WTF. Buyers Think My Profitable Company Is Worthless!

Trevor Stevenson-Platt

20 Sep 2025 — 2 min read

Photo by charlesdeluvio / Unsplash

Mark thought he had cracked it.

His company was turning over millions. The books looked healthy. The profits, solid.

He walked into the sale process with confidence. This was his payday.

But then came the silence. Buyers passed. Offers didn’t land. The message was blunt: “Nice business. But not for us.”

Mark was stunned. How could a profitable company be worthless?

The Brutal Truth

Profit isn’t the problem.

Transferability is.

Buyers don’t care what the business makes when you’re in charge. They want to know what it makes when you’re gone.

And if the answer is “less” or worse, “nothing”, your business has no real value to them.

That’s the gap most owners miss.

Why Buyers Walk Away

Here’s what buyers really see:

The founder is the rainmaker. Remove them, and revenue dries up.
The biggest customer makes up half of turnover. Lose them, and profits vanish.
Systems and processes? All in the owner’s head.

From the outside, those profits look fragile. Too much risk. Too much uncertainty.

So the cheque book stays closed.

How to Turn It Around

The fix isn’t complicated, but it takes discipline.

1. Make yourself redundant.

Build a team. Document systems. Prove the machine runs without you.

2. Lock in recurring revenue.

Contracts. Subscriptions. Retainers. Predictability is what buyers will pay for.

3. Spread the risk.

One client, one supplier, one market — all red flags. Diversify so no single point of failure can sink the ship.

The Hard Lesson

Mark learned this too late. By the time he wanted to sell, the gaps were glaring. The buyers weren’t buying.

And that’s the trap. Owners wait until they’re ready to exit before preparing their business. By then, it’s already too late.

The time to start is years before. When you still have energy. When the market is strong. When you can shape the business into something truly saleable.

Final Thought

Profitability is what keeps you alive.

Transferability is what makes you wealthy.

So ask yourself the only question that matters:

If I walked away tomorrow, would my company still stand?

Your answer will tell you whether your profitable company is a real asset or worthless to buyers.

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