problem is, they’re thinking like CEOs, not investors. In public companies, a CEO’s goal is often tied to short-term compensation—bonuses, stock options, and things that boost their personal earnings. The board and shareholders might argue over those decisions, but there’s a structure in place to balance interests.
In a privately held business, there’s usually no board of directors to weigh in. The only priorities that matter are the owners. And typically, they want two things: to make a great living and to maximize what they’ll get when they sell. The tricky part is those goals sometimes conflict.
Jennifer Yousem:
Give me an example—because I think that’ll be really helpful.
Doron Abrahami:
Let’s say an owner builds a successful business. They want to keep growing revenue, both to feel that momentum and to increase their take-home pay.
So they decide to hire a salesperson—because if they’re the only one selling, they’re the bottleneck. To support that salesperson, they also hire a marketing agency to generate leads.
Now they’ve made significant investments—salaries, retainers, tools—and they spend 18 months to two years trying to move both revenue and profit. Sometimes revenue goes up, but profit margins—and even absolute profit—go down.
Why? Because the business wasn’t ready to scale. The financials weren’t dialed in; there was no system for recruiting or managing people, no leadership infrastructure, poor productivity—all the things that support growth were missing.
So, after two years, they look at the numbers and say, “This isn’t working. I was making more money before.” And they go back to the old way of doing things—taking home more cash in the short term, but at the expense of long-term enterprise value.
Jennifer Yousem:
Well clearly people are not thinking about this, otherwise you wouldn’t have a job. So, what are you actually saying to them in those situations? Because it’s easy to stand on the outside and say, “You’re doing this wrong,” but that’s not super helpful.
Doron Abrahami (Accelerated Business Brokers):
Exactly. We don’t say, “You’re doing it wrong.” We say, “you’re not addressing the root cause.”
The problem isn’t your sales team. The problem is you can’t hire the right sales team, or you can’t train them effectively. And the reason you can’t train them comes down to A, B, and C—whatever those foundational gaps are. And if you fix all that, then train your sales team, but your operations can’t deliver? You’ve just shot yourself in both legs.
So, it’s not about saying “do this or do that.” It’s about uncovering what’s really driving the issues. Which ones are actual issues, and which are self-created distractions. Then we prioritize the ones that have the biggest impact on enterprise value—because a business that’s exit-ready is scale-ready.
When you solve for enterprise value, you’re automatically solving for everything else that’s holding you back.
Jennifer Yousem:
That’s interesting. So, everything you’re recommending—everything that moves enterprise value—is inherently better for the long-term health of the business than the short-term fixes owners tend to chase.
Doron Abrahami:
A hundred percent. And I’ll give you an extreme example: I’ve worked with clients where, in the first year, revenue actually went down—but profit went up. They never would have imagined intentionally reducing revenue.
Jennifer Yousem:
I love that. I’ve always said that not all revenue is good revenue. And lately, a lot of companies we work with are realizing that too. They’re diving deep and really looking at segmentation and saying, “Okay, if I cut these three, my revenue might drop by 25%, but my net profit will only dip by, say, 5%.”
Doron Abrahami:
And that trade-off is absolutely worth it. In fact, once you really analyze it, you might discover that the net doesn’t drop at all. Sometimes those “cheap” clients or products you think are profitable are actually losing money. You just don’t see it because you’re not looking at the full cost picture—the time, labor, overhead, everything it takes to get that work out the door.
Jennifer Yousem:
Exactly. One of the first things we like to do is stop looking at the business as one big lump. Instead, we break it down—by engagement, or segment, or product or geography. Once you really separate it out, you can see what’s actually driving profitability.
And you’re right, especially in the last 12 to 18 months; businesses have felt squeezed. So, they’ve become more open to that conversation—though there’s still a lot of anxiety around cutting top-line revenue, even when it means improving the bottom line.
