I am going to tell you something that made my husband think I had lost my mind.
In year one of my business, when revenue was around $69,000, I paid for a business valuation.
Not because I was rich.
Not because the business was big.
But because I wanted to know the truth.
My husband said, “What are you getting evaluated for? You are not making any real money yet.”
And he was right, sort of.
I was not making millions.
But I was building something.
And I wanted to know if I was building it correctly.
So I hired a business broker. Found him online. Paid him $500. Sent over my financials, what little structure I had, and braced myself.
It was brutal.
He did not hype me up. He did not tell me how inspiring my story was. He told me exactly what was wrong.
- My expenses were too high.
- My prices were too low.
- My systems were not tight enough.
- My books were not clean enough to tell a clear story.
And instead of being offended, I listened.
That $500 conversation changed everything.
Here is why. Most entrepreneurs wait until they are burned out or desperate before they think about selling. By then, the problems are baked in. The systems are messy. The financials are unclear. The founder is exhausted.
I did the opposite.
I wanted to know early what made a business worth buying.
So I could build toward that.
That broker showed me how buyers think. What they look for. What makes a business attractive and what makes them walk away.
It was not vibes.
It was not branding.
It was not potential.
It was margins.
Repeatability.
Clean books.
Clear processes.
From that point on, every decision I made went through a different filter.
Does this improve profitability?
Does this simplify operations?
Does this add value for someone other than me?
I raised prices.
I reduced unnecessary costs.
I tightened systems.
I got serious about my numbers.
Not because I was trying to impress anyone.
Because I was building an asset.
That valuation did not tell me what my business was worth at the time. It told me what it could be worth if I stopped operating emotionally and started operating strategically.
And here is the part people miss.
You do not get ready to sell when you are ready to leave.
You get ready long before you are tired.
That early valuation gave me a roadmap. One I followed for years.
So when the time came to actually sell, I was not scrambling. I was executing a plan I had already been running.
If you are building a business and you have never asked what makes it valuable to someone else, you are guessing.
And guessing is expensive.
You do not need to wait until you are big to think about exit. You need to think about exit so you can get big the right way.
That $500 decision was one of the smartest ones I ever made.
Because it taught me how to see my business the way a buyer would.
~Karamel McCoy