What is my business actually worth?
Here is how to work out why.

The short answer

Valuation is mostly a question about the quality of the earnings, not the size of them.

Owners tend to think about valuation as a multiple applied to profit. Buyers think about it as a judgement on how much of that profit survives their ownership — which is why two businesses with identical earnings sell for very different numbers.

The drivers are consistent: how concentrated the revenue is, how much of it recurs, how dependent the business is on the owner, and how defensible the margin looks over the next few years. Each of those moves the multiple more than an incremental point of profit moves the base.

Which means the practical question is usually not "what is it worth" but "which of these is depressing the multiple, and can it be fixed in the time available before a sale".

How to tell this is actually your problem

These three together are the signature. One on its own usually points somewhere else.

✓ You are within a few years of a transaction and have never had the earnings normalised
✓ A large share of profit depends on relationships held by the owner
✓ Revenue is largely non-recurring and concentrated

The move that usually makes it worse. Optimising profit in the year before a sale while leaving the multiple drivers untouched, which usually adds less value than fixing one of them.

Who this is not for

Percision is the wrong tool if you already know the answer and only need execution capacity, or if the business is pre-revenue — then the constraint is evidence about the market, not analysis of your own figures. Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library. Also wrong if you need facilitation, politics, or someone to sit with a lender or buyer. Those are human jobs.

Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library.

What it looks like in your industry

The diagnosis changes with the shape of the business. Each of these works the same question through one industry's actual economics, with an excerpt from a real analysis run on a company of that type.

What the engine does with this question

It routes to Growth Portfolio Framework (catalog id bcg-v2), one of 29 engagements. The output is a sequence with a stopping rule — which move first, what it funds next, and the observation that would say it is not working — rather than a list of things you could consider.

Read a complete report before deciding whether it is worth your time.

Questions people ask about this

What multiple should I expect?

Ranges by sector are easy to find and are the least useful part of the answer. Where you land inside the range is decided by concentration, recurrence, owner dependence and margin defensibility.

How far in advance should I prepare?

Two to three years if the aim is to move the multiple, because that is how long recurring revenue and reduced owner dependence take to become visible in the numbers.

Does growth or profitability matter more?

It depends on the buyer. Financial buyers pay for durable cash flow; strategic buyers pay for what the business does to their own position. Knowing which you are preparing for changes what to fix.

When is Percision the wrong tool?

Percision is the wrong tool if you already know the answer and only need execution capacity, or if the business is pre-revenue — then the constraint is evidence about the market, not analysis of your own figures. Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library. Also wrong if you need facilitation, politics, or someone to sit with a lender or buyer. Those are human jobs.

Does Percision replace a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, or AI implementation team?

Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library.