06/02/2026
Most business owners spend years focused on growing revenue. Far fewer spend time thinking about what their business looks like to a buyer when the time comes to sell.
Transferability is one of the biggest factors in how a business gets valued. Is there a management team that can run day-to-day operations without the owner in the room? Is the revenue spread across a broad customer base, or is a large portion of it tied to just two or three clients? Those details tell a buyer how much risk they're actually taking on.
David Silver, CFP®, CEPA® walks through this. Businesses with strong middle management, diversified customer bases, and systems that run independently from the owner tend to score higher on attractiveness assessments. The businesses without those things often see their value affected, because buyers interpret it as underinvestment in the business itself.
If you're a business owner thinking about an eventual sale, it's not too early to start asking these questions. The decisions you make in the years before a transaction have a direct impact on what the business is worth when the time comes.
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