You’ve got a number in your head. The one you’ll sell for. The one that pays for the boat, the house, and the rest of your life.
Let me be blunt. It’s probably bollocks.
Because the thing you’re valuing – the graft, the years, the weekends you handed over – is worth exactly nothing to the man writing the cheque.
The No Bullshit Version
- Buyers don’t pay for turnover. They pay for profit, and specifically profit that keeps arriving when you’re on a beach.
- A £1.2M business making under £100K isn’t a £1.2M asset. It’s a job with a VAT number.
- If the thing falls over without you in it, there’s nothing to buy. You’re not selling a company, you’re selling yourself.
- Twenty-seven years of sacrifice doesn’t appear on a balance sheet. Nobody pays for your scars.
The vast majority of businesses never sell.
Those that do go for nowhere near what the owners want.
Here’s why….
Meet Mike.
He spent 27 years building his company.
27 years of blood, sweat and tears.
Late nights.
Early mornings.
Staff headaches.
Customer nonsense.
Supplier dramas.
Firefighting.
But Mike had a plan.
Sell the business and cash out.
Ride off into the sunset on a Harley with a fat retirement war chest.
And on paper, Mike’s business looked decent.
It was turning over £1.2M a year.
But under the bonnet?
It was making around under £100K profit.
Still, Mike thought after 27 years, the thing had to be worth big bucks.
And you can see how he got there.
In his head, he wasn’t just valuing the profit.
He was valuing the graft… the sacrifice… the stress… the weekends… the missed holidays.
Yet this game doesn’t work like that.
Buyers pay for profit.
And more importantly, profit that keeps showing up when you’re not there babysitting.
So when Mike came to sell…
He was offered nothing.
Why?
Because Mike was the business.
Without him the whole thing fell over like a drunk uncle at a wedding.
And buyers are not stupid.
They looked at Mike’s business and saw the truth:
There was nothing to buy.
Just a tired man, a phone that wouldn’t stop ringing, and a company held together with memory, panic and caffeine.
How much is my business actually worth?
Take the profit, not the turnover. Then ask whether that profit still shows up when you’re not there. A £1.2M business making under £100K, held together by the owner, is worth close to nothing. Buyers price the profit that survives your absence, not the revenue that dies with it.
Why do most businesses never sell?
Because most businesses aren’t companies, they’re jobs with a VAT number. The owner is the sales team, the fixer, the memory bank and the panic button. Take him out and it collapses, so there’s nothing to buy. That’s why the vast majority never sell, and the few that do go for nowhere near the number the owner had in his head.
Do buyers pay for the years of work I’ve put in?
No. Not one penny. The graft, the sacrifice, the weekends, the missed holidays – all of it is real and none of it is on the balance sheet. Nobody pays for your scars. They pay for the profit the machine makes without you in it.
How do I make my business sellable?
Get yourself out of it. Systems, automation, and profit that doesn’t need babysitting. If the phone rings and only you can answer it, you don’t own an asset, you own a hostage situation. Fix the profit first, then fix the fact that the profit depends on you.
What To Do Next
If you want the full playbook – the exact method hundreds of UK men have used to hit £1 million without a payroll dragging them under – start with my best-selling book. It’s here on Amazon
