Build the business a buyer would pay double for, whether or not you ever sell.
In our first session you’ll find out what your business is worth today and what’s knocking the most off the price. Then we spend the year fixing it, until it runs without you and it’s built the way a buyer pays for, whether or not you ever sell.
Book a 15-minute call with Gary
Confidential. You’ll leave with my straight read on what a buyer would mark your business down for first, whether or not we work together.
20 founding places
30+
businesses started, scaled, or backed
12+
people guided to their first $1M
11
boards as a non-executive director
2
Amazon bestsellers
You’ve built a business you’re proud of, but now it won’t let you go.
1
Your phone comes on holiday
Most owners take around five days off a year, and two in three check in with work every day while they’re away.
2
Everything lands on your desk
Your biggest customers ring you directly, and anything over a few thousand quid waits for you.
3
You’ve never checked the number
Someone told you businesses like yours go for six times profit. You’ve never checked, or you’d rather not know what yours would go for.
4
There’s nobody to talk it through with
Mention selling to the team and they’ll be updating their CVs by lunchtime.
A buyer prices your business on what it makes when you’re out of the room. Every customer who rings you directly and every decision that waits on your desk comes off the price. That’s why the owners who work hardest often get offered the least, and it’s why the first thing we do is find out where you stand.
You still run the business and make the big calls. The small ones just stop waiting for you.
“In 12 months, I’ll put you in a position to double the value of your business. You’ll know what it’s worth, you’ll have fixed what’s holding it back, and it’ll run without you if you want it to, moulded into the shape a buyer pays for, whether or not you ever sell.”
Book a 15-minute call with Gary
Confidential. You’ll leave with my straight read on what a buyer would mark your business down for first, whether or not we work together.
Gary Ashworth | Built Multiple 8-Figure Companies
I’ve fallen into most of these holes so you don’t have to.
I started Abacus Recruitment when I was 21, floated it on the stock market, and sold it for ten times the float price. Since then I’ve bought and sold more than 30 businesses and sat on 11 boards as a non-executive director.
When I first tried to sell Abacus, the buyer tried to change the deal at the last minute, it fell apart and the fees were wasted, and I lay in bed staring at the ceiling all night before getting up the next morning to start the whole process again. That’s what happens when a buyer finds the problems before you do.
I’ve also been defrauded, backed the wrong people, and bought businesses without doing enough diligence, and I still carry those scars. They’re a big part of what you’re paying for.
I run businesses in the UK and the UAE today, so I’m dealing with the same tax bills, hiring headaches, and bank managers you are.
21
years old when I started Abacus Recruitment
10×
the float price when Abacus was sold
30+
businesses bought and sold since
11
boards as a non-executive director
Here’s what founders & business owners say about me
James Constable
Managing Partner, Albany Beck
Chris Eldridge
CEO, Robert Walters
David Edwards
9 to 175
people in the business since Gary got involved
£3M+
in yearly profits
“Gary’s ability to cut through the noise and get straight to the heart of the issue is what truly sets him apart. He empowers you to be better. Since Gary got involved with my business he has helped me take it from 9 people to 175 with yearly profits in excess of £3 million. I would go as far as to say there is nothing that Gary doesn’t know about Human Capital but on top of that his knowledge of what makes a business stand out, why it needs to be different and how you can disrupt an industry is where his true value lies. He has coached me personally and has educated me in areas of raising finance and acquisitions that I had little to no knowledge in before.”
James Constable
Managing Partner, Albany Beck
Book a 15-minute call with Gary
Confidential. You’ll leave with my straight read on what a buyer would mark your business down for first, whether or not we work together.
Who this is for
This is for you if
You own the business, or hold a big enough share to have a real say in how it’s run.
It’s worth somewhere around £3M to £10M.
You’re still the bottleneck, and you know it.
You want to scale it, sell it, or start taking serious money out of it, and you haven’t fully decided which.
It isn’t for you if
You’re still working out whether anyone wants what you sell.
You want to hand it all to a consultant and disappear. I chair, guide, and hold you to account, your team does the work, and it takes about three hours a month of your time.
You need to sell in the next three months. That’s a job for a broker.
You’re not willing to show me the real numbers.
One destination and four quarters, taken in the order your business needs.
We start in the same place and work towards the same destination. What happens in between is tailored to your business, like a bespoke suit. If you’re short of customers we start with the Engine, and if you’re short of time we start with Stepping Back.
What “in a position to” means
These are four things we can both tick off by month 12, and every one of them depends on the work rather than the market.
