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Showing posts with label business valuation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label business valuation. Show all posts

Sunday, November 6, 2016

Case Study: How Three Moves Quadrupled the Value of this Business

Are you stuck trying to figure out how to create some recurring revenue for your business? 

You know those automatic sales will make your business more valuable and predictable, but the secret to transforming your company is to think less about whats in it for you and more about coming up with a reason for customers to agree to a monthly bill.

Take a look at the transformation of Laura Stewards company, Guardian Angel. Steward had gotten her IT consulting firm up to $400,000 in revenue when she called in a valuation consultant to help her put a price on her business. Steward was disappointed to learn her company was worth less than fifty percent of one years sales because she had no recurring revenue and what sales she did have were dependent on her personally.

Steward set about to transform her business into a more valuable company and made three big moves:

1. Angel Watch

The first thing Steward did was to design a monthly program called Angel Watch, which offered her business clients ongoing protection from technology problems. Steward offered her Angel Watch customers ongoing remote monitoring of their networks, pre-emptive virus protection and staff on call if there was ever a problem.  

Steward approached her clients with a calculation of what they had spent with her firm over the most recent 12-month period, including the cost of her customers downtime. She made the case that by signing up for Angel Watch, they would save money when taking into consideration both the hard costs of her firms time and the soft costs associated with downtime.

90% of her customers switched from hourly billing to the Angel Watch program.

2.      Doubling Rates

Next Steward doubled her personal consulting rates. That way, when one of the customers who decided not to opt into Angel Watch called her firm, they were quoted one rate for a technicians time or twice the price to have Steward herself. Not surprisingly, most customers opted for the cheaper option and others chose to re-consider their decision not to sign up for Angel Watch.

3.      Survivor Clause

Steward also credits a small legal maneuver for further driving up the value of her business. She included a “survivor clause” in her Angel Watch contracts, which stipulated that the obligations of the agreement would “survive” a change of ownership of her company.

Steward went on to successfully sell her business at a price that was more than four times the original valuation she had received just two years prior to launching Angel Watch.



Steve Goranson has owned and operated the Northeast Florida of ActionCOACH since 2014. ActionCOACH is the World's #1 Coaching franchise with of 1000 offices in 50 different countries. They coach over 15,000 business each week.

Steve's commitment is to assist small business owners, to spend less time working "in" their business and more time working "on" their business so they can build a more valuable and sellable business. In the end, you’ll be spending less total time working, will be making more money and will have truly created the company and team you always dreamed of. In addition we will help you put the FUN back in your business and your life.



If you would like to learn more about how you too can get an "actionable" business education to improve your business's operations, sales,& bottom line contact ActionCOACH Steve Goranson to schedule a free 1/2 hour Phone Strategy Session  at 904-739-0200. www.actioncoachjax.com

Monday, September 19, 2016

Thinking Vs. Doing: The Owner’s Dilemma

Theres a steady breeze from the northwest, which cools the warm Caribbean afternoon. Framed between a palm tree and the turquoise water, you notice a man reading. He appears to be working, which seems strange given his appearance: shaggy blonde hair, linen shirt, surf shorts and flip-flops.

You squint and realize the man is Richard Branson and he just happens to be running Virgin Group Ltd., a multibillion-dollar conglomerate. He is working where he usually does, at Necker Island, a 74-acre retreat he owns in the British Virgin Islands.

Branson, of course, is far from a negligent founder, he has managers running the various businesses that make up the Virgin Group and visits his companies regularly, but he does not manage the day-to-day operations of any of his businesses, which frees up his time to think.

The train conductor vs. the thinker

Your role as a CEO/owner can be divided into two buckets: one for managing and the other for thinking.

The managing bucket is where, metaphorically speaking, you ensure the trains all run on time. In this role, youre establishing goals for your employees and holding them accountable for achieving their targets. Youre making sure your products and services are of a high quality and that your biggest customers are happy.

When youre wearing your manager hat, youre scouring your company looking for small enhancements every day. This obsession with continuous improvement is what big companies call “six-sigma thinking,” but you probably just think of it as building a great company.

The other bucket is reserved for thinking and its where you create the future of your company. In this visionary time, you get to design new products, imagine new ways of serving customers, or contemplate where you could take your business in the years ahead. 

Your visionary hours are spent dreaming and imaging what your business could be, instead of worrying about what it is today.

