When you look ahead to next year, will your business’ growth come from selling more to your existing customers or finding new customers for your existing products and services? The answer may have a profound impact on the value of your business.
A recent analysis of owners who completed their Value Builder Score™ questionnaire found that the average company received an offer 3.5 times their pre-tax profit. Businesses with a historical growth rate of 20% had offers of 4.3 times pre-tax profit, or about 20 percent more than their slower growth counterparts.
However, the real increase in value came from businesses that claim to have a unique product or service for which they have a virtual monopoly. The niche companies enjoyed average offers of 5.4 times pre-tax profit, or roughly 50 percent more than the average companies.
Nurture Your Niche
It is common for businesses to offer a wide array of products and services to increase revenue. The easiest way to grow is to sell more goods and services to your existing customers, so businesses tend to add adjacent product and service lines. However, when a strategic acquirer buys your business, they are buying something they cannot easily replicate on their own.
A large company will place less value on the revenue derived from products and services that you have in common. They will argue that their economies of scale put them in a better position to sell the things that you both offer today.
Likewise, they will pay the largest premium to get access to a new product or service they can sell to their customers. Big, mature companies have customers and systems, but they sometimes lack innovation, and many choose acquisition as a strategy to buy their innovation.
Bottom Line
Focusing on your niche is an area where the long-term value of your business is at odds with short-term profit. For example, if you wanted to maximize your short-term profit, you might avoid investing in new technology or hiring a head of sales, arguing that both investments would hinder short-term profit. The truly valuable company finds a way to deliver profit in the short term while simultaneously focusing their strategy on what drives up the value of the business.
You can get your own Value Builder Score™, and see how you compare on the eight key drivers of company value, by taking our 13-minute survey.
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