Guest Podcast by John Lee Dumas on EOFire
The Buyer of Your Business is a Full-Time Predator and You’re Part-Time Prey – Armor Up with Kirk Michie
Selling a business is often treated as a milestone—the finish line after years of hard work. In reality, it’s a separate discipline with its own rules, incentives, and power dynamics. Founders typically step into this process once. Buyers operate in it every day.
In this episode, Kirk Michie pulls back the curtain on how buyers think, where sellers give up leverage without realizing it, and why so many successful founders walk away with regret. The conversation challenges the assumption that a great business automatically leads to a great exit—and explains what it actually takes to protect value, structure a deal intelligently, and align the outcome with what the founder truly wants next.
Most founders spend decades learning how to build and run a successful company. Very few spend meaningful time learning how companies are bought—and that imbalance shows up at the finish line.
In a wide-ranging conversation on Entrepreneurs On Fire, Kirk Michie lays out a blunt reality: buyers live in the M&A world full time. Founders step into it once, often at the most emotionally charged moment of their professional lives. That mismatch in experience, incentives, and preparation is why so many sellers walk away with regret.
The core idea is simple but uncomfortable. Success does not equal value. A business can generate strong cash flow, support a great lifestyle, and still be unattractive—or risky—in the eyes of a buyer. Customer concentration, thin margins, unclear financials, or over-reliance on the founder can quietly cap value long before a price is ever discussed.
Why sellers regret their exits
According to Kirk, most regrets don’t come from the decision to sell. They come from skipping the work that should have happened before going to market.
Many founders never slow down to articulate why they are selling. Burnout, fear of economic cycles, retirement, or simple boredom all get lumped together as “it’s time.” Without clarity on the real objective, sellers chase offers that look good on paper but fail to deliver satisfaction—financially or personally.
That lack of clarity also leads to structural mistakes. Sellers give up information too early. They accept a buyer’s valuation logic without pressure-testing it. They agree to terms they don’t fully understand. Later, when they compare notes with peers, they realize there were better options—but no second chance.
Buyers are trained for this. Sellers usually aren’t.
Buyers run deals for a living. They know when to push diligence early, when to anchor valuation, and how to structure terms that shift risk back to the seller. None of this makes buyers villains—it makes them professionals.
The problem is sellers often rely on instincts that served them well while building the business, but don’t scale to a transaction. Selling a company is not an extension of operating it. It’s a different discipline entirely.
That’s why Kirk emphasizes the importance of experienced, independent advisors. Not every deal calls for a Wall Street investment bank running a broad auction. In many cases, alternative paths—internal sales, successor development, partial liquidity, or a carefully chosen buyer—produce better after-tax and life outcomes. The right answer depends on alignment, not ego.
6 patterns behind successful exits
Across dozens of closed deals and hundreds reviewed, Kirk sees the same factors show up when exits go well:
First, sellers are clear on their “why,” and they don’t compromise it for a headline price.
Second, the financials are clean, credible, and defensible.
Third, information is shared deliberately, not emotionally or prematurely.
Fourth, sellers surround themselves with advisors who have real transaction reps.
Fifth, buyers are filtered quickly based on fit, not flattery.
And finally, sellers manage themselves—avoiding reactive decisions that damage leverage.
Miss one or two of these, and the deal may still close. Miss several, and regret becomes likely.
Turning a successful business into a valuable one
Value is not created during a sale—it’s realized during one. The real work happens years earlier.
A business with diversified customers, predictable margins, disciplined reporting, and growth levers is far easier to sell—and commands better terms. Often, the difference between a “nice business” and a “highly valuable business” comes down to a handful of strategic changes made 18 to 36 months before an exit.
That is where Candor Advisors focuses its work. Rather than only showing up at the moment of sale, Candor helps founders understand what their business is worth today, what it could be worth, and which changes actually move the needle. The goal is not just a transaction, but an outcome that aligns with the founder’s financial, personal, and legacy objectives.
The conversation itself took place on Entrepreneurs On Fire, a long-running show built around evergreen lessons from experienced operators. That format matters. Exits aren’t about hacks or trends. They’re about preparation, self-awareness, and understanding the game you’re stepping into.
For founders thinking even loosely about an exit, the message is clear: if buyers are full-time predators, the solution isn’t fear. It’s preparation. Armor comes from clarity, structure, and the humility to recognize that selling a business is its own craft—one worth learning before it’s too late.
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6 Secrets to Selling Your Business
