One of the eight factors that impact the value of your company is something the team at The Value Builder System™ refers to as “The Switzerland Structure,” which emphasizes the importance of business independence. It cautions against excessive reliance on any single entity, whether suppliers, employees, or customers. While many business owners recognize the risks associated with dependency on a high-profile customer or employee, the hazards of anchoring to a single supplier are often overlooked.

Supplier dependency comes in many flavors, but the most pernicious is a dependency on a single marketing supplier for sales leads, such as a dominant e-commerce site or social media platform.

6 Ways Marketing Supplier Dependency Cuts Your Value

1. Increased Risk Exposure: Sole reliance on one platform exposes a business to risks of sudden policy, fee, or algorithm changes. Such negative alterations by the platform could significantly impact the business’s sales and profitability. Client Relationships
2. Lack of Diversification: Over-dependence on a single channel is perceived as a vulnerability, while a diversified sales approach suggests resilience and adaptability, appealing attributes to both investors and acquirers.
3. Limited Growth Potential: Exclusive reliance on one platform can restrict a company’s growth opportunities. Investors typically favor businesses with multiple channels for growth. Being bound to one platform can limit a business’s potential for expansion.
4. Brand and Customer Relationship Limitations: Operating primarily through a third-party platform may lead to limited customer interaction, hindering the development of a strong brand identity and customer loyalty, both highly valued by investors.
5. Negotiating Power and Autonomy: Dependence on a platform like Amazon can reduce control over crucial business aspects, such as pricing and customer service. Investors may view this lack of autonomy as a strategic weakness.
6. Perception of Innovation and Independence: Businesses demonstrating innovation and independence are often more attractive to investors. Over-reliance on a single platform can create an impression of a lack of these qualities.

How Chad Maghielse Improved His Score on the Switzerland Structure

Chad Maghielse’s company, Pets Are Kids Too, originated with a simple spray to help improve his dog’s breath and swiftly expanded to over $2 million in sales with a 35% profit margin within three years, relying solely on Amazon. Recognizing the risks of this dependence on the e-commerce giant, Maghielse embarked on a path of supplier diversification.

Maghielse expanded to another e-commerce platform, Chewy.com, and launched his own online store. This strategy reduced Amazon’s share of his sales to 65%, while Chewy and his store contributed 30% and 5%, respectively. A significant reduction in his business’s platform risk and an increase in its appeal to potential buyers resulted from this strategic shift.

Thanks in part to Maghielse’s diversification strategy, Pets Are Kids Too was acquired in a deal that valued the company at three times its EBITDA, with a substantial portion paid up front. Maghielse’s journey highlights the critical insight that diversification not only shields against market volatility but also enhances a business’s overall value.

Embracing the Mentality of the Swiss

Reducing your reliance on a single marketing supplier not only bolsters your company’s market resilience but also notably increases its value. Adopting a Swiss-style mindset, which values independence and strategic autonomy, is more than a tactical move; it is a key strategy for achieving sustainable growth and boosting the value of your business in the long run.

In the competitive third-party logistics (3PL) sector, Jay B Sauceda turned Sauceda Industries into a standout business, ultimately reaching $14 million in sales before being acquired by Cart.com.  

His secret weapon? His core values: “Yes, And,” “Explore More,” and “Give a Sh!t.”

Talent Recruitment

Sauceda found his first significant opportunity with Howler Brothers, the digitally native purveyor or stylish and rugged outdoor gear whose leadership related to Sauceda’s core values.

Sauceda’s values weren’t mere posters on a wall but embedded into job descriptions, ensuring new hires were aligned with the company ethos. “Yes, And” fostered constructive dialogue, “Explore More” encouraged initiative, and “Give a Sh!t” signaled a commitment to quality.

In the fiercely competitive landscape for hourly workers, Sauceda utilized job ads as both a magnet and a filter. His distinctive ads read:

“We’re looking for someone who gives a shit about their work, gets annoyed with coworkers who don’t pull their weight, wants to level themselves up in a big way and cares about being somewhere long enough that people remember their name.”

Such postings instantly distinguished Sauceda Industries from the mundane listings of competitors, drawing talent aligned with the company’s dynamic culture.

