How One Business Owner Increased Their Sale Price Using a Business Health Assessment
When Sarah, a successful business owner in the accounting & financial services industry, decided on a 5-year horizon to sell her company, she knew she needed to scale to get the best possible price. But like many entrepreneurs, she wasn't sure where to start. After years of pouring her energy into building the business from the ground up, the concept of adding people and delegating to support growth felt overwhelming. She knew her company was valuable as she had received unsolicited offers, but potential acquires offers weren’t what she expected.
That’s when Sarah decided to take action. She reached out to MCSquared Coaching and signed up for a free Business Health Assessment. Little did she know, this would be the turning point that helped her increase her growth potential and company value significantly.
The Turning Point: Identifying Gaps and Opportunities
The Business Health Assessment provided Sarah with a comprehensive look at her company's strengths, opportunities, and pain points. It was clear that while her business was solid, there were a few critical areas holding it back from reaching its maximum value. Here are the four key steps she worked on, with guidance from MCSquared Coaching, to increase her company’s appeal to buyers and ultimately boost its sale price.
1. Getting a Business Health Assessment
The issue: Sarah had a vague idea of her business’s worth but didn’t have a basis to determine her company’s value. Without this, potential buyers had all the leverage and almost convinced her to indulge a low-ball offer.
The solution: With the help of MCSquared Coaching, Sarah completed a business health assessment. This not only gave her a clear picture of her company’s value score, her readiness to sell, and also highlighted areas where improvements could increase her value.
The result: Equipped with information, Sarah could confidently enter potential acquisition conversations, knowing exactly where her company stood in the market. In her case, it was to politely decline before investing a bunch of time and energy entertaining an offer that was nowhere near the company’s value.
Action for You:
Get your free Business Health Assessment here to gain insight into your business’s current value and identify areas for improvement.
2. Building Scalability with Systems
The issue: Like many business owners, Sarah’s company relied heavily on her presence and expertise. Potential buyers knew that the business wouldn't function smoothly without her hands-on involvement. Offers then became more like employment contracts where she would lose all the upside from her hard work.
The solution: Together, we worked on capturing and automating her business processes. Sarah streamlined her operations, from production workflows and customer service to accounting processes, ensuring they were scalable and not dependent on her.
The result: Sarah's business can now run efficiently without her, enabling exponential growth, and making the business more attractive.
Action for You:
To improve the scalability of your business, read how others increased their business value here. Learn how to streamline your operations and make your company less reliant on you.
3. Organizing Financial Data
The issue: While Sarah’s business was profitable, her financial data wasn’t well organized. Receivables were growing and received no focus nor attention. Bookkeeping was done a few days a year making data-informed decisions near impossible.
The solution: Sarah engaged help to clean up and organize her financial data. With up-to-date profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and cash flow reports, we could focus on dissecting the business to inform decisions, like hiring and implementing software tools, and chart the best growth path.
The result: Sarah now had confidence in her business, knowing exactly how much money it was making and what to expect in the future. This transparency made her business much more appealing.
Action for You:
Schedule a call to review the 3 most important KPIs that show off your business financial health.
4. Creating a Risk Mitigation Plan
The issue: Buyers are naturally cautious about risks. Sarah’s business had a few potential risks, like outdated client contracts, an elementary customer relationship management system, ad hoc work flows as well dependence on specific revenue streams.
The solution: We worked with Sarah to develop a risk mitigation plan tackling the biggest issues first. This included securing contracts with key clients, identifying systems, and building strategic partnerships to ensure business continuity.
The result: With a solid plan in place to tackle potential risks, Sarah is seeing her business grow. It has doubled in revenue and profit in less than 24 months.
Action for You:
Check out this free download that covers the top 10 steps we can explore to help your business grow.
The Final Outcome
With these key improvements in place, Sarah now has a solid growth plan in place as she moves closer to her 5-year horizon for a transaction. What started as an overwhelming process turned into a strategic, step-by-step journey toward value acceleration—thanks to the clarity provided by the Business Health Assessment.
If you’re thinking about selling or handing down your business, now is the time to start preparing. Just like Sarah, you can increase your business’s value and ensure a smooth transition by focusing on the right areas.
Take Action Today
Are you ready to boost your business’s value? Start with a free Business Health Assessment from MCSquared Coaching. It’s your first step toward identifying gaps, increasing profitability, and making your business more attractive to buyers.
Click here to get your free Business Health Assessment today and start building a business that’s sellable, scalable, and successful!
Cheers,
Merin