Privacy Policy

Last updated: 30 – 09 – 2026

Effective from: 30 – 09 – 2026

In plain English

You are considering trusting me with information about the business you have spent your life building. Here is how that information is handled.

I collect only what I need to help you, and I tell you why at the point I ask for it.
I never sell, rent or trade your information, and I never pass it to anyone in exchange for a referral fee or commission.
Your financial and commercial information stays confidential, and it is not disclosed to any potential buyer, broker or adviser without your written instruction.
You can ask to see what I hold about you, ask me to correct it, and ask me to delete it.
You can opt out of every marketing communication with one click, and I will still help you.

The detail follows. If anything here is unclear, ask me directly. The contact details are at the end.

1. Who this policy applies to

This Privacy Policy applies to Exit Ready Business Mr Scott Davison (T/A Exit Ready Business) ABN 36734504018 (“Exit Ready Business”, “we”, “us”, “I”, “me”), and to the website exitreadybusiness.com.au and all related services, resources and communications.

It explains how we collect, hold, use, disclose, secure and dispose of personal information, and how you can access, correct or complain about the handling of that information.

We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) and the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth).

[SEE BUILD NOTE: confirm with your lawyer whether to add the sentence: “Although Exit Ready Business may fall within the small business exemption in section 6D of the Privacy Act, we have chosen to comply with the Australian Privacy Principles in full.”]

By using this website or engaging our services, you accept the practices described in this policy.

2. What we mean by personal information

Personal information is information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information is true or not and whether it is recorded in a material form or not.

Sensitive information is a subset of personal information that includes health information and information about a person’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, criminal record and biometric data. Sensitive information attracts a higher level of protection under the APPs.

We do not seek sensitive information, and it is not required in order to work with us. If sensitive information is volunteered to us, for example where a health issue is the reason an owner is bringing forward an exit timeline, we collect it only with consent, use it only for the purpose it was given, and hold it under the same protections described in this policy.

3. What personal information we collect

We collect the following kinds of personal information.

Identity and contact information

Name, business name, position or role, email address, phone number, postal address and location.

Engagement information

The content of your enquiry, the notes taken during a call or meeting, your stated timeline and objectives, the outcome of any assessment we complete, our correspondence with you, and records of the services provided to you.

Commercial and financial information about your business

Where you engage us, we may receive financial statements, management accounts, tax returns, customer and supplier information, employee structures, contracts, asset registers and similar records. Some of this will be information about identifiable individuals, such as your staff, your customers or your co-owners. Where it is, it is personal information and it is protected under this policy. Where it is not, it is still confidential, and section 5 explains how it is handled.

Website and technical information

IP address, device and browser type, operating system, pages visited, time spent on pages, referring website, and the search terms that brought you to us. Section 8 explains cookies and analytics.

Resource and assessment information

Where you complete the Exit Ready Quiz, download a resource or subscribe to our updates, we collect the information you enter and your responses.

Payment information

Where you engage us, our payment processor collects your payment details. We do not store complete credit card numbers on our systems.

4. How we collect personal information

Wherever it is reasonable and practicable, we collect personal information directly from you. That includes when you:

complete a form, quiz or resource download on our website;
book a meeting through our online calendar;
call, email, message or meet with us;
subscribe to our updates, or attend a webinar, seminar or event we run;
engage us to provide services;
connect with us on a social or professional platform.

We may also collect personal information from third parties, including publicly available sources such as ASIC and ABN registers, company websites, LinkedIn and industry directories, and from advisers acting for you where you have asked them to provide information to us. Where we collect your information from someone other than you, we will take reasonable steps to notify you of the collection, unless you would already reasonably expect it.

Anonymity and pseudonymity

You may deal with us anonymously or under a pseudonym when making a general enquiry. We will let you know where this is not practicable, which will be the case for any engagement, assessment or valuation work, because that work cannot be done without knowing whose business it is.

5. Confidentiality of your business information

This section sits outside our obligations under the Privacy Act and it is how we work.

Information about your business, its performance, its ownership and your intention to exit is commercially sensitive. It is treated as confidential in every circumstance.

We do not disclose your identity, your financial information or the fact that you are considering an exit to any potential buyer, broker, lender, adviser or other party without your prior written instruction.
We will enter a mutual confidentiality agreement or non-disclosure agreement on request, at any stage, including before a first conversation.
We do not use your business information, your financial results or your outcome as a case study, testimonial or marketing example, in identified or de-identified form, without your prior written consent.
We take no success fee on the sale of your business, and no commission, referral fee or benefit from any party we introduce you to. Your information is never a commercial asset that we trade.

6. Why we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information

We collect personal information for the following purposes:

to respond to your enquiry and arrange a meeting;
to assess your business and prepare a valuation snapshot, readiness assessment or value acceleration plan;
to provide, manage and improve our services to you;
to communicate with you about your engagement;
to send you relevant information, resources, updates and invitations, where you have consented or where you would reasonably expect it;
to improve our website, content and services;
to process payments and manage our accounts;
to comply with our legal, regulatory, accounting and record-keeping obligations;
to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim.

We use personal information only for the purpose for which it was collected, for a directly related purpose you would reasonably expect, or for another purpose with your consent or where the law permits or requires it.

7. Direct marketing and how to opt out

We may send you marketing communications, including newsletters, resources, articles and event invitations, where you have subscribed, where you have provided your details in connection with an enquiry or engagement, or where you would otherwise reasonably expect to receive them.

Every marketing email we send includes a functional unsubscribe link. We action unsubscribe requests promptly and in any event within five business days, as required by the Spam Act 2003 (Cth).

You can also opt out at any time by emailing scott@scottdavison.net with “Unsubscribe” in the subject line, or by calling +61 499 774 688.