Employee Training and Metrics

New hires were introduced to Sauceda’s values through dedicated training programs. Performance evaluations considered not just revenue metrics but also the embodiment of Sauceda’s core principles. Employees who exemplified “Yes, And,” “Explore More,” and “Give a Sh!t” found themselves rewarded and recognized. Their Slack channel was full of praise for team members embodying their core values.

Creating a distinctive culture was crucial for Sauceda. He recalls, “Our values lived in our daily interactions, whether it was an employee going above and beyond for a client or in our collaborations.”

Client Relationships

The core values extended to client interactions, offering criteria for long-term partnerships. A cornerstone example was Howler Brothers, whose alignment with these values set the stage for both parties’ success. Sauceda emphasized, “When a client fits naturally with our core values, the collaboration is far more likely to be fruitful.”

A Valuable Company

Leveraging this values-centric model, Sauceda Industries grew from a 3,000-square-foot office in 2013 to a sprawling 126,000-square-foot facility with 150 employees by 2020. “We bootstrapped all the way to the top,” Sauceda asserted, attributing the company’s fast, self-funded growth to its value-driven framework.

In the competitive 3PL landscape, Sauceda Industries didn’t just serve clients; it built relationships based on shared values. Through strategic recruitment, impactful training, and a vibrant work culture, these core values helped pave the way for a business that thrived, achieving $14 million in sales before it was acquired by Cart.com in 2021.

If you aspire to build a valuable company, one crucial factor is to ensure your business can operate independently without your constant involvement, but embarking on this journey can feel daunting. In
this article, we’ll explore three cost-effective, simple strategies to set your business on a path to autonomy and allowing it to thrive without your constant presence.

1. Replace yourself by niching down.

The reason most owners can’t replace themselves is that a substitute would be too expensive. Trying to replace your breadth of experience would likely require a very high-salaried employee. If you can’t afford to replace all of what you do, niche down your core offering.  

For example, Casey Cavell’s baseball business, D-Bat Academy, could have catered to a broad range of players: professionals, softball players, slow-pitch beer leaguers, fast-pitch…but instead, he got specific about who his business was for: 5- to 10-year-old kids.  

Sure, he could have charged more per customer if he catered to college athletes and aspiring pros—but those elite athletes would expect to get a hitting coach with years of expertise, and Casey would have had to staff for that.  

On the other hand, when you have a business where one of its primary objectives is to give an 8-year-old an awesome birthday party, well, an entry-level employee can deliver on that.

When you narrow down your offering, you can bypass the high salary that comes with someone with a
wide breadth of experience.

2. Create a question diary.

When Jodie Cook was building her social media agency, she made a conscious choice every time an employee came to ask her a question. 

The easy thing to do would have been to answer the question, but she forced herself to write each question down. She turned that question diary into a business manual that documented how to do every single task required of her employees.  

Her manual came in the form of an Excel spreadsheet with 50 tabs, each one documenting a specific process, like payroll for example. 

Challenge yourself to do the same: When an employee asks you a question, resist the urge to just answer and move on. Document those queries and turn them into a standard operating procedure (SOP) that enables your staff to develop expertise in their role. The go-to reference becomes the manual…instead of you.

3. List your employees alphabetically on your site.

Most companies list their employees by seniority, with the owner and CEO as the top listing. However, this communicates that you are the most important person in your company, which will trigger everyone from salespeople to suppliers and prospective partners to want to go straight to the top by calling you.

An effective strategy to downplaying your role in your company (and getting others to step up and shoulder more) is to list employees alphabetically rather than by seniority on your company’s website. This approach can minimize the spotlight on you. Additionally, using titles like “Head of Culture” and “Head of Product” instead of “CEO” or “Owner” can further obscure your seniority, making it less likely customers will call you by default.

Getting your business to thrive without you gives you the freedom to cherry pick the projects you want to work on or just own your business and collect passive income. A business that runs without you is also a valuable, sellable asset if you ever choose to move on to a new chapter in your life. Niching down, creating SOPs, and downplaying your role on your website are all tactical things you can do today to get your business running more independently in the future.

