Soft white clouds on a light background, decorative visual for website design

Use for Free

EXIT PLANNING & VALUE CREATION · FOUNDERS WITH $5M–$30M REVENUE

The biggest exit decisions are made years before the sale

We work alongside founders for two to five years to build the value buyers pay for. Every engagement is led weekly by a Certified Exit Planning Advisor, never a junior team.

Behind every engagement is a network of senior tax, legal, wealth and M&A specialists working as one team with you and the advisors you already trust.

Get your free exit diagnostic

15 minutes. A business health report and potential value range.

Winding mountain road at sunrise with a lone traveler, representing the long-term exit planning journey

You don't have to walk this road alone

Why Choose Us

One lead for your whole exit

Selling your company is a business decision, a financial decision and a personal one, and no single advisor can cover all three. Your exit planning is always led by a Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA): one point of contact who runs the roadmap, recommends the right expertise at the right time, and keeps everyone working toward the same goal.

What is Exit Planning?

Exit planning is business strategy: preparing an owner and the business for the eventual transfer of ownership. Every exit plan should maximize business value, minimize taxes and help the owner reach their personal, financial and business goals.

What is Exit Planning?

It's not about leaving. It's about having OPTIONS.

Free Consultation

Exit planning advisor reviewing a value roadmap with a machine shop founder

Conductor leading an orchestra, representing one advisor coordinating every expert

Exit planning advisor meeting with a founder, CPA and attorney in a machine shop conference room

Our Services

From exit strategy to signed deal, built for aerospace & defense precision manufacturers

Four services, one roadmap. We find what's holding back your value, fix it, and take you to market ready for diligence. Your exit advisor coordinates your CPA, attorneys and other advisors so nothing falls between them.

Exit planning advisor reviewing plans with a manager overlooking a CNC machine shop floor

Machinist measuring a precision aerospace component with digital calipers

Exit Strategy & Value Discovery

Most owners don't know their enterprise value until a buyer tells them. We start by establishing your baseline: how a buyer would value your business today, where value is leaking, and what your business, financial and personal goals for an exit really are.

Financial model on a monitor in a precision machine shop

Financial & Systems Readiness

Buyers pay for earnings they can trust. We rebuild the financial foundation of your business, including costing, inventory, controls and reporting, so your numbers hold up in diligence and the business runs without you holding it together.

Value Acceleration

Close the gaps that cost you multiples.

We work alongside you to grow the value buyers pay for. That means making the business less dependent on you, less dependent on a few customers, and more attractive in a sector buyers are actively watching.

Exit planning advisor with M&A specialists and owner review exit transition in the meeting room of a machine shop

Exit Execution & Transition

Most deals that fall apart do so in diligence. We prepare your business before a buyer starts looking, then coordinate your entire deal team through close and beyond. You go to market with no surprises and leave on your terms.

The Expertise Behind Every Engagement

Exit planning, backed by inside experience in corporate finance

Most exit planners advise from the outside. Our founder spent over 20 years inside the finance functions of S&P 500 and global public companies, including an aerospace and defense contractor. She worked on the buyer's team after a $3B acquisition, integrating the systems, cleaning up the books and consolidating the reporting. Now she prepares founders to the standard buyers hold them to.

Coin-operated telescope overlooking an industrial area, representing a buyer’s-eye view

A buyer's-eye view of M&A

We prepare your business for the diligence questions buyers actually ask, and the integration questions they ask after closing.

A&D manufacturing finance

Seen from the inside. No learning curve on how a precision machine shop makes money.

KPI dashboard on a tablet beside a machined aerospace bracket

Finance systems & AI-enabled automation

Reporting that runs without you, KPIs buyers trust, and automation that makes your business look like a scalable acquisition.

Disciplined execution

Your 90-day Exit Lift, then 90-day sprints, run like a real program: milestones, owners and weekly progress, not a binder on a shelf.

Machined metal steps rising to a gold block, representing step-by-step value growth

Our Strategic Ecosystem

The CiVER Value Partners Strategic Ecosystem

At CiVER, we orchestrate a dedicated ecosystem of strategic experts across business, finance, and wealth planning to ensure every element of your transition is integrated and optimized for maximum enterprise value.

CiVER sells no financial products and takes no commission on your deal. Ecosystem partners are independent and engaged directly by you.

Cathy Hou, CEPA, CMA, CSCA, MBA, PMP
Founder & CEO, CiVER Value Partners civervp.com
A finance leader with over 20 years of experience at Qualcomm, Amazon, Intuit and ResMed, and in aerospace and defense manufacturing, she helps founders of $5M-$30M revenue build buyer-grade financials, run the business without depending on the owner, and exit on their terms. www.civervp.com
Jason "Wally" Waldron, CEPA
Founder & President, Exitology.com
Wally helps B2B owners who feel trapped in their business grow faster, maximize value, and buy back their freedom. A CEPA and nationally recognized growth strategist, he is the author of Exitology, whose methods advisory firms use across North America, and host of the Exitology Podcast. www.exitology.com
Frank Garcia, LUTCF, CSA, RSSA®
Founder, InsuranceKO · Beacon Financial Pathways
Frank has spent more than 20 years helping business owners and their families protect what they've built. He coordinates life, disability, and long-term care coverage, buy-sell funding, and guaranteed-income strategies with each client's legal, tax, and Social Security planning — so the proceeds of a lifetime of work are protected from the risks a term sheet doesn't cover. CA Insurance Lic. #0671410.