The most valuable companies

The question is, how much of your time should you devote to each role? If your goal is to create a more valuable business—one that someone might like to buy one day—our data reveals that you should start gradually increasing the time you spend on thinking and hire someone else to do the managing.

Studies have shown that companies of owners who know each of their customers by first name (i.e., managers) trade at just 2.9 times their pre-tax profit, whereas the companies of owners who do not know their customersfirst names (i.e., thinkers) trade at closer to 5 times pre-tax profit.

Further, companies that would suffer if their owners were unable to come to work for three months, receive significantly lower offers when compared to companies that would not feel the absence of the owner for a month or two.

Finally, in a recent survey of merger and acquisition (M&A) professionals, we asked who they like to see an owner hire if they can only afford one “C-level” executive. The M&A professionals overwhelmingly identified a general manager/second-in-command as the most important role a founder can fill ahead of a chief revenue, marketing or financial officer.

In short, the owners of the most valuable businesses have found managers to ensure the trains run on time while they spend an increasing amount of their energy thinking about whats next for their business.

If you are interested in getting a free preliminary business valuation estimate of what your business is worth call our office at 904.739.-0200 or start your free evaluation right away by Clicking Here



Steve Goranson has owned and operated the Northeast Florida of ActionCOACH since 2014. ActionCOACH is the World's #1 Coaching franchise with of 1000 offices in 50 different countries. They coach over 15,000 business each week.

Steve's commitment is to assist small business owners, to spend less time working "in" their business and more time working "on" their business so they can build a more valuable and sellable business. In the end, you’ll be spending less total time working, will be making more money and will have truly created the company and team you always dreamed of. In addition we will help you put the FUN back in your business and your life.



If you would like to learn more about how you too can get an "actionable" business education to improve your business's operations, sales,& bottom line contact ActionCOACH Steve Goranson to schedule a free 1/2 hour Phone Strategy Session  at 904-739-0200. www.actioncoachjax.com

Monday, March 21, 2016

Six Power Ratios to Start Tracking Now

Doctors in the developing world measure their progress not by the aggregate number of children who die in childbirth, but by the infant mortality rate – a ratio of the number of births to deaths.

Similarly, baseball’s leadoff batters measure their “on-base percentage” – the number of times they get on base – as a percentage of the number of times they get the chance to try.

Entrepreneurs buying businesses also like tracking ratios, and the more ratios you can provide a potential buyer, the more comfortable they will become with the idea of buying your business.

Better than the blunt measuring stick of an aggregate number, a ratio expresses the relationship between two numbers, which gives them their power.

If you’re planning to sell your company one day, here’s a list of six ratios to track in your business now to use in creating a score card for potential buyers:

1.      Employees per square foot
By calculating the number of square feet of office space you rent and dividing it by the number of employees you have, you can judge how efficiently you have designed your space. Commercial real estate agents use a general rule of 175–250 square feet of usable office space per employee.

2. Ratio of promoters and detractors
Fred Reichheld and his colleagues at Bain & Company and Satmetrix developed the Net Promoter Score® methodology.  It is based on asking customers a single question that is predictive of both repurchase and referral.

Here’s how it works: survey your customers and ask them the question, “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend <insert your company name> to a friend or colleague?”

Figure out what percentage of the people surveyed give you a 9 or 10, and label that your ratio of “promoters.” Calculate your ratio of detractors by figuring out the percentage of people surveyed who gave you a score of 0 to 6. Then calculate your Net Promoter Score

The average company in the United States has a NPS of between 10 and 15 percent.  Reichheld found companies with an above-average NPS grow faster than average-scoring businesses. 

3. Sales per square foot
By measuring your annual sales per square foot, you can get a sense of how efficiently you are translating your real estate into sales. Most industry associations have a benchmark. For example, annual sales per square foot for a respectable retailer might be $300. With real estate usually ranking just behind payroll as a business’s largest expenses, the more sales you can generate per square foot of real estate, the more profitable you are likely to be.

4. Revenue per employee
Payroll is the number one expense for most businesses, which explains why maximizing your revenue per employee, can translate quickly to the bottom line. Google, for example, enjoyed a revenue per employee of more than one million dollars in 2015, whereas a more traditional people-dependent company may struggle to surpass $100,000 per employee.   

