13 Tweets 16 reads Jul 07, 2022
Most people suck at growing their small business.
Here's a simple framework, and example, on how to 10x your business:
There are 4 main levers to generate equity value in a business.
• Revenue Growth
• Profit Margin Enhancement
• Debt
• Multiple Expansion
• Revenue Growth
Biggest impact on value accretion since it affects everything.
Key methods include:
• Sales team buildout
• New products
• New markets
• New geographies
• Profit Margin Enhancement
Amplification of your revenue growth efforts.
Key methods include:
• Improved efficiencies through better systems
• Removal of unnecessary redundancies
• Operating leverage through increased scale
• Debt
In order to grow revenue and improve margins at an accelerated rate, you need to spend capital.
Capital comes in both equity and debt.
Debt is cheaper (compared to equity) so technically the more you use, the more valuable equity becomes.
• Multiple Expansion
In most sectors, more established businesses attract higher valuation multiples.
The rationale is that established businesses are less risky and more predicable.
The lower risk drives higher demand which results in a higher multiple.
• Let's put all this into an example
Starting position:
• Revenue $5M
• Profit: $500K (10% margin)
• Debt: $0
• Valuation Multiple: 3.0x
• Company Value (CV): 3x $500k = $1.5M
• Equity Value: CV - Debt = $1.5M - $0 = $1.5M
To grow revenue and improve margins, you borrow (debt) $1.5M.
Use that capital to:
• Grow revenue by 28% p.a. over 5 years, that's $5M-$17M (3.4x)
• Improve margins from 10% to 20%
You now have business that's generating:
• Revenue: $17M
• Profit: $3.4M
At this stage, the business is significantly de-risked and has achieved enough scale to attract a broad range of investors.
The valuation multiple will increase.
Let's assume that it grew to 5.0x from the initial 3.0x.
Ending position:
• Revenue $17M
• Profit: $3.4M (20% margin)
• Debt: $1.5M
• Valuation Multiple: 5.0x
• Company Value (CV): 5x $3.4k = $17M
• Equity: $17M - $1.5M = $15.5M
You've grown your $1.5M initial equity stake into $15.5M.
A $14M increase.
That's a 10x return in 5 years.
TL;DR
How to 10x your small business::
• Debt
• Revenue Growth
• Multiple Expansion
• Profit Margin Enhancement
That's a wrap!
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