Business Valuation & Exit Readiness Assessment

What Is Your Business Actually Worth Today…

And What Could It Be Worth If It Didn’t Depend on You?

What I See Repeatedly With SME Owners

After working with numerous businesses over the years, I see the same three structural problems again and again...

Operational Friction

The business is profitable and growing, but it still depends heavily on the owner.

Decisions escalate upward.
Problems land on the owner’s desk.
Growth creates more pressure rather than more freedom.

Instead of building leverage, the owner becomes the system holding everything together.

Under-Optimised Profit

The business generates revenue, but the commercial engine is not operating at full efficiency.

Margins are tighter than they should be.
Working capital is under constant pressure.
The return on the owner’s time, energy and risk is lower than it should be.

In many cases, the business could produce significantly more profit from the same level of activity.

Limited Optionality

The business may be successful, but it has not yet been structured as a transferable asset.

Which means freedom of choice remains limited.

Succession becomes difficult
Investors see higher risk
Exit pathways are restricted

From the outside the business looks successful.

But from an investor’s perspective, dependency risk keeps valuation multiples lower than they could be.

Most businesses grow revenue.
Very few intentionally build enterprise value.

Who This Assessment Is For

It is designed for experienced SME owners, typically businesses that are:

7 or 8 figure turnover or clearly on track to reach seven figures
Already profitable with a proven business model
Still too dependent on the owner for key decisions or operational momentum
Seeking greater financial returns and personal freedom from the business

If you are running an early-stage or small business, this assessment is likely not the right fit yet.

It is particularly valuable for owners who are beginning to think about future pathways, such as:

Reduce owner dependency and step back from day-to-day firefighting
Planning a succession strategy
Preparing the business for future exit opportunities
Exploring management buy-outs (MBO) or Employee Ownership Trusts (EOT)
Developing an acquisition strategy to expand their portfolio
Transitioning from operator to owner and eventually investor

What Happens Next

It's time to engineer your business value structure

🟢Step 1
Complete the short Valuation Readiness Application

🟢Step 2
If suitable, we schedule a 15-minute discovery call

🟢Step 3
You confidentially share your last three years of accounts

🟢Step 4
We review the financials and identify opportunities to increase both profit quality and business value

🟢Step 5
We meet for a Strategic Valuation Review where I walk you through:

🟢the current value of your business

🟢what it could be worth if key limitations are removed

🟢whether there is an opportunity for us to work together to unlock that value

About Derek

Derek Mair is Managing Partner of NOVO Leadership International and a former Chief Operating Officer with over 30 years’ experience in business growth, operational transformation and leadership development.

He has started and scaled international businesses to nine-figure revenues across three continents, led acquisitions and turnarounds, and built, invested in, and exited several SMEs.

Today Derek works directly with a small number of established business owners to help them build profitable, scalable and transferable companies that increase valuation and create future exit options.

Alongside this, he licenses affiliate partners across the UK to deliver his original group coaching programme, The Business Freedom System™, supporting SME owners to strengthen performance, leadership, commercial capability and operational systemisation.

“I am not a coach or a consultant. I am a 'business growth partner' - whatever the business needs me to be at that time.”

Case Study Results

"The company went from £4M to £10M turnover in 15 months. More importantly the team stepped up the systems and the business up to the next level, faster, better, and far more profitably. With Derek's guidance we engineered the business structure where the percentage increases in our financials was incredible.

MORE IMPORTANTLY: Our valuation multiple increased from 2.3x to 5x"

(Full case study available on request)

Stephen Allam

"I had ran my businesses for many years and genuinely didn’t believe anyone could teach me anything about running a business. If I’m honest, it was the Guarantee to find the annual fee within the first 17 weeks, I thought it was a ‘no lose’ situation; it turned out to be a massive win situation, a real eye-opener. I took myself out of running other people’s divisions and departments for them and became the Group Managing Director. I stopped asking myself why they won’t step up and started empowering for the first time to step up and put systems in place. I can’t thank you enough."

Allan Thomson

"Appointing a Non-Executive Director has allowed us to restructure the company, identify areas of weakness, and improvements required to take a 200 year old company into the future with respect of our current economy and building industry. Novo's help and directorship has been invaluable."

David Irvine

"Appointing a Freedom System NED brought to the company a wealth of experience in HR, Financials, Marketing, People and Business development that allows the directors to focus on growth strategies that we can implement with his guidance and support. The benefits to the company are immeasurable, and for myself I have a valuable sounding board that is always available to me.”

The Business Valuation & Exit Readiness Assessment

For a small number of established business owners each month, I offer a Business Valuation & Exit Readiness Assessment.

The assessment is designed for established SME owners, typically operating at seven-figure turnover or above, who want to understand:

✔️What your business is realistically worth today

✔️what factors are limiting its value

✔️What it could be worth if those limitations were removed