How to increase the value of your business by 71%

How much did your home increase in value last year? Depending on where you live, it may have gone up by 5 - 10% or more.

 

How much did your stock portfolio increase over the last 12 months? By way of a benchmark, The Dow Jones Industrial Average has increased by around 13% in the last year. Did your portfolio do as well? 

 

Now consider what portion of your wealth is tied to the stock or housing market, and compare that to the equity you have tied up in your business. If you’re like most owners, the majority of your wealth is tied up in your company. Increasing the value of your largest asset can have a much faster impact on your overall financial picture than a bump in the stock market or the value of your home.

 

Let us introduce you to a statistically proven way to increase the value of your company by as much as 71%. Through an analysis of 55,955 businesses, we’ve discovered that companies that achieve a Value Builder Score of 80+ out of a possible 100 receive offers to buy their business that are 71% higher than what the average company receives.

 

How long would it take your stock portfolio or home to go up by 71%? Years – maybe even decades. Get your Value Builder Score now and you will be able to track your overall score along with your performance on the eight key drivers of company value. Like a pilot working his instrument panel, you can quickly zero in on which of the eight drivers is dragging down your value the most and then take corrective action.

 

Your overall Value Builder Score is derived from your performance on the eight attributes that drive the value of your company:

 

1. Financial Performance: your history of producing revenue and profit combined with the professionalism of your record keeping.

 

2. Growth Potential: your likelihood to grow your business in the future and at what rate.

 

3. The Switzerland Structure: how dependent your business is on any one employee, customer or supplier.

 

4. The Valuation Teeter Totter: whether your business is a cash suck or a cash spigot.

 

5. The Hierarchy of Recurring Revenue: the proportion and quality of automatic, annuity-based revenue you collect each month.

 

6. The Monopoly Control: how well differentiated your business is from competitors in your industry.

 

7. Customer Satisfaction: the likelihood that your customers will re-purchase and also refer you.

 

8. Hub & Spoke: how your business would perform if you were unexpectedly unable to work for a period of three months.

 

To find out how you’re performing on the eight key drivers of company value and start your journey to increasing the value of your largest asset, get your Value Builder Score now.

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Recent articles for you

By Kim Santos June 16, 2025
When Sean McAuliffe sold his company, he had a lot going for him. His distribution business was generating nearly $19 million in revenue. Margins were healthy. Growth was solid. And yet, when it came time to sell, his company was valued at around four times EBITDA, a relatively modest value for a $19 million company. The reason? Sean didn’t fully control his supply chain—and buyers noticed. Dependency Makes Buyers Nervous Sean’s model was simple. He bought car key fobs from suppliers in Asia and sold them to locksmiths across the U.S. It was a classic distribution play: source cheap, sell smart, and manage relationships. Sean executed well. He even created his own brand, Keyless to Go, and FCC-registered his products—moves that set him apart from competitors. But despite these efforts, Sean was still reliant on third-party suppliers. He didn’t own the factories. He didn’t control manufacturing. His business was exposed to the decisions of vendors half a world away. In today’s environment—where tariffs and geopolitical tensions can change the cost and availability of overseas goods almost overnight—relying on foreign suppliers feels riskier to acquirers than ever. This kind of dependency is exactly what The Value Builder System™ measures through the Switzerland Structure—one of the eight key drivers of company value. The Switzerland Structure assesses whether your business is overly dependent on any one customer, employee, or supplier. Buyers pay a premium for companies that aren’t beholden to any single relationship. Why Monopoly Control Drives Value Contrast that with businesses that own their brand, control their production, or have proprietary products. Companies with a defendable moat—what we call Monopoly Control—are 40% more likely to have received a written offer to acquire their business, according to analysis of more than 80,000 business owners who have completed their Value Builder Score report. When you control your product and customer experience, you influence your valuation upward—giving buyers fewer reasons to discount your business. The Takeaway for Owners Sean still built a great business. His execution created life-changing wealth. But if he had owned the supply chain or had exclusive manufacturing rights, he likely would have commanded a higher multiple. The takeaway for business owners: Building a valuable company isn’t just about revenue and profit. It’s about creating a business that can thrive without being dependent on any one customer, employee, or supplier.
By Kim Santos April 21, 2025
Value Builder Analytics, drawing on proprietary data from over 80,000 business owners, found that companies that can run without the owner for at least three months are twice as likely to receive an acquisition offer above 6x EBITDA. The concept is simple. The execution? Not so much. Take Kristie Shifflette for example. She was an early master franchisee with Orangetheory Fitness, a one-hour, coach-led workout that uses heart rate zones to boost calorie burn during and after exercise. When she opened her first location, she did it all—marketing, hiring, payroll, and even handling construction headaches. It worked but only because she was working constantly. As she expanded, things started to break. With two locations, she was stretched. At three, it became clear: The model only worked when Kristie was the model. She knew she needed to change. Kristie stopped focusing on being in the business and started focusing on building the business. From Operator to Owner Kristie started documenting everything. From pre-sale processes to day-to-day studio operations, Kristie developed detailed playbooks that codified exactly how her Orangetheory locations should run—without her. She created a compensation structure for studio managers that gave them ownership over their results: modest base salaries paired with meaningful bonuses tied to net member growth and total revenue. Top-performing managers could double their pay, and they were treated like mini-CEOs with full responsibility for their studio’s performance. By the time she sold her business, Kristie had built a company with 13 locations generating well north of $10 million in annual revenue. Some of her top-performing studios, like the Chapel Hill location, were bringing in revenue of $2 million a year, with EBITDA margins around 40%.  Kristie’s story includes an important lesson: Make yourself less essential, and your business becomes more valuable. If you’re still the one opening the door in the morning and locking up at night—literally or metaphorically—it’s worth asking: What would break if I stepped away for 90 days? Start there. Whether it’s building a playbook, empowering your team, or simply learning to let go, taking even one step toward reducing your involvement makes your company not just more valuable but more enjoyable to own.
By Kim Santos April 14, 2025
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