THE Value Shift
Created to bring the most valuable insights and tools to manufacturing business owners & operators to increase enterprise value.
No BS, just clear shifts you can use: bring actionable insights to the floor with each week having a relevant topic. Sharing this newsletter will collectively bring our entire industry leveled up and will bring you goodies you will like too.
🤔QUIZ: Small businesses account for what percentage of US Manufacturing firms?
answer at bottom.
Insight
Score every quarter 🏈
Most owners I talk to aren't planning to sell in the near term. Fair enough. The things a buyer would check are the same things that make the business easier to run right now.
Owners often treat valuation like a one-time appraisal at the finish line. It works better as a scorecard you check every quarter.
The questions buyers ask give insight to todays problems:
What was your on-time delivery last year, and do you measure it or feel it?
How much of your revenue sits with one customer or one program?
Do your setups and routings live in the ERP or in two machinists' heads?
Do you know actual job margin against quoted margin, job by job?
Who holds your key customer relationships besides you?
Every one of those is an operating question first. Improve them and margins get steadier, hiring gets easier, and the bank treats you differently. And when you do go to sell, you're coming from a position of strength & consistency instead of scrambling.
Pick one of those questions this quarter and move it from "depends on me" to "written down and owned by someone else."
Not sure which one to start with? Work the the Owner's Operations Checklist to see which of the 11 areas to start.
Operations Checklist
11 disciplines. 88 questions. One clear picture of your shop.
It takes about 20 minutes and shows you clearly where the business needs attention. Then book a free 30-minute call with me, and we'll go through your results together. That's under an hour to see your shop the way an outsider would.
We’ll walk through what to triage now, what needs clarity, and what needs a real roadmap.
Begin with the end in mind.
Action
One percentage this week
Estimate what percentage of your net worth is tied up in the shop. Rough is fine. Take your best guess at what the business is worth. Add everything outside it — retirement accounts, investments, property that isn't the house you live in. Divide.
Most owners land between 70% and 90%.
If you're north of 80%, you're not just a manufacturer. You're an investor holding one illiquid, undiversified, owner-dependent position. And you work there.
Then answer a second question. Name one thing in the next 90 days that would make that asset worth more. One thing. Write it on the whiteboard where your team can see it.
You don't have to want to sell to want that number to go up. 💰
The Number
100%
One hundred percent of business owners exit their business eventually. There is no sixth door.
The only variable is whether you're ready when it happens. And the exits that go badly are almost always the ones nobody scheduled — a health scare, a partner dispute, a divorce, an unsolicited offer with a 30-day fuse.
Readiness is the whole game. Timing usually isn't yours.
O&O Playbook:
Hit reply and tell me where your number landed
QUIZ Answer: 98% of all manufacturing businesses are considered small businesses. Woah.
🛠️ Tools:
Stay tuned for a marketplace of tools we’ve created over years of needing the right efficiencies in place to create extreme value
Until next week,
LineShift Partners