There’s Gold in Them Processes!
When I ask an owner to walk me through how their business actually runs, they usually point to one of two things. Either a binder from 2014 gathering dust on a shelf, or an employee who “just knows how everything works.”
Both answers tell me the same thing: they’re leaving money on the table.
A few weeks ago, I was speaking with a founder who sold his service company for a higher multiple than anyone expected. Nothing about his business was flashy. His revenue wasn’t the highest in his niche. He wasn’t a celebrity CEO. What he did have was a machine that ran clean. From lead intake to job scheduling to the final invoice, every step had been documented, tested, refined, and delegated. When buyers asked for a walkthrough, he didn’t give a tour; he handed them a playbook. They paid a premium for the privilege.
The opposite story is far more common.
An owner told me recently, “My people know what they’re doing. I don’t need a bunch of checklists.” Six months later, his key operator took a job with a competitor. The business didn’t just wobble; it nearly collapsed. When your company relies on heroic memory instead of reliable systems, you’re never more than one resignation away from losing half your enterprise value.
And here’s the hard truth: buyers know this.
Operational excellence isn’t corporate. It’s profitable.
They aren’t buying your personality. They aren’t buying your charm. They’re buying whether the business keeps producing revenue next month, next quarter, and next year without you.
That’s why transferable value lives inside your processes.
This is the part where owners usually start to squirm. Process talk feels boring. It feels corporate. It feels like something consultants say when they’re out of real ideas. But then I ask them a simple question: Why do you think private equity firms pay top dollar for the same boring businesses year after year?
It’s because they treat process as a wealth-creation engine.
In M&A, the secret everyone whispers but few say directly is that well-run, process-driven companies don’t just sell for more; they sell faster, with less friction, and attract higher-quality buyers. Nothing increases confidence like predictability, and nothing produces predictability like process.
Right in the middle of deals, this becomes obvious.
A buyer can forgive imperfect financials if the underlying operations run clean. They cannot forgive chaos. When a buyer sees a business that depends on tribal knowledge, they immediately start discounting the offer to account for operational risk. I’ve seen deals lose twenty, even thirty percent of their value during diligence because what looked like a healthy company turned out to be held together by duct tape and goodwill.
Contrast that with the owners I’ve spoken to who built their companies like franchises, even when they had no intention of franchising. They could tell you exactly how each department worked, where the bottlenecks were, how long each step took, and what controls existed to keep quality high. Their teams followed documented procedures. Their customers experienced consistency. Their margins were predictable. Their businesses felt trustworthy.
Buyers chase trust.
And here’s the intriguing part: operational excellence isn’t just a selling advantage. It’s a growth multiplier long before you ever think about an exit. When owners clean up their processes, revenue rises, burnout drops, and suddenly everything becomes more scalable.
The positive future for any owner reading this is simple. You don’t need to transform your business overnight. You don’t need Six Sigma Black Belts or thick binders. Start by mapping one revenue-critical process.
Clean it. Document it. Delegate it. Measure it.
Once you see how much smoother that area runs, the rest won’t feel like work; it will feel like leverage.
Because once your business becomes a machine instead of a memory, you begin compounding value every single day.
And that’s where the gold really is.
David Hermann, CEO of hermanngroup and M&A Advisor/Broker at Sunbelt Business Brokers of Colorado
David Hermann is a transformative advisor and strategist who turns complex business challenges into extraordinary successes. Known for driving over $500 million in documented financial improvements for clients, David partners with C-suite leaders to unlock their full potential. With 60+ speaking engagements, numerous publications, and a spot in the top 1% of Consulting Voices and top 1% of the Social Selling Index on LinkedIn, he’s passionate about making strategy, change leadership, and operations insightful and accessible.