The number is written long before anyone offers it.
Enterprise value is assembled by a buyer, question by question, out of what they can and cannot verify. This is what they look at, what it means for when you go to market, and which buyers you go to.
A process reveals value. It does not create it.
The value gap is the distance between what your business can evidence and the number it will be offered if you can't. It is not a market condition. It is a small number of specific things inside the business, and every one of them can be worked before you launch a process.
Capital is active, and it pays a premium for agencies that are fully prepared for an exit. It's not about being prepared for a process; it's about being prepared for an exit and having a plan for what happens after. That premium is the part most founders leave behind, because it is decided before a process rather than inside one.
Every sale runs on evidence investors look for and already exists, but is often hidden. Most founders make their first call to a banker/advisor when they are ready to go to market. That's too late. The value that can be shaped before that call will determine how you can close the value gap.
A floor, a premium, and how much of it reaches you.
The first three dimensions set the floor: the number your own results already justify. The next three set the premium: what the right buyer pays on top, for something they cannot build themselves. The seventh decides how much of that premium survives to close.
Through The AXP EV Creation Framework, we read all seven dimensions the way a buyer will, work the ones holding the number down, and then position the business for success with the right buyers.
Fit is what makes a deal close well. When the evidence already sits inside the business, the offer survives diligence, the right buyer can defend their decision, and both sides sign something they still believe in years later.
Build, then go.
Go now, or go in a quarter or two from a stronger position (hint: it is not always about EBITDA). The point of reading the seven is not the score. It is the decision underneath it: when the business goes to market, and which buyers it goes to.
- Go now. The evidence supports the number. We position the business against what the best-fit buyers underwrite, build the materials, and run the process.
- Go from strength. One or two things are capping the multiple and are closeable inside a defined window before you go. We work them with you, then we run the same process at a better number.
Either way, you get the same things: where you sit against what buyers pay a premium for, what is holding the number down, the buyers this business is worth the most to, and the story those buyers would actually underwrite.
A stronger business either way. The work compounds whether or not you decide to sell.