When Sean Kernan wanted out of the financial advisor support business he co-founded in Dallas, he didn't shop it to outside acquirers, and he didn't wait for his five partners to make him an offer. He engineered the buyout himself. Three and a half months from the first conversation to the wire hitting his account, $500,000 in cash, no earn-out, no holdback.

In this episode, you discover how to:

Open the conversation with your partners without triggering a defensive reaction or a stall

Anchor your price to a prior valuation event so the number is hard to argue with

Use a deliberately low ask as leverage to get speed, certainty, and 100% cash upfront

Identify which one of your partners is most likely to write the check, and approach them first

Source the cash from a platform partner, franchisor, or custodian who holds the underlying assets

Negotiate a "ceasefire" non-compete that protects the buyers without trapping you

Read inbound acquirer silence as market signal before you push the group toward a full sale

Spot the partner who is too eager to buy, and what that eagerness usually means