Back in 2006, Michael Kaplan and his partners bought into a Zerorez Carpet and Living Surfaces Care franchise. The business was generating $300,000 in revenue and losing $40,000 a year. By 2019, the company was generating $17 million in revenue when Kaplan and his...
Cheryl Contee co-founded Attentive.ly along with Rosalyn Lemieux. Together, the partners offered a Software as a Service (SaaS) app that helped non-for-profit organizations perform “social listening”. Their offering was used by organizations to identify and drive...
If your goal is to build a more valuable company, stop selling your time. Billing by the hour or day means customers are renting your time rather than buying a result, which means that your business model lacks leverage. To grow, you need to either work harder or...
In 1994, Robert Hartline started selling phones in the back of his car. By 2019, he had built Absolute Wireless into a chain of 56 wireless stores and 350 employees. Hartline was able to systematize his business while he grew by creating employee onboarding videos and...
Henry Hyder-Smith and Steve Denner started UK-based Adestra in 2004. Adestra is a digital marketing software that helps big companies handle email campaigns, among other things. The company grew nicely. By 2016, it had around $9 million in revenue and a client list...
Reoccurring Revenue vs. Recurring Revenue Mike Malatesta built Advanced Waste Services, a company that helped businesses dispose of their industrial waste, to $45 million in annual sales before a fateful lunch changed his life forever. It was with a...
Is it better to own a big chunk of a small business or a minority stake in a big company? It’s one of the fundamental questions all owners must wrestle with. Owning a relatively small slice of a big pie has worked out well for both Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, who...
One Hidden Thing That Drives Your Company's Value You already know that your company’s revenue and profits play a big role in how much your business is worth. Do you also know the role cash flow plays in your valuation? Cash vs. Profits A Buyer must write two checks...
3 Reasons Not To Diversify How does Vitamix get away with charging $700 for a blender when reputable companies like Cuisinart and Breville make blenders for less than half the price? It’s because Vitamix does just one thing, and they do it better than anyone else. You...
Most business owners have invested considerable time and energy in their business, and the decision to sell the business can be particularly difficult. Unlike most business decisions you make, you only get one shot to get it right, so it pays to know what to expect...
The value of your company is partly determined by your industry. For example, cloud-based software companies are generally worth a lot more than printing companies these days.