5. Customers per account manager
How many customers do you ask your account managers to manage? Finding a balance can be tricky. Some bankers are forced to juggle more than 400 accounts, and therefore do not know each of their customers, whereas some high-end wealth managers may have just 50 clients to stay in contact with. It’s hard to say what the right ratio is because it is so highly dependent on your industry. Slowly increase your ratio of customers per account manager until you see the first signs of deterioration (slowing sales, drop in customer satisfaction). That’s when you know you have probably pushed it a little too far.

6. Prospects per visitor
What proportion of your website’s visitors “opt-in” by giving you permission to e-mail them in the future? Dr. Karl Blanks and Ben Jesson are the cofounders of Conversion Rate Experts, which advises companies like Google, Apple and Sony on how to convert more of their website traffic into customers. Dr. Blanks and Mr. Jesson state that there is no such thing as a typical opt-in rate, because so much depends on the source of traffic. They recommend that rather than benchmarking yourself against a competitor, you benchmark against yourself by carrying out tests to beat your site’s current opt-in rate.

Entrepreneurs looking to purchase a business have a healthy appetite for data. The more data you can give them – in the ratio format they’re used to examining – the more attractive your business will be in their eyes.

Interested in learning how to create a score card in your business that will help you to predict not only the direction your business is going but how valuable it is to potential buyers? 

Contact ActionCOACH Steve Goranson to schedule a free 1/2 hour Phone Strategy Session at 904-739-0200.

Steve Goranson has owned and operated the Northeast Florida of ActionCOACH since 2004.  ActionCOACH is the World's #1 Coaching franchise with over 1000 offices in 50 different countries. They coach over 15,000 business each week worldwide.

Steve's commitment is to help small business owners to develop actionable ideas that will allow them to spend less time working "in" their business and more time working "on" their business so they can build a more valuable and sellable business. In the end, you’ll be spending less total time working, will be making more money and will have truly created the company and team you always dreamed of. In addition we will help you put the FUN back in your business and your life.

Call his office to schedule a free 1/2 hour Phone Strategy Session 904-739-0200 www.actioncoachsteve.com

Thursday, June 25, 2015

4 Traps To Avoid When Selling Your Company

Business owners have been known to refer to due diligence as "the entrepreneur's proctology exam."
It's a crude analogy but a good representation of what it feels like when a stranger pokes, prods, and looks inside every inch of your business.

Most professional acquirers will have a checklist of questions they need answered if they’re considering buying your company. They'll want answers to questions like:
  • When does your lease expire and what are the terms?
  • Do you have consistent, signed, up-to-date contracts with your customers and employees?
  • Are your ideas, products and processes protected by patent or trademark?
  • What kind of technology do you use, and are your software licenses up to date?
  • What are the loan covenants on your credit agreements?
  •  How are your receivables? Do you have any late payers or deadbeat customers?
  •  Does your business require a license to operate, and if so, is your paperwork in order?
  • Do you have any litigation pending?

In addition to these objective questions, they'll also try to get a subjective sense of your business. In particular, they will try to determine just how integral you are personally to the success of your business. 
Subjectively assessing how dependent the business is on you requires the buyer to do some investigative work. It's more art than science and often requires a potential buyer to use a number of tricks of the trade, such as: 
Trick #1: Juggling calendars
By asking to make a last-minute change to your meeting time, an acquirer gets clues as to how involved you are personally in serving customers.
If you can't accommodate the change request, the acquirer may probe to find out why and try to determine what part of the business is so dependent on you that you have to be there.
Trick #2: Checking to see if your business is vision impaired
An acquirer may ask you to explain your vision for the business, which is a question you should be well prepared to answer. However, he or she may ask the same question of your employees and key managers. If your staff members offer inconsistent answers, the acquirer may take it as a sign that the future of the business is in your head.
Trick #3: Asking your customers why they do business with you
A potential acquirer may ask to talk to some of your customers. He or she will expect you to select your most passionate and loyal customers and, therefore, will expect to hear good things. However, the customers may be asked a question like 'Why do you do business with these guys?' The acquirer is trying to figure out where your customers' loyalties lie. If your customers answer by describing the benefits of your product, service or company in general, that's good. If they respond by explaining how much they like you personally, that's bad.
Trick #4: Mystery shopping
Acquirers often conduct their first bit of research behind your back before you even know they are interested in buying your business. They may pose as a customer, visit your website, or come into your company to understand what it feels like to be one of your customers.
Make sure the experience your company offers a stranger is tight and consistent, and try to avoid personally being involved in finding or serving brand-new customers. If any potential acquirers see you personally as the key to wooing new customers, they'll be concerned business will dry up when you leave.

