Mike Andes argues that a true business must be able to operate without the owner present; otherwise it is effectively a job rather than a sellable business. He recommends the "leave for a week" stress test: leave the business for a week, record all problems that arise, assess their causes, and then architect systems to prevent those problems from recurring.
If you can't build a business to leave, then you don't have a business. You have a job and it's very difficult to sell a job. You're multiple when you do an acquisition, is a lot of times dependent for small businesses on can this business run without the business owner being here every day or every week? The stress test of all stress tests is leave for a week and all the problems that happen, I'm going to assess what they were and then in my architect time, create systems prevent those problems from happening again.
