Three Taboos Destroying Your Business Value
Here’s how to escape founder’s myopia and build transferable value.
You’ve become a slave to your own ignorance about valuation. Three taboos (unspoken assumptions you never question) have created intellectual prison cells around your business value. You’re so comfortable in them, you don’t realize you’re trapped. These beliefs will cost you millions when you try to exit.
10 KEY TAKEAWAYS - VALUATION TABOOS
Being different only creates value if transferable: Uniqueness without systematization is a liability buyers won’t pay for.
Industry multiples are outcomes, not universal rules: High multiples came from specific businesses with characteristics yours might lack.
Buyers pay for proven performance, not potential: Unrealized potential represents risk that decreases value, not opportunity.
Founder’s myopia blinds you to reality: Emotional attachment prevents objective assessment of what buyers actually want.
Revenue obsession ignores profitability: Top-line growth without margin improvement builds a bigger job, not a valuable business.
Customer loyalty is about value delivered: Relationships tied to founder personality don’t transfer and destroy enterprise value.
Industry expertise creates dependency: Your deep knowledge is worthless if it can’t be systematized and transferred.
Operating pride equals buyer’s nightmare: If you’re proud of being irreplaceable, you’ve built an unsellable job.
Strategic buyers are rare exceptions: Most small businesses sell to financial buyers focused purely on risk-adjusted returns.
Transformation requires systematic documentation: Every approval, decision, and process must be captured and teachable.
📚 READING PREREQUISITES
Each post in this series builds upon the technical groundwork laid in earlier entries. The content is designed to progress in depth and complexity, making prior understanding essential for full comprehension. Key valuation concepts, models, and metrics are intentionally revisited and reinforced across multiple posts to ensure retention and clarity. Repetition and redundancy are used deliberately, not as filler, but to demonstrate how these foundational ideas interconnect and remain central to every subsequent analysis.
Recommended Prior Reading:
Why Rules of Thumb Destroy Valuation
The Control Trap: Why Being Irreplaceable Kills Value
Understanding the Four Pillars of Business Risk