In creating a more valuable business, it is always the little things that get the big results. Our Business Health Check will give you invaluable insights into the many areas of your business that if tweaked will increase the value of your business.
By completing the Business Health Check, you will receive a Free Report based on your answers, prepared by our team of highly skilled Business Coaches.  CLICK HERE to take your Business Health Check Now
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Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Business Advice: Subscribers Make Your Company More Valuable

Why are Amazon, Apple and many of the most promising Silicon Valley start-ups leveraging a subscription business model?

Subscribers not only provide steady revenue; they make your company more valuable in the eyes of an acquirer. In a traditional business, customers buy your product or service once and may or may not choose to buy again; but in a subscription business, you have "automatic” customers who have agreed to purchase from you on an ongoing basis.

There are at least nine subscription models that can be leveraged by businesses ranging from service companies to market research firms to manufacturing concerns.

Recurring Revenue
Recurring revenue—the hallmark of a subscription business—is attractive to acquirers and makes your business more valuable when it’s time to sell. How much more valuable? To answer that, one has to first look at how your business will be valued without a subscription offering.

The most common methodology used to value a small to midsize business is discounted cash flow. This methodology forecasts your future stream of profits and then discounts it back to what your future profit is worth to an investor in today's dollars, given the time value of money. This investment theory may sound like MBA talk, but discounted cash flow valuation is something you have likely applied in your personal life without knowing it. 

For example, what would you pay today for an investment that you hope will be worth $100 one year from now? You would likely "discount" the $100 by your expectation for a return on investment. If you expect to earn a 7 percent return on your money each year, you'd pay $93.46 ($100 divided by 1.07) today for an investment you expect to be worth $100 in 12 months.

Using the discounted cash flow valuation methodology, the more profit the acquirer expects your company to make in the future—and the more reliable your estimates—the more your company is worth. Therefore, to improve the value of a traditional business, the two most important levers you have are: 1) how much profit you expect to make in the future; and 2) the reliability of those estimates.

At SellabilityScore.com, one can see the effect of this valuation methodology. Since 2012, this methodology has been used to track the offers received by business owners who have completed the Sellability questionnaire. During that time, the average business with at least $3 million in revenue has been offered 4.6 times its pretax profit. Therefore, a traditional business churning out 10 percent of pretax profit on $5 million in revenue can reasonably expect to be worth around $2,300,000 ($5,000,000 x 10 percent x 4.6).

Then compare the value of a traditional company with the value of a subscription business. When an acquirer looks at a healthy subscription company, she sees an annuity stream of revenue throwing off years of profit into the future. This predictable stream of future profit means she is willing to pay a significant premium over what she would pay for a traditional company. How much of a premium depends on the industry, and some of the biggest premiums today go to companies in the software industry.

Subscription-based Software Companies
To understand what is going on in the valuation of subscription-based software companies, look at Dmitry Buterin. Buterin runs a subscription software company called Wild Apricot. He has also formed one of the world's first mastermind groups of small and midsize subscription company founders, and each month the group meets to discuss strategies for running a subscription business.

Members of the group were constantly raising money or being courted by investors, so the topic of valuation came up a lot in their conversations. Buterin found that the consensus valuation range being offered to member companies was between 24 and 60 times monthly recurring revenue (MRR), which is equivalent to two to five times annual recurring revenue (ARR).

One way to validate Buterin's numbers is to check with another guru from the world of subscription-based software companies. Zane Tarence is a partner with Birmingham, Alabama-based Founders Investment Banking, a company that specializes in selling software companies that use the subscription business model. Tarence estimates the valuation ranges he sees as belonging in one of three buckets:

24-48 x MRR (2-4 x ARR)
These are typically very small software companies with less than $5 million in recurring annual revenue. Companies in this first bucket are usually growing modestly, with subscription cancellation rates (i.e., "churn") in the area of 2-4 percent per month.

48-72 x MRR (4-6 x ARR)
These are larger software companies with recurring revenue of at least $5 million annually, which they are growing at the rate of 25-50 percent per year. Their net churn is typically below 1.5 percent per month.

