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Forbes
28-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How to Increase Company Valuation in 12 Months
What if you could triple the value of your business? It starts now, not later. What if you could triple the value of your business, without working longer hours, hiring a massive team, or waiting around for the 'right' buyer? It's not some daydream, but a formula. And it starts now, not later. Over the years, I've watched small business owners increase their business's value by up to 2.7 times in just one year. Not because they stumbled into a miracle market or launched a new offer that went viral, but because they did one thing differently than most entrepreneurs ever do. They stopped growing for the sake of growing, and started growing with the goal to exit one day. If you're a service business owner, agency founder, or digital entrepreneur looking to sell your business in the next one to three years, this article is your roadmap. Not a fluff-filled checklist. Not a theory. A real-world, doable plan. Here's what I hear from owners all the time: 'I'll sell later… when I'm ready, when the market's better, when I hit seven figures.' It sounds logical. But it's a trap. Time doesn't increase your business's value on its own. In fact, the longer you wait without a clear plan, the more risk you're likely adding, whether you realize it or not. Many founders spend those extra months or years obsessing over revenue goals, launching new offers, or redesigning their websites. But none of that matters if the business still relies on them to operate, can't show predictable cash flow, or feels impossible to transfer to someone else. If you don't take time to de-risk your business, then more time only increases fatigue. Not value. Instead of trying to focus on 50 things to increase the value of your business, let's keep it simple and target your energy on just three specific steps. Just three. First, start with an independent business valuation so you know exactly what your business is worth today—not based on vibes, but real data. Then, take an exit readiness assessment, which measures how easy or difficult it would be for a buyer to step into your business tomorrow. Together, these two assessments show you exactly where the risk lies in your business. And more importantly, what to fix to increase the price someone is willing to pay for your business. From a valuation and an exit-readiness assessment, you can identify the highest-impact changes you can make based on your business model, current systems, team size, and financials. But, you've probably heard all the usual suggestions: 'Systematize your business.' 'Build recurring revenue.' 'Create an SOP for everything.' None of this is bad advice. But when applied in the wrong order or to the wrong business model, it wastes time—and sometimes even decreases value. Here's the problem with generic advice: it assumes the same priorities apply to every business. That's simply not true. If you already have a subscription model but your margins are razor-thin, recurring revenue won't move your valuation. If your business relies on one big client who accounts for 60% of your income, that's a huge risk for buyers, even if your branding is gorgeous and your marketing is optimized. I know business owners who spent years building out operations manuals, only to find that their biggest red flag for a buyer was customer concentration. Others spent months rebranding, not realizing their personal name was still the glue holding everything together. That's why a personalized plan matters more than ever. While your exit strategy should be personal, certain value drivers show up again and again. Here are three of the most common value drivers for owners preparing to exit. If your business can't function without you, buyers either walk away or offer a price that reflects the risk they'll have to take on after you're gone. Buyers don't just want sales. They want sustainable sales without owner involvement. To reduce this risk, start with documentation. Create clear standard operating procedures for client delivery, sales, and operations. Then, begin shifting responsibilities to someone internally, often a second-in-command or operations manager who can take the lead. Finally, detach client relationships from you. If your clients only want to work with you, they're not actually loyal to your business, they're loyal to your name. Buyers see that as a liability, not an asset. Revenue isn't enough. Predictable, de-risked revenue is what makes a business buyer say yes to acquiring your business. Start by productizing your services into repeatable offers. Replace custom work with packages. Convert one-time projects into ongoing retainers. Look for areas where subscription-based pricing makes sense. A business that can reliably forecast its next six to twelve months of revenue—without the owner hustling for each sale—commands a higher price. It also looks a lot less scary to a buyer taking the reins. Predictability equals trust. And trust increases price. Let's talk personal branding. A strong personal brand can be an incredible growth tool. But when it comes to exiting, it often becomes a handcuff. If your clients follow you on social media, sign contracts with your name, and only buy from your face, buyers see the risk: when you leave, so does the revenue. Start transitioning your positioning from 'I help clients do X' to 'Our framework helps clients achieve X.' Introduce your team publicly. Center your client case studies around process and results, not your involvement. Build client-facing materials that live in a system—not your head. When your brand is transferable, your business becomes scalable. And that's what serious buyers are looking for. If you're thinking, 'Okay, this all sounds great, but where do I start?' here's a simple timeline that shows how this can play out across a single year. None of this requires you to work 60-hour weeks. It requires focused, strategic action in the right areas. Here's the uncomfortable truth: most founders wait too long to think about exiting. They wait until they're exhausted, disillusioned, or in a financial pinch. But by then, it's often too late to fix the biggest valuation killers. If you start preparing while your business is still in growth mode—while you're still motivated and engaged—you'll have far more leverage. You'll have time to make the right changes without rushing. You'll have clarity on what buyers want. And most importantly, you'll have options. You can sell, scale, or step back on your terms. Waiting to prepare until you're 'ready' is like deciding to get in shape the week before a marathon. It's not just bad timing, it's risky. Start now, and your future self (and your bank account) will thank you. You don't need to launch a new offer. You don't need to hire a giant team. You don't need a rebrand. If you want to increase the value of your business in the next twelve months, you need one thing: a plan. A real plan. Grounded in valuation. Personalized to your business. Focused on just three areas that will increase what your business is worth—and how attractive it is to buyers. And the best time to start isn't when you feel 'done' with your business. It's before burnout. Before brokers. Before desperation. Because value isn't found at the finish line. It's built in the years leading up to it.