French economist Jean-Baptiste Say characterized an entrepreneur as one who “shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity and greater yield.” This expands the term’s literal translation from the French for “one who undertakes” to include the concept of value creation.

Bootstrapping founders epitomize the principle of creating more value with less resources, particularly when hiring. While it may be tempting to try and hire C-level executives with extensive resumes and impressive LinkedIn profiles, smaller businesses often cannot afford those seasoned professionals. To combat this, value creators need to develop a knack for hiring talented people about to blossom.

High Potential Employees, or HIPOs, might have thin resumes—but spotting their burgeoning talent allows you to create significant value that others overlook. This is challenging to do well, however, since
most HIPOs have limited credentials for you to evaluate.

Here’s a three-part process for spotting HIPOs, developed by Skubana co-founder Chad Rubin, who built his company to $5 million in revenue with the help of a team of HIPOs before deciding to sell it to 3PL Central.

Rubin criticized the traditional hiring process as “broken.” How can you evaluate a candidate’s potential in just a 45-minute meeting? Rubin’s alternative solution comes in a three-part approach:

1. Hide a Golden Egg

Many young candidates apply for any (and every) job they come across, but Rubin sought detail-oriented applicants who took the time to understand his business and the specific role. He embedded an obscure request within each job posting to identify those who had read it in full. For instance, he asked candidates to include the name of their favorite ’90s band in their cover letter. Rubin’s intention wasn’t to compile a new playlist; he wanted to see who had read the entire posting.

2. Pattern Recognition

Aware that traditional interviews wouldn’t suffice to gauge a candidate’s potential, Rubin turned to pattern recognition assessments to evaluate their intelligence. He discovered an online puzzle that required candidates to recognize patterns in a set of images, and he found this to be a reliable measure of their intellectual potential.

3. Measure the Fit

Once satisfied with their cognitive abilities, Rubin aimed to gauge how well a candidate would mesh with his team. Instead of relying on a conventional interview, he used a Culture Index psychometric test to assess psychological attributes beyond IQ, thereby measuring their fit within the company culture.

Another psychometric assessment you can leverage is the Kolbe A Index. It measures the ways people instinctively take action and is a great barometer to use when evaluating the value that new employees will bring to your business.

Let’s walk through a concrete example of how you can use a Kolbe score to assist your hiring process. If you need a manager who will run the daily operations of your business, here’s what to look for on the four attributes Kolbe measures, on a scale from 1 to 10:

Fact Finder: 6-8

This attribute measures how someone gathers and shares information. For someone running the day-to-day operations of your business, look for the sweet spot of someone who gathers a lot of info before taking action, without succumbing to analysis paralysis.

Follow Thru: 5-8

This category focuses on how candidates organize and design. You’re looking for someone who initiates systems, structure, and organization, so they should score relatively high here.

Quick Start: 4-6

This one’s about how a candidate deals with risk and uncertainty. Look for someone with a healthy dose of risk aversion. Watch out though, because if they score too low, say a 1, they might not be a fit for an entrepreneurial company.

Implementor: 3-7

The last bucket covers how candidates handle space and tangibles. Ideally, you’ll find someone in the middle who is able to keep things working the way they should, and construct tangible solutions when needed.

This unique three-part hiring strategy, paired with these effective assessment tests, will empower you to consistently recruit high-potential employees—even when they’re entry-level—and unlock hidden value for your organization.

Do your customers ever ask that you personally get involved in their account? If so, one of the best things you can do to improve the value of your business (and your life) is to get your employees to treat your customers as well as you do. That’s easy to say but hard to do, which is why the story of Ian Fraser is so instructive. 

A former pro golfer, Fraser got his start in business by helping elite golfers find the perfect clubs as a master fitter at TaylorMade Europe. 

When Fraser launched his own club-fitting business, he quickly realized the necessity of teaching his club-fitting expertise to his employees if he aimed to elevate his company beyond a lifestyle business. Fraser used the following five-step approach to clone himself:

1. Master Your Craft on Someone Else’s Dime

Before founding TXG, Fraser had already dedicated most of his professional life to golf. He began playing at 15, and within three years, he had become a scratch golfer. He then spent eight years at TaylorMade Europe, working in various club-fitting roles where he collaborated with some of the biggest names in the PGA in Europe, including Colin Montgomerie, Gary Woodland, Eduardo Molinari, and Chris Wood. In his final role with the company, Fraser designed and operated the TaylorMade Performance Lab at Scotland’s world-famous Turnberry golf resort.

