For many owners, selling the business is tomorrow’s problem. The trouble is that leadership, financial discipline, customer relationships and owner independence can’t be built overnight.

A strong business can still give a buyer plenty of reasons to lower the price. Customer concentration, owner dependency, messy financials or years of underinvestment can all change how a buyer views value, even when the company is growing.

At Business Transitions Forum Atlantic, Adam Doiron, Owner of Prince Edward Island Preserve Company and former owner of Coach Atlantic Group; Jalal Jetha, Managing Director of Cascadia Equity Partners; and Dwight Fraser, Founding Partner of Franchise Management Inc., Fensmarket Inc. and Clearstone Capital, joined moderator Jillian Murray, Partner at Doane Grant Thornton LLP, to share what decades of acquisitions have taught them.