72-96 x MRR (6-8 x ARR)
These are the rare, fast-growth software companies that are growing more than 50 percent per year, with at least $5 million in annual revenue and net churn below 1 percent per month. These companies usually offer a solution (typically an industry-specific one) that their customers need to use to get their jobs done.

The software business is an extreme example of the benefits of subscription revenue, but no matter what industry you're in, your company will likely command a premium if it enjoys recurring revenue.

From Alarm Systems to Prescriptions to Mosquitoes
For example, security businesses that monitor alarm systems and charge a recurring monthly monitoring fee to do so are worth about twice as much as security businesses that just do system installations. 

Retail pharmacies with a large pool of prescriptions for drugs that people take every day, like Lipitor and Lozol, command a premium over a traditional retailer because customers re-up their pills on a regular basis, creating a recurring revenue stream for the pharmacist.

Even tiny companies are worth more if they have subscription revenue. When my colleagues over at the Sellability Score analyzed very small businesses with less than $500,000 in sales, they found that the average offer these small businesses attract is 2.6 times pretax profit.

Compare that to the average Mosquito Squad franchise. Mosquito Squad is a Richmond, Virginia-based company that offers to keep bugs off your patio by spraying your backyard regularly with a proprietary chemical recipe approved by the Environmental Protection Agency. Mosquito Squad franchisees target affluent home owners with an average home value north of $500,000 who entertain in their backyard and don't want to be bothered by mosquitoes. Mosquito Squad operates on a subscription basis. You subscribe to a season of spraying, which includes 8 to 12 sprays, depending on how buggy it is where you live.

Mosquito Squad is a franchise business, and the impact of its recurring revenue model on its valuation is remarkable. According to Scott Zide, the president of Mosquito Squad's parent company, Outdoor Living Brands, Mosquito Squad franchises that changed hands over the most recent five-year period had revenue of $463,223 and sold for 3.7 times their pretax profit. That's a 42 percent premium over the traditional value of a company with less than $500,000 in sales, and it’s because Mosquito Squad operates on a recurring subscription model and 73 percent of its annual spraying contracts renew each year.

A newer player in this market with a franchise here in Jacksonville is Mosquito Joe who also has proprietary chemical recipe approved by the Environmental Protection Agency.  They target target home owners with household income of $75,000 and higher who entertain in their backyard and don.t want to be bothered my mosquitoes, ticks and fleas. Mosquito Joe is also subscription based but does not require a contract and guarantees that the product will work. 

The impact of its recurring revenue model on its valuation is also remarkable.  According to Kevin Wilson, the president of Mosquito Joe, franchises should sell at 1.2 times its annual revenue. Mosquito Joe is one of the fastest growing franchises and a leader in the pest control industry. 

Whether you plan to build a subscription-based software application or the simplest personal services business, having recurring revenue will boost the value of your most important asset.



In business, it is always the little things that get the big results. Our Business Health Check will give you invaluable insights into the many areas of your business. By completing the Business Health Check, you will receive a Free Report based on your answers. 

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Business Advice: 1 Hidden Thing That Drives Your Company’s Value

At ActionCOACH our definition of a successful business is a commercial, profitable enterprise, that works without the business owner.  If the business can't work without the business owner, it's broke. You don't own a business, you own a job.  And... no one wants to buy a job or at least not pay a lot for it.

The main advantage of having the business being able to work without you doing the "technical" work in the business, is that you are now increasing the value of the business and at the same time making it more attractive to a potential buyer in the future.

In our previous post we discussed how the importance of the business owner not selling as a way to increase the value of the business.  In this post well focus on another area to increase the value of your business.

You already know that your company’s revenue and profits play a big role in how much your business is worth.  Do you also know the role cash flow plays in your valuation?

Cash vs. Profits

Cash flow is different than profits in that it measures the cash coming in and out of your business rather than an accounting interpretation of your profit and loss. For example, if you charge $10,000 upfront for a service that takes you three months to deliver, you recognize $3,333 of revenue per month on your profit and loss statement for each of the three months it takes you to deliver the work.

But since you charged upfront, you get all $10,000 of cash on the day your customer decides to buy. This positive cash flow cycle improves your company’s valuation because when it comes time to sell your business, the buyer will have to write two checks: one to you, the owner, and a second to your company to fund its working capital – the cash your company needs to fund its immediate obligations like payroll, rent, etc.

The trick is that both checks are drawn from the same bank account. Therefore, the less the acquirer has to inject into your business to fund its working capital, the more money it has to pay you for your company.