Doron Abrahami:
Yeah, it feels counterintuitive. And I get it—I’ve been that guy. You want to see all the numbers go up. But sometimes you can’t make every metric climb at once.
The mindset shift is this: instead of thinking, “I’m taking home less money,” think, “I’m reinvesting this money in the business to get a bigger long-term return.” That’s what improving the quality of earnings really means. It’s about predictability.
When you make those investments, suddenly you can hire a great salesperson and have them producing in 30 days instead of 18 months. That’s when you start compounding value.
Jennifer Yousem
That’s such a great perspective. When clients come to you, how do you define a good fit? I know they’re not all going to be exit-ready on day one, but who’s the ideal type of business for you to work with—size, stage, mindset, that kind of thing?
Doron Abrahami
The biggest factor is mindset—but let’s talk about size first. It’s easier to think in terms of employees than revenue. Typically, my clients have at least 10 employees or around $3 million in revenue—that’s the low end. On the high end, it’s about $80 million.
Below that $3 million mark, businesses are still in survival mode. And I’ll be honest, I talk to a lot of founders who can’t afford my services yet—and I tell them, “Don’t hire someone like me right now. Just focus on selling one unit a week. Once you can do that consistently for five weeks, double it. When you’re selling five a week for five weeks in a row, then call me.”
For businesses in that $3–80 million range, what I typically see is ambition without clarity. They know they’re missing something, but they don’t know what. They’re frustrated—working long hours, taking home less money, and feeling like they’re guessing all the time.
And most importantly, they don’t think they already know everything—and they don’t expect to. Because the truth is, no one does.
Jennifer Yousem
And it’s such a hard conversation because planning an exit is kind of like end-of-life planning—it’s emotional. People don’t want to write wills or make those plans but avoiding it doesn’t make it any less inevitable.
It’s the same for businesses, so much of people’s identities and emotions are tied up in them. The end might not be tomorrow, but it’s coming eventually, and planning it is just being smart.
Doron Abrahami
Totally. It’s emotional because for many owners, their business is their life’s work. And planning that exit can feel like letting go of a part of themselves.
Jennifer Yousem
And not to be super morbid, but death is inevitable and you don’t know the timeframe, whereas planning for an exit from a business, that you can control.
Doron Abrahami
Here’s the thing—it’s not just the business, and I’m not the only person you should be talking to. You should also be talking to a financial advisor, CPA, insurance broker, whatever. That’s not me. I concentrate only on the business.
Also, ideally, you’ve thought about what you’ll do when you’re no longer running the business. You sell it, you go play cards or golf for 90 days, then wake up one morning and don’t know what to do with your time. That’s a conversation to have with people you respect—people whose post-exit lives you admire.
Those are the three legs of the stool: personal, financial, business.
Jennifer Yousem
It is fascinating.
Doron Abrahami
Here’s a way I sometimes describe what I do—it makes it easier to picture. Selling a business is like selling a home. You decide to sell, say in the spring because of school schedules. You fix the broken stairs, the leaky pipe, repaint, rearrange furniture—you get it ready. And you think, “I should have done this 10 years ago.” Yeah, you should have, the house would have been more enjoyable all along.
I do the same with businesses. I get them ready to earn as much as possible at the sale, but in a way that lets owners enjoy the business before the very end.
Jennifer Yousem
I love that analogy, amortize the enjoyment over time instead of waiting until the end.
Doron Abrahami
You can have it a lot sooner than you think if you manage it right—you don’t have to wait until some point in the future to enjoy it.
Jennifer Yousem
I love that. We’ll probably end the interview on that, but is there anything I didn’t ask that you think is important for people to know?
Doron Abrahami
Yes. I’ll say it again: 70% of businesses do not sell, and it has nothing to do with profitability—they just don’t sell. Of those that do sell, most do not deliver the proceeds the owner wanted or needed. About 60% of exits are involuntary. You may plan to exit in 30 years but be ready now—don’t be a statistic.