You may ask us at any time:

to stop sending you direct marketing;
to tell you the source of the information we used to contact you;
not to disclose your information to other organisations for the purpose of their direct marketing.

Opting out of marketing does not affect the service you receive from us, and it does not stop communications that relate directly to a service you have engaged us for.

We do not use or disclose sensitive information for direct marketing purposes.

We comply with the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth) and check the Do Not Call Register before making unsolicited marketing calls.

8. Cookies, analytics and online tracking

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies. A cookie is a small text file placed on your device that lets a website recognise your browser and remember certain information.

We use:

Essential cookies, which are required for the site to function. These cannot be disabled.
Analytics cookies, which help us understand how visitors use the site so we can improve it. We use Google Analytics 4.
Advertising and remarketing cookies, which allow us to show relevant content to people who have visited the site. We use Google Ads.

You can control cookies through our cookie banner and through your browser settings. Blocking some cookies may affect how the site works.

Some of these tools are operated by third parties who collect information directly and handle it under their own privacy policies. We encourage you to review them:

Google: https://policies.google.com/privacy
Meta: https://www.facebook.com/privacy/policy
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy

Our site does not currently respond to “Do Not Track” browser signals, as no consistent industry standard exists.

9. Who we disclose personal information to

We may disclose personal information to:

Service providers who help us operate, including our customer relationship management platform, email and calendar providers, email marketing platform, scheduling tool, cloud storage and document management provider, accounting and payment systems, website host and IT support. These providers are bound to use the information only for the purposes of providing their services to us.
Professional advisers, including our accountants, lawyers and insurers, where reasonably required.
Parties you ask us to deal with, such as your accountant, solicitor, broker, financial adviser, bank or a specific prospective buyer. We do this only on your instruction.
Government agencies, regulators, courts or law enforcement, where required or authorised by law.
A purchaser of our business, in the event we sell or transfer our own business or assets, subject to confidentiality obligations.

We do not sell, rent or trade personal information. We do not disclose your information to any party in exchange for a fee, commission or referral benefit.

10. Overseas disclosure

Some of our service providers store or process information on servers located outside Australia, including in the United States and the European Union. This is common for cloud-based email, CRM, scheduling, marketing and storage platforms.

Before disclosing personal information to an overseas recipient, we take reasonable steps to ensure the recipient handles it in a way consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles, as APP 8 requires.

The countries in which our current providers store data are: United States, Ireland, Australia.

11. How we store and secure your information

We hold personal information in electronic form in our cloud-based systems and, where relevant, in physical documents.

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure, including:

access controls, unique logins and multi-factor authentication on business systems;
encryption of data in transit and at rest with our platform providers;
restricting access to information to those who need it;
secure storage of physical documents and secure destruction when no longer required;
regular software updates and reputable endpoint security;
confidentiality obligations on any contractor or subcontractor engaged by us.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure. While we take our obligations seriously, we cannot guarantee absolute security, and information you send us over the internet is sent at your own risk.

Data breaches

We maintain a data breach response plan. If an eligible data breach occurs, meaning unauthorised access to or disclosure or loss of personal information that is likely to result in serious harm, we will assess it promptly and, where the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires, notify affected individuals and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

12. How long we keep your information

We keep personal information only as long as it is needed for the purposes described in this policy, or as long as we are required to keep it by law. In general terms:

Enquiries that do not proceed: retained for up to 24 months, then deleted or de-identified.
Client engagement records: retained for at least seven years after the engagement ends, consistent with our taxation, corporate and professional record-keeping obligations.
Marketing subscriptions: retained until you unsubscribe, plus a suppression record so we do not contact you again.
Website analytics: retained for the period set in the relevant platform, currently 12 months.

When personal information is no longer needed and we are not required to retain it, we destroy it securely or de-identify it.

13. Automated decisions

We do not use computer programs to make decisions about you that could reasonably be expected to significantly affect your rights or interests.

The Exit Ready Quiz uses a scoring rule to produce an indicative readiness result from the answers you provide. That result is informational. It does not determine whether we will work with you, on what terms, or what your business is worth. Every decision about an engagement, a valuation and a recommendation is made by a person.

14. Accessing and correcting your information

You can ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you at any time. You can also ask us to correct information that is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading.

To make a request, contact us using the details in section 17. We will need to verify your identity.

We will respond to your request within 30 days. In most cases there is no charge. If a request is complex or extensive, we may charge a reasonable cost-based fee and we will tell you what it is before we proceed.

There are limited circumstances in which we may refuse access or correction, for example where granting access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others, or where we are legally required or authorised to refuse. If we refuse, we will tell you why in writing and explain how to complain.

15. Third party websites

Our website may link to other websites, including those of professional bodies, publications and service providers. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those sites. We encourage you to read their privacy policies before providing any information to them.

16. Children

Our website and services are directed at business owners and are not intended for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

17. How to contact us, and how to complain

If you have a question about this policy, want to access or correct your information, or want to make a complaint about how we have handled your personal information, contact us first:

Privacy Officer

Exit Ready Business

Email: scott@scottdavison.net

Phone: +61 499 774 688

We will acknowledge your complaint within five business days and respond in full within 30 days. If we need longer, we will tell you why and agree a timeframe with you.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner:

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)

Website: https://www.oaic.gov.au

Phone: 1300 363 992

18. Changes to this policy

We review this policy at least annually and update it when our practices, systems or legal obligations change. The current version is always available at exitreadybusiness.com.au/privacy-policy, with the date it was last updated shown at the top.

Where a change is significant, we will take reasonable steps to notify you, including by email where you are a client or subscriber.