Understand the true value of your business
Research shows a small percentage of UK businesses produce a valuable exit for their owners.
Research also shows one company can be worth three or more times a similar company in the same business sector.
Whether you wish to sell your business today or not, imagine the comfort of understanding its true value and knowing you could sell when you’re ready.
Talk to us to understand how to measure your company against the eight primary drivers of company value OR get yourself a drink and spend a few minutes on this questionnaire to receive a confidential, initial assessment specific to you and your business.
Cantava exists to transform the outlook for business owners
In 2011, John Warrillow wrote ‘Built To Sell’. In it, he described a set of principles for creating a business that would thrive without its owner.
The book’s underlying thesis is that building the value of a company gives the business owner a killer advantage in the game of life. In essence, the owner can choose to sell if they get an outlandish offer or sleep well at night knowing they could sell should the opportunity or need arise.
Looking at a business through the lens of a would-be acquirer, Warrillow suggests the hallmark of a valuable company is one that can run without the owner, which implies if an owner can create a business that’s built to sell, they also have the option to hold on to it without the stress of running it on a day-to-day basis.
The key message is that a business owner should aspire to work on their business and not in it.
Taking that step will differentiate their business and maximise its value.
A valuable business is a sought-after asset, making it more likely that the owner will get an unsolicited offer for it. This gives the owner negotiating leverage when deciding to sell.
The Value Builder System™️
Following the success of his book, in 2014 Warrillow launched a software platform designed to allow certified advisors to use his Built To Sell methodology with clients. The Value Builder System™️ is the name of the platform.
That platform continues to evolve and incorporates a valuable database relating currently to 67,000 businesses. The database underpins the primary diagnostic tool used by advisors to benchmark the businesses of their clients.
The Cantava team is certified to use The Value Builder System™️ and is working with an expanding network of business partners to help owners determine ways to increase and unlock value in their businesses.
We use the System's proven 12-step process to guide our client’s actions and look to become both a trusted sounding board and an objective assessor of each client’s progress.
What gets measured, gets done
Access to data is essential to determine actionable insights in almost every facet of life today.
A plethora of tools and technologies are available to facilitate an accurate prescription of actions to be taken in almost every context.
Invariably, the challenge is compliance. It’s relatively easy to produce a to do list, but not always as easy to take all the steps required to tick those actions off the list.
Businesses large and small are placing an ever-increasing emphasis on collecting and analysing data, but they often focus on analyses of historical operational and financial business performance.
Such outputs are important in determining whether a business is on track, and they contribute to understanding the potential value of a business from a purely accounting perspective. However, the reality is many business owners don’t understand the true value of their company, nor do they have a plan to secure their share of that value for themselves at some juncture.
As the old adage goes: fail to plan, plan to fail
The eight drivers of company value
There are three steps we take to help a business owner pull the right levers to increase the value of their business. Each lever is linked to one of eight primary drivers of a company's value.
Step one involves determining an initial Value Builder Score, which is compiled from answers to a questionnaire that takes approximately thirteen minutes to complete. There's no charge for completing the questionnaire, so please feel free to use this link to receive a confidential, initial assessment specific to you and your business.
Step two is the Value Builder Assessment, which is a strategy session where we help a business owner understand the way in which their Value Builder Score has been derived and to outline how we might collaborate to improve the value of their business.
Step three is the Value Builder Engagement, which involves us working collaboratively with a business owner through a proven, twelve module process to derive actions designed to improve the value of the owner’s business.
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The Value Builder Engagement
The twelve modules prescribed in The Value Builder System are typically used in a monthly cadence, although there's flexibility to both alter pace and / or sequencing in line with the plan agreed during the Value Builder Assessment prior to a Value Builder Engagement commencing.