Fraser describes himself as “underpaid” while at TaylorMade, but he was content to accept a below-market wage because he had a vision for the company he wanted to start. He knew the insights he was gaining at TaylorMade would assist him in building TXG.

2. Think Like Nobu

Fraser drew inspiration from Nobu, the five-star restaurant chain partly owned by Robert De Niro. Fraser argued that when you visit one of the 50 Nobu restaurants worldwide, you never question who the chef is that night. Nobu has established the benchmark for five-star dining, so you’re assured that regardless of the chef or location, you will have a fine dining experience. Fraser utilized the Nobu example to communicate his vision to his team of club fitters.

3. Hire for EQ, Not IQ

Fraser aimed to establish a customer experience company that happened to fit golf clubs, as opposed to a golf-fitting business that offered good customer service. That’s why he prioritized EQ over IQ when hiring TXG staff. “I can teach you to fit a golf club,” Fraser argues, “but I can’t teach you to be a good person.”

Fraser implemented a behavioral interview question to identify the right candidates. He presented potential interviewees with a scenario that offered two choices: one that would benefit the client and another that would provide short-term gains to the company at the expense of the client. Candidates who opted for short-term profit over doing what was right for the customer were eliminated from consideration.

4. Teach Your Employees Through Osmosis

Most golf-fitting studios are private offices where the fitter works one on one with a player. Fraser, however, wanted to observe his apprentices at work and wanted them to learn from his interactions with clients. Therefore, he designed his location with three open-concept bays. He worked from the middle bay so his apprentices could overhear his client interactions and he could listen in on their client conversations as well.

Fraser contended that being physically close to his employees accelerated their learning curve more than any other technique he tried.

5. Broadcast Your Expertise

Fraser established a YouTube channel where he provided club-fitting advice for free. The channel amassed 216,000 subscribers. Fraser understood that only one percent of his subscribers would ever step foot in a TXG store, but the channel reinforced TXG’s reputation as the world’s best club fitters. Additionally, it transformed his marketing strategy from a cost into a profit center as the channel generated over $300,000 per year in advertising revenue, which Fraser reinvested in growth. 

When asked if he was concerned about divulging his “secret sauce” in the YouTube videos, Fraser referred to celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. He reasoned that Ramsay shares his recipes in cookbooks, but this doesn’t make people any less likely to visit his restaurants.  

By implementing an innovative hiring process and utilizing a creative teaching approach, Fraser
succeeded in expanding Tour Experience Golf (TXG) to a team of 14 employees, developing a YouTube fan base of over 200,000 subscribers, and generating revenue exceeding $3 million. In 2022 TXG was acquired by Club Champion, the largest club-fitting company in the United States, with more than 100 locations.

Transforming a distributor or reseller into a valuable company may seem like a daunting task. Distributors are usually not worth very much, because an acquirer reasons that without a point of differentiation, a distributor is vulnerable to a price war. Rather than acquire a target company, a savvy potential acquirer of a distributor could temporarily lower their price for whatever is being distributed and woo most of the target company’s customers without acquiring the company. 

However, the key to this transformation lies in setting yourself apart through innovation and the development of intellectual property (IP).

The Value of Developing Your Own IP

Look at the story of Miles Faulkner, the founder of Blended Perspectives, a reseller specializing in Atlassian products, which offer software solutions for large teams. Faulkner’s story provides a blueprint for how to punch above your weight when selling a business that distributes or resells other companies’ products.

Driven to create a more valuable reseller, Faulkner set his sights on creating a product of his own: the Marketplace Analytic Research Service, or MARS. This tool is designed to guide Atlassian users in selecting the most appropriate aftermarket apps to supplement their Atlassian software.

While Blended Perspectives still made the lion’s share of their money by reselling Jira and Confluence licenses, MARS provided Blended Perspectives with a unique selling proposition, separating it from the multitude of other Atlassian resellers and, in the process, enhancing its appeal to prospective clients. MARS also rendered Blended Perspectives an attractive acquisition target for Contegix, a larger reseller of Atlassian products.