1
You know the number
How you’ll know
Valued on day one and again at day 365, by the same method, with goals agreed in the first session.
2
The engine’s rebuilt
How you’ll know
Pricing, offer, and costs reworked, and sales no longer depend on you.
3
It runs without you
How you’ll know
A fortnight away with nothing going wrong, and your team producing the monthly board pack.
4
It’s ready for a buyer, or the money’s coming out
How you’ll know
Clean numbers, a story that holds up, and a data room you could open tomorrow, or a wealth plan with money moving out every month.
“I can’t promise what a buyer pays twelve months from now. Nobody who is honest can. I can promise you’ll have done everything that makes them pay double, though.”
Book a 15-minute call with Gary
Confidential. You’ll leave with my straight read on what a buyer would mark your business down for first, whether or not we work together.
Your agenda, my full attention.
When I floated Abacus, I hired a non-executive director who understood the City far better than I did, and I gave him 5% of the company so he’d worry about the same things that kept me up at night. We became the fastest-growing company on the junior stock market two years running.
Your monthly board meeting puts me in that seat alongside you, without you having to give away any equity.
Monthly · 1 hour · 1:1
1:1 monthly board meeting, chaired by me
One hour, one to one, on your agenda with my full attention, and nothing is off limits.
Total time from you
~3 hrs
a month in sessions. The rest is work you’d be doing anyway, done in the right order.
2 group workshops a month
An hour each with me and the other owners. Bring whatever you’re stuck on, and hear how someone else in the room has already dealt with it.
8am UK
4pm UK
A private members’ room on Slack
Me and 19 other owners, one message away between sessions. Someone in there may already have solved the problem you’re stuck on.
One public commitment
Made in Slack after each one-to-one, and reported back the following month.
Commit
Do the work
Report back
Meetings that end in a decision
I once joined the board of a fast-growing American business where every meeting was a whirlwind of well-intended enthusiasm and intelligent discussion, and absolutely nothing got done. That’s why every one-to-one here ends with a commitment you make in front of the group and report back on a month later.
What’s said in the room stays in the room
Nobody on your team needs to know you’re thinking about selling, because from the inside, getting a business ready for a buyer looks exactly the same as building one that runs without you.
Pricing
Founding-client rate · first 20 only
£2,000
a month
1:1 monthly board meeting, chaired by me
2 group workshops a month
A private members’ room on Slack
Priority on my YouTube and Instagram series
In-person masterminds in London and Dubai
Apply for one of the 20 places
The first 90 days should pay for the rest of the year.
Included at no extra cost
Two things come with your place that you won’t find in most programmes, and neither costs you a penny more.
Bonus 1 · Optional
Priority to record an episode of my YouTube and Instagram series
300,000+
potential buyers, investors, employees, and partners in the audience
Members get first call on recording an episode of my upcoming series where we document a business owner’s journey to scaling, and potentially selling their business. It’s free marketing for you, and it’ll still be there when a buyer starts doing their homework on you. It’s entirely optional, so if you’d rather keep your numbers off camera, that’s fine too!
Bonus 2
In-person masterminds in London and Dubai
London
Dubai
Slack and video calls are fine for keeping things moving, but some conversations go better across a table, so we’ll get the group together in person. You’ll get priority access to each one.
20
places
The Boardroom Accelerator is capped at 20 people only, and once the room is full it’s one in, one out.
Guarantee
You’re not signing away a year. For the first six months you can leave with 30 days’ notice and nothing more to pay.
From month seven we see it through together, because that’s when the value shows up.
FAQ
Something else on your mind?
I’ve had a business coach before, and it didn’t do much.
I know the feeling. I once hired a personal trainer who didn’t deliver. But a coach talks to you about the business. I sit on its board. Every month I chair the meeting, you leave with a decision made, and you report back on it in front of the other owners.
Can’t my accountant or broker do this?
I don’t have the time.
My business is different.
I’m not sure I even want to sell.
What if I’m not ready to commit to twelve months?
A year from now you’ll either own a business that’s worth more and runs without you, or you’ll have had another year like this one.
Start the twelve months
You know the number, the engine’s rebuilt, and it runs without you.
Another year like this one
Your phone still comes on holiday, and you still haven’t checked the number.
Start with a 15-minute call with me directly. I’ll ask about the business, where you want to take it, and whether this is the right way to get there, and if it isn’t, I’ll tell you. Everything we discuss stays between us.
Book a 15-minute call with Gary
Not ready for a call? Take the free Sellability Check and find out what a buyer would see today.