When’s the best time to start planning a successful exit? Business experts will tell you it’s … yesterday. And yet so many entrepreneurs are way too caught up working in their business, not on their business, to ever contemplate pivoting profitably.

But what if AI could streamline this process, giving overworked small business owners the essential tools they need before it’s too late? This is the question David Hern recently asked. CEO of Sofer Advisors, it’s his role to get businesses in shape to sell. In 2019, he founded a Georgia-based valuation firm that specializes in conveying the accurate story of companies based on their numbers—both past and future—to facilitate successful transitions.

“What breaks my heart professionally?” he asked when I sat down with him. “Seeing so few businesses continue life in a new form. It hurts me every time I read about a business shutting down, causing so much loss for stakeholders and damage to the community with the void they leave behind.”