Does it hurt my price if I've never formalized my processes anywhere?

It can, mainly because undocumented processes are a close cousin of owner dependency — if the way the business actually runs exists only in your head or in the habits of a few long-time staff, a buyer has no way to verify it will survive the transition, and that uncertainty tends to get priced in as risk.

The nuance is that this is one of the more fixable issues on this list, and fixing it doesn't require an elaborate operations manual. Even a reasonably organized written record of how key functions actually work — how orders get fulfilled, how pricing decisions get made, who does what — gives a buyer something concrete to evaluate instead of having to take your word for it. It also protects you during negotiations, since a buyer who can see the business runs on a system rather than on improvisation has less basis to argue that everything depends on you personally.

If formalizing everything before a sale isn't realistic in your timeframe, prioritizing the handful of processes that matter most to the business's ongoing performance is usually enough to meaningfully change how a buyer sees the risk. A business lawyer or a valuator can help you identify which gaps actually matter most to a buyer, rather than trying to document everything at once.