Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: Why Building a Valuable Business Starts Now
I blame my dad for my becoming a business owner.
Tongue in cheek, of course. But he’s the blueprint. And his story might just light a fire under yours.
My dad, Owen, is a genius. In post-war Zimbabwe, he built and ran multiple businesses: a refrigeration manufacturing firm, a mushroom farm, a butchery, and others I was too young to remember everything. My childhood memories are a montage of factory floors, dusty road trips in his Land Rover, and the pride of watching my dad build something from scratch.
But here’s the hard part of that story.
Despite decades of work, factories, teams, and capital assets... it all vanished. Practically overnight. When Mugabe’s regime turned from land grabs to business seizures, we were among the “fortunate” with British passports. We fled. The doors closed. The lights went off. Just like that.
And now, decades later, that lived experience hits differently.
Most Businesses Don’t End With a Bang. They Disappear With a Whisper.
What happened to my dad was extreme. But there’s a quieter version of the same story playing out all around us.
In 2023, 309,000 UK businesses closed. But only 25,000 of those were due to insolvency.
That means around 284,000 businesses simply ceased to exist, quietly shut down. No sale. No succession. No legacy.
Most of those? Small businesses. And most of those owners? Had 70–90% of their net worth tied up in the business. It was their pension. Their retirement. Their “one day.”
Only it never came.
So Why Don’t More Business Owners Sell?
Some believe their business isn’t worth anything. Others are too busy in delivery mode to plan for the end game. Many hope they’ll ride off into the sunset when the time is right... without building the vehicle to get there.
Let’s be blunt: a typical service-based business has 3 to 6 months of forecasted revenue. That’s it.
Why? Because too many of them rely on the founder. The systems are in their head. The value is in their relationships. The business, essentially, is them.
And you can’t sell a job. Only a business.
If You Want the Option to Sell, You Have to Build the Business for It
Whether or not you intend to sell your business one day, you should build it as if you might.
Because selling shouldn’t be a last-minute scramble. It should be an intentional build, one that increases your freedom, resilience, and profitability along the way.
This is where the 7 Pillars of Business Mastery come in. It’s the framework I use with every founder looking to break through the day-to-day grind and start working on the business, not just in it.
Each pillar, when strengthened, increases both the operational value and saleable value of your business:
Mindset & Leadership – You’re no longer the doer—you’re the designer. Value grows when you step into the owner role.
Messaging & Marketing – Clear, repeatable, stage-appropriate messaging that drives a pipeline, even without you.
Sales & Selling Systems – Scalable, founder-agnostic sales processes.
Client Delivery – Consistent, systemised service quality that doesn’t rely on your genius.
Financial Health & Legal – Clean books. Predictable profit. No messy entanglements.
Systems That Scale – SOPs, automations, and platforms that allow things to run without you.
Business Model & Strategy – A model that’s built for profitability and potential acquisition.
Think of it this way: the more your business can run without you, the more valuable it becomes.
The End Game Matters (Even If You’re Not Close Yet)
Only one in four business owners has a strategy for retirement.
That’s not just a gap, it’s a risk.
It’s not about selling tomorrow. It’s about making sure you could sell one day if you wanted to. For a number that reflects the blood, sweat and equity you’ve poured in. Not a fire sale price or nothing at all.
You might plan to pass it on, wind it down, or pivot completely. But wouldn’t it be better to have options?
Don’t Be a Statistic
The businesses that survive aren’t always the ones with the most talent. They’re the ones who planned.
If you want to explore what building a valuable business really looks like or if you’re starting to think about what an exit might look like for you, I’m here for that conversation.
Because I don’t want your business to disappear.
I want it to become your freedom.
📥 Download the 7 Pillars of Business Mastery eBook and start working on the parts of your business that build real value.
Or reach out for a confidential chat about what your end game could be.
You deserve to exit well. Not quietly.