Cathy Hou, CEPA, CMA, CSCA, MBA, PMP
Founder & CEO, CiVER Value Partners civervp.com
A finance leader with over 20 years of experience at Qualcomm, Amazon, Intuit and ResMed, and in aerospace and defense manufacturing, she helps founders of $5M-$30M revenue build buyer-grade financials, run the business without depending on the owner, and exit on their terms. www.civervp.com
Jason "Wally" Waldron, CEPA
Founder & President, Exitology.com
Wally helps B2B owners who feel trapped in their business grow faster, maximize value, and buy back their freedom. A CEPA and nationally recognized growth strategist, he is the author of Exitology, whose methods advisory firms use across North America, and host of the Exitology Podcast. www.exitology.com
Frank Garcia, LUTCF, CSA, RSSA®
Founder, InsuranceKO · Beacon Financial Pathways
Frank has spent more than 20 years helping business owners and their families protect what they've built. He coordinates life, disability, and long-term care coverage, buy-sell funding, and guaranteed-income strategies with each client's legal, tax, and Social Security planning — so the proceeds of a lifetime of work are protected from the risks a term sheet doesn't cover. CA Insurance Lic. #0671410.

Areas of expertise

50+

Years of experience

50+

Years of experience

The Better Choice

Why Clients Choose Us

We find the value gaps buyers will find, then fix them: your financials, your systems, your compliance story.

CiVER Value Partners:
One team, one plan, one language

✔ Finance-first expertise: corporate finance transformation and technical accounting

✔ Built for your industry: aerospace & defense precision manufacturing

✔ Financial gaps identified and fixed: job costing, close process, add-backs

✔ Systems that run without you: ERP data cleanup, KPI dashboards, quoting you can hand off

✔ Diligence-ready: mock quality of earnings and data room completed before you go to market

✔ CEPA-led, every week: one point of contact from strategy through close

✔ One coordinated Strategic Ecosystem that works with your existing advisors

Other Consulting firms

✖ Generic playbooks, not built for A&D shops

✖ They diagnose problems, then leave fixing to you

✖ Advice tied to products, assets or commissions

✖ Slow, fragmented communication across advisors

Going It Alone

✖ Generic online information that doesn't fit your business

✖ No expert to pressure-test your numbers

✖ Valuation guesses instead of a defensible range

✖ Gaps surface in buyer diligence, when they cost you the most

Get your free exit diagnostic

Take the 15-minute diagnostic

Our blog

Insights & News

Our blog shares insights from our senior strategic partners, offering practical guidance and best practices across a range of business topics.

SBA SOP 50 10 8.1 quality of earnings and add-back requirements

Oct 26, 2026

Insights

Audit-Proof Your Add-Backs Before the Bank Does

Iceberg with most of its mass below the waterline, representing AI is the small portion above the water and the proof is the bigger portion under water.

Sep 28, 2026

Operations

Buyers Don’t Pay for AI. They Pay for Proof

Aug 24, 2026

Strategy

Plan Forward, Execute Backward: Why Exit Planning Is a Business Strategy

Jul 27, 2026

Branding

Why We Named It CiVER

FAQS

Frequently Asked Questions

Straight answers for owners thinking about value, timing and the exit.

Free Consultation

What does your firm specialize in?

Which industries do you work with?

What is exit planning, and how is it different from just selling my business?

When should I start planning my exit?

I’m not planning to sell anytime soon. Is this still for me?

How is CiVER different from a business broker or M&A advisor?

Will you replace my CPA, attorney or wealth advisor?

What does the free Exit Readiness Diagnostic involve? Is it confidential?

What does your firm specialize in?

Which industries do you work with?

What is exit planning, and how is it different from just selling my business?

When should I start planning my exit?

Let’s Talk Strategy

Tell us where you are. We'll tell you what buyers will see, and which gaps to close first. Prefer to start on your own? Take the free 15-minute Exit Readiness Diagnostic —>

Person standing on a rock summit with arms raised at sunrise

Let’s Talk Strategy

Tell us where you are. We'll tell you what buyers will see, and which gaps to close first. Prefer to start on your own? Take the free 15-minute Exit Readiness Diagnostic —>

Let’s Talk Strategy

Tell us where you are. We'll tell you what buyers will see, and which gaps to close first. Prefer to start on your own? Take the free 15-minute Exit Readiness Diagnostic —>

The biggest exit decisions are made years before the sale

The biggest exit decisions are made years before the sale

One lead for your whole exit

One lead for your whole exit

From exit strategy to signed deal, built for aerospace & defense precision manufacturers

From exit strategy to signed deal, built for aerospace & defense precision manufacturers

Exit Strategy & Value Discovery

Financial & Systems Readiness

Value Acceleration

Exit Execution & Transition

Exit planning, backed by inside experience in corporate finance

Exit planning, backed by inside experience in corporate finance

A buyer's-eye view of M&A

A&D manufacturing finance

Finance systems & AI-enabled automation

Disciplined execution

The CiVER Value Partners Strategic Ecosystem

The CiVER Value Partners Strategic Ecosystem

Why Clients Choose Us

Why Clients Choose Us

CiVER Value Partners: One team, one plan, one language

Other Consulting firms

Going It Alone

Insights & News

Insights & News

Audit-Proof Your Add-Backs Before the Bank Does

Buyers Don’t Pay for AI. They Pay for Proof

Plan Forward, Execute Backward: Why Exit Planning Is a Business Strategy

Why We Named It CiVER

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Let’s Talk Strategy

Let’s Talk Strategy

Let’s Talk Strategy

CiVER Value Partners:
One team, one plan, one language