Three years ago, I would have had to shut the doors and walk away. But thanks to the coaching from AMI, I just deposited a 6-figure check, and there’s more to come.  I could not have made it happen if it wasn’t for the wisdom and accountability AMI provided.

The workshop Getting Your Agency Ready to Sell is built specifically for agency owners who are three to seven years out from wanting a door, any door, out — and for the leadership teams who are going to help them build the agency that’s actually worth buying.

Most agency owners think about selling for years before they do anything about it. It lives in the back of the brain as a someday. Someday when I’m tired enough. Someday when the right buyer shows up. Someday when the numbers look better. And then someday arrives, and the agency isn’t ready, the owner isn’t ready, and the offer — if one even comes — is a fraction of what the owner had quietly promised themselves it would be.

Let’s be honest about why most agencies aren’t ready to sell:

  • The whole thing runs through the owner. Take the owner out and half the client relationships wobble
  • The financials tell a story the owner can follow, but nobody else can — a messy P&L in the P&L, inconsistent categorization, one big client hiding a lot of sins
  • There’s no leadership team, just a group of loyal doers with titles
  • Client concentration is scary once you actually look at it — one, two, maybe three clients holding up the whole thing
  • Recurring revenue is a wish, not a contract
  • The “secret sauce” lives in the owner’s head, their inbox, and a shared drive nobody has cleaned up in eight years

On top of that, the owner:

  • Has never had a real conversation about what different types of buyers actually want, and how each one values an agency differently
  • Doesn’t know the difference between what a strategic buyer, a financial buyer, a private equity roll-up, and an internal successor will each pay for — and why
  • Hasn’t thought through the levers they can actually pull in the next 24–36 months to move the number
  • Is quietly hoping a broker or a friend-of-a-friend will hand them a life-changing offer
  • Hasn’t decided what “enough” even looks like — the number, the timeline, the role after the sale, the life on the other side

Our one-day workshop, Getting Your Agency Ready to Sell, was built to solve this once and for all. Can every agency sell for a great multiple? Nope. But almost every agency can be worth significantly more in three years than it is today — if the owner starts pulling the right levers now, for the right kind of buyer.

And here’s the truth nobody says out loud. Getting ready to sell is the same work as building an agency you’d actually want to keep. The habits, the systems, the leadership team, the recurring revenue, the client mix — that’s not just what a buyer wants. That’s what gives you your life back whether you sell in three years, thirteen, or never. The sale is just the option you earn by doing the work.

We’ll cover:

  • The different types of buyers — strategic, financial, private equity, holding company, internal (employee, family) or another agency — and what each one actually values, pays for, and structures deals around
  • What drives a valuation in an agency sale — EBITDA, AGI, client mix, recurring revenue, growth trend, team depth, owner dependency — and roughly where the multiples land for each buyer type
  • The levers you can pull in the next 24–36 months to move the number, and which levers matter most depending on who you want to sell to
  • How to reduce owner dependency without gutting the thing that makes your agency special
  • Client concentration, contract structure, and revenue quality — how buyers actually read your book of business
  • Cleaning up the financials so someone else can read them without you in the room
  • Building the leadership team a buyer will pay for — and that will run the place after you’re gone
  • The intangibles buyers quietly weigh — culture, retention, IP, niche authority, and whether the agency has a story that continues without you
  • How to decide what “ready” means for you personally — the number, the role after the sale, the earn-out you can live with, and the life you’re actually selling toward
  • The mistakes owners make in the 12 months before a sale that cost them real money, and how to avoid every one of them

Of course, there’s a ton of interaction, so each workshop is unique to the participants. You’ll walk away with an honest read on where your agency sits today, a clear picture of which buyer type actually fits you, and a step-by-step plan for the levers you’re going to pull first — starting with the one that will move your valuation the most.

Workshop Schedule is 9 am – 3 pm (Mountain Time) on December 10th

Sign up for the Getting Your Agency Ready to Sell Workshop Today!

The workshop is taught virtually.

Click here to Register Online – December 10th, 2026

Tuition: $1,295 for non-members. $995 for members. Each additional registrant gets an additional $200 savings.

Our cancellation policy is here.

Money-back guarantee: If you are not completely satisfied with this workshop for any reason, just call or email us, and you will be refunded 100% of your tuition — no questions asked. In all the years we have offered this workshop, no one has ever asked for a refund.

About Drew McLellan: Drew is a 25+ year agency owner, nationally renowned speaker, AdAge-ranked blogger, Agency Advantage facilitator, coach, and CEO/Partner at Agency Management Institute.

He has written several books, including Sell with Authority (2020), and is often found quoted in the pages of the New York Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Fortune Small Business. The Wall Street Journal called his blog “one of 10 blogs every entrepreneur should read.”

Drew works with the owners and leaders of over 300 agencies a year, helping them increase their bottom lines.