Business value · freedom · your next chapter
Start with what makes it valuable. Understand the earnings, the risks and how well it can keep running when you step away.
Answers are optional, no login is required, and the six-driver read does not set a price. You can want more freedom without wanting to sell. Your goal comes first.
Start with the question on your mind
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What supports the value you have built
A business can have strong management and still rely on one person for sales. Look at each driver before choosing what deserves attention.
Cash available to pay the bills, support you and keep the business running.
The business earns money and collects it in time to meet its commitments.
Profit that does not turn into available cash, late collections or bills that are hard to cover.
Are we making money, and is the cash arriving in time to pay the bills?
Winning work that pays well and is likely to keep coming.
Profitable repeat work across a healthy mix of customers.
More sales without enough profit, uncertain repeat work or reliance on a few customers.
Are we winning work that pays well and is likely to keep coming?
Numbers you can rely on when you make a decision.
Current reports that match the underlying records and make sense to you.
Late, incomplete or inconsistent numbers that make decisions harder.
Can you rely on the numbers when you make a decision?
The team can do the work well without relying on one person's memory.
Clear ways of working that the team uses and can teach to someone else.
Important work that depends on unwritten know-how or falls apart when someone is away.
Can the team do the work well without relying on one person’s memory?
Managers know what needs doing, make decisions and follow through.
Managers with clear responsibility who carry the work through to a result.
Unclear responsibility, missed follow-through or everyday decisions waiting for you.
Do your managers know what needs doing and follow through?
How much the business still needs you to keep running.
The team serves customers and keeps work moving while you are away.
Sales, approvals or customer relationships that stop without you.
What happens to the business when you are away?
Questions owners ask
A starting equation is reviewed earnings multiplied by a supported valuation multiple. First clarify the period and whether the figure is net profit, net operating income, seller's discretionary earnings or adjusted EBITDA. Then review the business and relevant market evidence. These earnings measures are not interchangeable.
No. Understanding the business can help you choose between growing, keeping ownership, stepping back, succession and a sale. Start with the life you want the business to support; the right next step depends on that goal.
Those can both be true. Management and owner freedom can be strengths while an important salesperson, estimator or relationship still needs backup. Each driver deserves its own read.
A forecast helps explain the plan, but it is not current proven earnings. Keep forecasts separate from past results and identify the records that would support the earnings figure.
No. Debt, cash, assets included, working capital and transaction terms can change owner equity value. Fees and taxes can change proceeds. Review these with the appropriate valuation professional, CPA and lawyer before treating a business-value figure as money available to you.
Keeping ownership and stepping back from daily work is an option to explore. Start with the work your team can carry, the income the business can support and what you want your life to look like. Your personal retirement needs require a separate review with your advisors; this driver map does not establish retirement readiness.
Start by separating ownership from day-to-day responsibility. Identify who wants to take over, which decisions they can already make and what still depends on you. An OWI client partner can help organize the operating questions and the work to review with your advisors.
Name the change first: customer demand, pricing, costs, skills or how work gets done. Then ask which value drivers it affects and what evidence you need. Choose a small change to test, a person responsible and a result to check. The goal is to make a useful decision for your business rather than predict the future.