Forbes
14-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Pivot or Persevere? 3 Hard Truths for Business Owners
Every founder hits a moment when momentum slows, ideas stall, and you're stuck between forcing ... More growth or finally letting go. Every business owner hits this point eventually: the uneasy moment when momentum slows, ideas stall, and you're stuck between forcing growth or finally letting go. You've poured everything into the business. And yet, something's off. Revenue plateaus. Energy dips. Vision fades. Is this just a rough patch... or a red flag? Should you pivot or persevere, or exit altogether? The hardest part of being a freedom-driven entrepreneur isn't the building, it's the knowing. Knowing when to double down. Knowing when to switch gears. Knowing when to walk away. If you've ever felt torn between pivoting, persevering, or exiting, here are three brutally honest questions to ask before you make your next move. There's a fine line between a rough season and a dead end. Successful founders know how to ride the waves of entrepreneurship, but they also know when they're swimming against the current. If you're honest with yourself, is this a temporary dip or a long-term decline? Rebecca, a client who ran a successful service business for eight years, said it best: 'Time can pass, and there can be no growth. That's the warning sign most of us ignore.' She had tried everything: new marketing funnels, new hires, new positioning. But under the surface, she was emotionally checked out, and the numbers reflected it. If your business has felt stagnant for longer than you're willing to admit, answer these 3 questions to gain clarity: If even one of these hits close to home, it's not a signal to hustle harder, but instead to pause. Assess whether you're keeping the business alive out of obligation, not opportunity. Staying stuck too long drains not just your bank account, but your potential. The goal isn't to be a hero who 'never quits.' The goal is to grow—whether that means scaling up or stepping away. Let's get this out of the way: you don't need to be a sales expert to make money. But if you're still undercharging or awkwardly selling your services, there's a good chance your confidence is keeping your business small. One founder told me he felt 'weird' raising his prices, so he tested a simple approach: after every successful sales call, he bumped his rate by 5%. No big launch. No new offer. Just one confident shift. 'Each new sales call, I raised the price a little bit.' he said. Within a few weeks, he'd doubled her revenue, without changing anything but his tone. The truth? You don't need permission to charge more. You don't need a perfect sales page or a huge audience. You need a message you believe in and a price that matches the value. Here's what I recommend to business owners who want to break through the revenue ceiling: Remember this: pricing is a reflection of how much you believe in the thing you've built. You've probably said it or thought it: 'Nobody can sell this like I can.' And you're not wrong, at least not in the beginning. Founders usually are the best salespeople, because they know the offer inside out. They've lived the transformation. They speak from passion, not a script. But here's the problem: being the only person who can sell is a bottleneck disguised as a badge of honor. You don't need to disappear from sales. You just need to stop being the only one who can close a deal. Here's the roadmap I give to business owners who want to extract themselves from the sales seat, without tanking revenue: It's all about reclaiming your time. Because if the business depends on you to sell, it's not scalable. And if it's not scalable, it's not sellable. Let's kill the myth that an exit only counts if it's big, flashy, and splashed across TechCrunch. In reality, most meaningful exits are quiet: I've worked with dozens of freedompreneurs whose exits didn't involve private equity deals or giant checks. But their exit were life-changing. They unlocked space. Flexibility. A next chapter. That's the kind of exit that matters. You don't need to hit a certain number to walk away with pride. You need to know what success looks like for you—and build toward it on purpose. Some exits happen through acquisition. Some through succession. Others through graceful liquidation or reinvention. What matters is that you're not clinging to something that no longer fits just because it used to define you. If you're building your business around a lifestyle, not just a valuation, remember: exiting isn't failing. It's finishing. There's a moment in every founder's journey when they feel stuck in the loop. Should I stay or should I go? Should I launch something new—or shut it all down? Should I raise my prices—or pull back completely? When you're in that fog, emotion takes the wheel. You start reacting instead of deciding. And indecision costs more than a wrong move. It robs you of momentum. The antidote? Clarity. Set a decision timeline. Define what success looks like: financially, emotionally, energetically. And ask the three questions we've explored here. Am I facing a fixable slump—or a deeper misalignment? Is pricing a confidence issue—or a real market objection? Have I built a business that depends on me—or one that can outgrow me? The goal isn't to force a decision today. The goal is to stop drifting and start choosing. Because sometimes the most strategic move isn't pivot or persevere. Sometimes, it's stepping back so you can move forward. And when you do that with intention, you'll stop asking 'Should I quit?' and start asking 'What's next?'.
