Most business owners are obsessed with adding new customers. The sales pipeline, the marketing budget, the growth targets all point in one direction. Find more. Close more. Grow faster.
In M&A circles, there is a well-known concept called the Rembrandt in the Attic. It refers to a situation where an acquirer discovers an asset or capability inside a target company that the seller either undervalued, underutilized, or did not realize was there. Just like the classic trope of a homeowner finding a priceless masterpiece tucked behind old boxes, these hidden assets can sometimes be worth more than the core business itself once they are dusted off and put in the right hands.
Selling a business isn’t just about finding a buyer and agreeing on a price. From an ROIC perspective, it’s about managing risk, preserving continuity, and protecting deal certainty.
One of the most underestimated risks in any business sale is how and when employees are told. Get it wrong, and you invite uncertainty, resignations, and buyer concern. Get it right, and you reinforce confidence, stability, and value.
Gavin Bell had achieved the freelancer dream. He was known as “the Facebook ads guy” in Edinburgh, pulling in £30k/month with almost no overhead.
It was incredibly lucrative. It was also a trap.
While rewarding, his business was completely unsellable. His customers weren’t buying an agency—they were buying Gavin.
On paper, MotiveBase looked like a sellable business. It served blue-chip customers like McDonald’s, Target, and General Mills. It generated millions in revenue. Margins were strong. Yet when founder Ujwal Arkalgud first tested the market, acquirers hesitated.
These days, building and curating a personal brand online is often portrayed as a key to success. Entrepreneurs are told to put themselves at the forefront, to be the face of their business, and to leverage social media to grow both their influence and their company.
Most owners assume growth is the goal. More customers. More revenue. More staff.
And they’re right. Buyers do reward growth. But they pay a premium for companies that grow while keeping a positive cash flow cycle.
When an acquirer evaluates your business, they’re looking beyond what you’ve built. As successful as your company may be, buyers need to see how much larger it can grow to generate a return on their investment. That’s where Total Addressable Market (TAM) comes in.
Most business owners assume that bigger is better. More products. More customers. More markets. Adam Rossi took the opposite approach. By going narrower and serving just one group of customers with one set of critical problems, he outperformed billion-dollar competitors
like Lockheed Martin..
If you sell something the market sees as interchangeable, your business may be worth less. Acquirers often argue that without a competitive moat, commoditized companies are sitting ducks for a price war. Margins get squeezed. Valuations drop.
Some leaders take pride in leading from the front. They’re in the trenches with their team. They never delegate a task they wouldn’t do themselves. It earns respect, builds morale, and inspires loyalty.
Brent Beshore never set out to be a private equity investor. He didn’t come from Wall Street, never took a finance class, and once had to google the term “due diligence.” (He typed “do diligence.”) He was an operator building a marketing firm from scratch—until one day a founder offered to sell him their business. That deal closed in 2010 and became the seed of Permanent Equity, Beshore’s investment firm
Whether you sell in 12 months or 3 years, the right first step is understanding where your business stands today — confidentially, and without pressure.
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