Thought Starter

What if the key things that would build and grow your company today would also optimize its value when you come to transition (whenever that might be)? So you could "build-to-sell" without leaving, without giving up doing what you love doing, or having the specter of an end date?

It's useful and informative to look through a buyer's lens to discover and plan value improvement opportunities. For example, which of these two companies below would be more attractive, valuable, fun to run?

Awesome Sauce, Inc.

Fully operational and experienced management team with distributed decision making
Diverse customer base
Documented, state-of-the-art systems and processes with cross-trained employees
Employess who are so well trained they could work anywhere, but so well treated they don't
Daily dashboards. Monthly financial statements issued by third business day. Clean annual audit.

Bitter Berries, Inc.

All decisions made by or approved by owner
60% of revenue comes from single customer
Systems are antiquated. Process knowledge in heads of owner and employees. No documentation
No legal protection over intellectual property
Financial reporting backlogged three months, with poor quality and accuracy