At the time Contegix acquired Blended Perspectives, observers may have wondered why the larger firm didn’t simply lower its prices temporarily to attract Blended Perspectives’ customers. However, for Contegix, the acquisition was not just about growing market share; Blended Perspectives brought a differentiating element to the table.

By owning MARS, their intellectual property, Blended Perspectives was more than just a distributor in the Atlassian ecosystem. This point of differentiation gave Contegix a compelling reason to acquire the firm far above what would typically be paid for a distributor, underlining the value of creating unique products and services in a highly competitive marketplace.

How a Parts Distributor Became a Valuable Company

Another example of someone who went from middleman to eight-figure business is Mahul Sheth. Sheth started VMS Aircraft in 1995 as a distributor of airline parts. He offered a “one-stop shop” for airlines and their maintenance crews to find parts and accessories. 

VMS was the local distributor and survived on gross margins of 22–23%. It was a subsistence living, and Sheth was determined to build a more valuable company. He decided to evolve his value proposition from just being the local warehouse for distributing other people’s stuff to a sophisticated provider of advanced materials. Sheth chose to focus on the materials that airlines need to be stored and handled meticulously. If the safety of your metal tube flying 300 people 40,000 feet in the air is determined by the quality of a seam of metal, you want that steel to be handled carefully. You also want the sealant that joins the sheet of metal kept at a temperature that maximizes its adhesiveness. You may also want your rivets stored with the same care a surgeon uses to put away her scalpel after performing life-saving surgery. 

Sheth invested in a clean room that minimized dust at his facility. He bought dry ice containers so certain materials could be stored in a cold environment, maximizing their effectiveness. He also repackaged materials into smaller containers so that an airline that only needed a small amount of a particular material didn’t need to buy an entire tub. Sheth’s evolution from simple reseller to value-added provider fueled his gross margins to60–70%. Along the way, Sheth attracted a French company that wanted to enter the U.S. market. Rather than set up shop to compete with Sheth, they realized VMS had created a
unique offering with a layer of value-added services that would be difficult to imitate. They decided to acquire VMS for 7.4 times EBITDA.

In Conclusion

If you’re a business owner operating in a highly competitive field like distribution, it’s crucial to pinpoint your unique selling proposition and dedicate resources to developing your own intellectual property. These strategies not only augment your business’s value but also strategically position it for potential acquisition down the line.

Last month, Darden, the owner of the Olive Garden restaurant chain, announced it was acquiring Ruth’s Chris, the legendary American steakhouse, for $715 million, implying a valuation of around one times last year’s annual revenue, or about ten times their adjusted EBITDA for 2022.

Not bad for a giant company, but Ruth’s Chris’s value was likely hindered by its lack of recurring revenue.

Comparing Ruth’s Chris to another traditional business with recurring revenue demonstrates the power of automatic customers. For instance, Waste Management, a private garbage collection company that disposes of trash for clients through long-term contracts, trades at over three times its annual revenue.

Two companies in traditional industries, have nothing to do with software, yet one trades at
one times revenue while the other fetches three.

Recurring Revenue: Not Just for Software Companies Anymore

Many people consider recurring revenue to be exclusive to software companies, but traditional businesses can also reap the benefits of creating recurring income streams. For example, let’s look at Gamal Codner, the founder of Fresh Heritage, a line of men’s grooming products that began with beard oil for softening facial hair prior to shaving.

Codner used Facebook ads to acquire customers at a cost of around $15 each. However, with an average order value of $30, there was little margin left to support his expanding operation. Recognizing the need for change, Codner decided to broaden his product line by introducing additional grooming offerings and launching the VIP Club, a subscription program for men wanting automatic shipments of Fresh Heritage products.

A Subscription Program That Goes Beyond Just Discounts

Codner conducted an in-depth survey among approximately 500 customers and made an intriguing discovery. He found that his target customers were less captivated by discounts and more attracted to the empowering notion of being an alpha male in their respective fields. The insightful results from this survey perfectly aligned with Fresh Heritage’s inherent goal of building a distinct brand that appealed specifically to growth-oriented men, those that were keenly focused on boosting their self-confidence.