The inverse is also true.

If your company is a cash suck, an acquirer is going to calculate that she needs to inject a lot of working capital into your business on closing day, which will deplete her resources and lessen the check she writes to you.

How To Improve Your Cash Flow

There are many ways to improve your cash flow – and therefore, the value of your business. One often overlooked tactic is to spend less on the machines your company needs to operate.

In the restaurant business, for example, there is an often repeated truism that it takes three bankruptcies at a single location before any restaurant can make money. The first owner of the restaurant walks in and – with all of the typical optimism of a new entrepreneur – pays cash for a brand new commercial kitchen complete with fancy stove, commercial grade walk-in coolers, etc., as well as all new dishware, pots and pans, thus depleting his cash reserves before opening night. Within a year, the restaurant owner runs out of cash and declares bankruptcy.

Then along comes a second entrepreneur who decides to set up her restaurant at the same location and buys all of the shiny new equipment from owner number one’s creditors for 70 cents on the dollar, figuring she has made a wonderful deal. But the outlay of cash is still too great and she too is out of business within a year.

It’s not until the third owner comes along that the location actually survives. He saves his cash by buying all of the equipment off the second owner for 10 cents on the dollar.  

The moral of the story is: find a way to reduce the cash you spend on equipment, however you can. Can you buy your gear used on sites like eBay? Can you share a very expensive piece of machinery with another non-competitive business? Can you rent instead of buying?  In Jacksonville a great place to find used and new restaurant is www.a1restsupply.com.


Profits are an important factor in your company’s value but so too is the cash your company generates.  We call this phenomenon The Valuation Teeter Totter and it is one of the eight key drivers of the value of your company. Curious to see how you’re performing on all eight drivers? Get your Sellability Score here: www.actioncoachsellabilityscore.com 

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Business Advice: The #1 Task Business owners Should Stop Doing to Increase the Value of their Business

A study of 14,000 businesses reveals how you should not be spending your time.

In an analysis of more than 14,000 businesses, a new study finds the most valuable companies take a some what different approach to the business owner doing the selling.  So who does the selling in your business?  

My guess is that when you’re personally involved in doing the selling, your business is a whole lot more profitable than the months when you leave the selling to others.

That makes sense because you’re likely the most passionate advocate for your business. You have the most industry knowledge and the widest network of industry connections.

If your goal is to maximize your company’s profit at all costs, you may have come to the conclusion that you should spend most of your time out of the office selling, and leave the dirty work of operating your businesses to your underlings.

However, if your goal is to build a valuable company—one you can sell down the road—
....you can’t be your company’s number one salesperson.

In fact, the less you know your customers personally, the more valuable your business.  Now isn't that interesting?

The Proof: A Study of 14,000 Businesses

Sellability Score just finished analyzed our pool of their users for the quarter ending December 31.  We offer The Sellability Score questionnaire as the first of twelve steps in The Value Builder System, a statistically proven methodology for increasing the value of a business. (Click Here for your Score)

We asked 14,000 business owners if they had received an offer to buy their business in the last 12 months, and if so, what multiple of their pre-tax profit the offer represented. We then compared the offer made to the following question:

Which of the following best describes your personal relationship with your company's customers?

  •  I know each of my customers by first name and they expect that I personally get involved when they buy from my company.
  • I know most of my customers by first name and they usually want to deal with me rather than one of my employees.
  • I know some of my customers by first name and a few of them prefer to deal with me rather than one of my employees.
  • I don’t know my customers personally and rarely get involved in serving an individual customer.
2.93 vs. 4.49 Times

The average offer received among all of the businesses we analyzed was 3.7 times pre-tax profit.

However, when we isolated just those businesses where the owner does not know his/her customers personally and rarely gets involved in serving an individual customer, the offer multiple went up to 4.49.

Companies where the founder knows each of his/her customers by first name get discounted, earning offers of just 2.93 times pre-tax profit.

When Value Is the Enemy of Profit

Who you get to do the selling in your company is just one of many examples where the actions you take to build a valuable company are different than what you do to maximize your profit. 

If all you wanted was a fat bottom line, you likely wouldn't invest in upgrading your website or spend much time thinking about the squishy business of company culture.

How much money you make each year is important, but how you earn that profit will have a greater impact on the value of your company in the long run.

How Healthy is Your Business?  Take the Business Health Check and Find Out TAKE TEST