by Scott Sylvan Bell | Mar 18, 2026 | Uncategorized
Two businesses with identical revenue and EBITDA can receive dramatically different multiples at exit. The most common reason is leadership depth. A business with a capable management team that runs without the owner is fundamentally worth more than one where every...
by scottsylvan | Mar 15, 2026 | Uncategorized
Most business owners spend years building something valuable and about six months thinking about how to sell it. That gap is why the majority of exits underperform. Before you talk to a broker, before you run numbers, you need to understand what the five exit...
by scottsylvan | Mar 9, 2026 | Uncategorized
If the business cannot run without you, it will not sell without you. Buyers and investors pay premiums for independence, not indispensability. Founder dependency is when decisions, relationships, approvals, and deliveries revolve around you. The company is...
by scottsylvan | Mar 9, 2026 | Uncategorized
One customer or one relationship should never control your exit. What feels like a strong relationship — one you have built and protected for years — signals fragility to every buyer who opens your books. Concentration risk is a technical term for a specific problem:...
by scottsylvan | Mar 9, 2026 | Uncategorized
Multiples are not arbitrary numbers. They are risk shorthand. When a buyer quotes you a multiple, what they are really communicating is their confidence score — how certain they are that the earnings and continuity of the business will hold after the handoff. Price...
by scottsylvan | Mar 9, 2026 | Uncategorized
Exit is a transition, not a transformation. If you wait until you are ready to sell to fix the business, buyers will see an unfinished product and price it like a turnaround. The DRIVER test and SCALE framework inside the Exit Ratio 360™ evaluate the specific growth...