Subsequently, to incentivize men to join the VIP program, Gamal moved beyond merely offering financial incentives such as discounts. He strategically created a sense of community and belonging by emphasizing membership in a group of like-minded individuals, all striving for personal excellence. To nurture this sense of community, Gamal established quarterly local area meetups, providing valuable opportunities for members to network and share experiences. These empowering gatherings soon evolved into a significant driving force, steering new customers toward the experience offered by Fresh Heritage’s VIP program.

Converting Customers into Subscribers

Gamal continued to acquire customers through Facebook advertising, and instead of relying on
one-time purchases, he successfully converted them into subscribers, significantly increasing their lifetime value. The average order value also surged to over $60, and with the subscription program expanding to 3,000 members, Codner’s EBITDA margin grew to 40%.

That got the attention of BRANDED, an aggregator of digitally native, direct-to-consumer brands that made Gamal an acquisition offer he couldn’t refuse in 2022.

Recurring revenue will make your business more valuable. As the example of Fresh Heritage demonstrates, you don’t have to be in the software business to create an annuity stream. Find out what your customers crave on an ongoing basis, and you will have the raw material for a subscription offering.

The initial impression customers have of your business often influences how much they decide to spend with your company. This is well known, but have you ever considered how first impressions affect the way potential investors value your business?

When raising capital, investors’ initial perception of your business significantly impacts their valuation,
affecting both the equity you’ll need to give up for growth and the company’s value when selling.

Take Jeremy Parker’s experience raising money for Swag.com as an example. Investors initially perceived Swag.com as a simple distributor of promotional products. Despite Parker’s efforts to position the company as more than a middleman, investors weren’t convinced. They categorized Swag.com with other promotional product companies, offering Parker a low single-digit multiple of EBITDA for a stake in his business.

Parker re-strategized, presenting Swag.com as an e-commerce platform with a memorable domain name and a world-class, elegant, direct-to-consumer buying experience. This shift in perception transformed Swag.com from a simple distributor to a technology company in investors’ eyes. As a result, Parker received an acquisition offer that valued his $30 million company at a healthy multiple of revenue.

When it comes to raising funds or selling your business, optics matter significantly, and the way investors categorize your business in their minds plays a crucial role.

The Alibaba Discount: Why Diversification Can Hurt Your Valuation

Speaking of being categorized incorrectly inside the minds of investors, recently Chinese Internet giant Alibaba announced its intention to split into six separate businesses. In the two weeks following the
announcement, Alibaba’s market value increased by $19 billion. Why would investors welcome such a
move? Alibaba consists of a range of businesses resembling those of Amazon.com, including e-commerce, logistics, and cloud storage. Before the announcement, Alibaba was valued at just ten times their earnings forecast for next year, yet each individual business as a standalone will likely fetch a much higher multiple.

Investors often discount businesses like Alibaba, as they are compelled to purchase assets, they may not be interested in. They frequently apply the lowest value multiple of a particular business to the entire
group of companies. Amazon faces a similar situation. The Bloomberg Intelligence Unit estimates that
Amazon’s cloud storage division, AWS, could be valued at $2–3 trillion as a standalone business.
However, as a collection of various services, from e-commerce to audiobooks and cloud storage, Amazon’s entire market capitalization is less than half (around $1 trillion) of what Bloomberg analysts believe just one of its divisions could be worth as a standalone.

Focus or Diversify? Striking a Balance Between Revenue and Valuation Goals

Investors typically prefer businesses that concentrate on dominating a single product or service rather than diversifying into various unrelated offerings. A diversified portfolio may lead investors to perceive your business as unfocused, which can result in a lower valuation. The same principle applies when you decide to sell your company. If your business appears scattered, potential acquirers may focus on your
least valuable division and apply that multiple to your entire organization.

It’s essential to prioritize your goals: Do you aim to grow your business by increasing revenue or enhancing its value? While these objectives are related, they require different strategies. Pursue diversification if your primary goal is to boost revenue. However, if you’re striving for a more valuable company that could potentially be sold, maintaining a clear focus is crucial.