Writing
What your business is really worth.
Essays on enterprise value, acquisitions, and exit planning. The moves that make a business worth more to a buyer than it is to you.
- 5 minSelling Your Business
Equity You Gave Away for Free
A personal guarantee is uncapped downside you wrote for free, and it follows you out the door.
- 5 minBuilding to Sell
Build It to Be Absorbed
The most valuable business isn't a fortress. It's one a buyer can absorb fast.
- 6 minBusiness Valuation
Busy, Profitable, and Stuck
Operators optimize profit per job. Owners allocate profit per constraint.
- 6 minDeals & Structure
The Money Isn't in the Business. It's Around It.
Your biggest gains aren't in operations. They're in the deals and the structure you keep ignoring.
- 6 minBusiness Valuation
You Already Earned This Money. You Just Didn't Collect It.
The cheapest growth isn't new revenue. It's the profit and the customers you already paid for.
- 6 minBuilding to Sell
You Pay the Founder Tax Twice
Every decision that runs through you is a tax. You pay it twice.
- 8 minDeals & Structure
The Melting Ice Cube
The moat you are about to buy, or sell, may be evaporating.
- 9 minDeals & Structure
The Roll-Up Math Just Broke
The cheapest way to take a category is no longer to buy it.
- 5 minBusiness Valuation
The One Number You Actually Control
The one number you fully control is the one you treat as untouchable.
- 4 minBuilding to Sell
You're Still Paying the Partner Who Quit
Dead equity compounds at exactly the rate your business does
- 4 minBusiness Valuation
The Product You're Proudest Of Might Be Your Least Profitable
Revenue tells you what they buy. Margin tells you what you keep.
- 3 minBuilding to Sell
Free cash flow is optionality wearing a financial disguise.
Cash on hand is the cheapest option you'll ever own.
- 3 minBuilding to Sell
You delegated everything you hated...now what?
The hire you're avoiding is the one you need.
- 4 minDeals & Structure
You hired the agency. An acquirer would've bought it.
Operators rent capability. Acquirers own it.
- 2 minSelling Your Business
You priced your business on its own. The buyer priced it on their portfolio.
Stop shopping your multiple. Start shopping your fit.
- 7 minSelling Your Business
Inside The Mandate
What actually happens in the seat your banker doesn't sit in.
- 10 minSelling Your Business
Why Your M&A Attorney Is Not Your Deal Negotiator
Your M&A Attorney's Biggest Negotiation Was Their Last Car
- 7 minSelling Your Business
The One Advisor Most Sellers Don't Know to Hire Until It's Too Late
What you pay your banker to do and what determines the size of your closing wire are two different jobs.
- 4 minExit Planning
You started exit prep too late
The work happens 36 months out, not six.
- 2 minExit Planning
The Question I Ask Founders 12 Months Before They Sell
You Allocated Every Dollar. That's Why You'll Lose Half.
- 5 minExit Planning
You sold the business. Then you filled the calendar.
Staying optional is the harder work
- 4 minBusiness Valuation
How One Margin Point Can Add 5x to Your Sale Price
This compounds. And it costs almost nothing.
- 5 minBusiness Valuation
The Boring Systems That Raise Your Business's Value Before a Sale
8 to 15 percent. That's what's walking out the door.
- 3 minBuilding to Sell
How to Make Your Business Transferable Before You Sell
The difference between 2.5x and 4.5x is quieter than you think
- 3 minBuilding to Sell
How Buyers Judge Whether Your Business Can Run Without You
The difference between running a business and owning one
- 4 minBuilding to Sell
Why Undocumented Decisions Lower Your Sale Price
You're making good calls. None of them are recorded.
- 3 minBuilding to Sell
Why Founder Relationships Don't Transfer in a Sale (and What Buyers Pay For)
Loyalty doesn't survive a transaction. Structure does.
- 5 minDeals & Structure
Deal Stack 101
How I Fund Every Deal
- 6 minDeals & Structure
Earn Outs Are Dead and Sellers Never Saw It Coming
EBITDA Is A Trap. Smart Buyers Use This Instead
- 4 minDeals & Structure
The M&A Playbook Nobody Talks About
How Deal Architects Engineer Wealth
- 3 minExit Planning
My Top 5 Things to Do Before You Exit
The 5 Moves That Increase Your Exit Multiple
- 6 minExit Planning
The $10M Mistake 90% of Founders Make Right Before Selling Their Business
Wall Street Buyers Have a Playbook to Lowball You. This Is Page One.
- 4 minBuilding to Sell
If Your Business Needs You, It’s Not Actually Valuable
Why Founders Who Stay ‘Essential’ End Up Trapped
- 4 minDeals & Structure
Why ‘Winning’ the Deal Is Often How Founders Lose
A High Valuation Can Be the Most Expensive Mistake You Make
- 5 minExit Planning
The Silent Brand Killer in Your Exit Strategy
Why most businesses never sell for what they’re truly worth.
- 5 minBusiness Valuation
Why Your Margins Aren’t Improving
How the Best Firms Raise Margins Quietly
- 5 minDeals & Structure
The Zone of Fairness
Unfair Deals Always Get Rebalanced
- 14 minBuilding to Sell
The Five Evolutions of A Business
How DigitalMarketer evolved from an unsellable lifestyle business into multiple high value acquisition candidates, and the five shifts that got it there.
- 5 minBuilding to Sell
How To Scale Your Business Without Killing Yourself In The Process
One of the questions that I am most frequently asked is, “How do I grow my business so that I can make more money, but not work myself to death, alienate...
- 4 minSelling Your Business
Five Takeaways From Selling a Business to a Private Equity Buyer
Here are five takeaways to think about if you are considering selling your business (or buying one from someone else). We have been going through due...