Mark Osborne explains why 'grow or go' is a continuous strategy, not a one-time exit decision. Reducing owner dependency makes a business more scalable, vacation-friendly, and attractive to buyers while improving the owner's work-life balance. Many owners get complacent at comfortable income levels and let standards slip, so staying growth-oriented keeps the business both sellable and enjoyable.
And I love this concept of grow or go because it doesn't have to be sort of an all-at-once sort of decision of, well, when I decide that I'm going to sell my business, maybe 12 months out, I'll start to think about that. But in fact, if you look at, you know, the things that make a business attractive to an outside buyer are also the things that make it more enjoyable to run on a day-to-day basis. And those are things like not being dependent on the owner. That owner dependency is very scary to an outside buyer. And it also means you can't go on vacations, you can't take time off, you have no work-life balance. And so solving that is good on both ends of that spectrum. And likewise, you know, a lot of businesses will sort of reach an area where they're happy because they're, you know, have enough sort of discretionary income and then just sort of ride along and let things, you know, kind of fall by the wayside.
How Can You Maximize Your Business Value Before Selling? with Randy Katz Video
