Hidden Multiples hit #3 on Amazon's Best Sellers list for Valuation in its debut week. Thank you to everyone who bought it, read it, and passed it on.

Ten years is a long time to work next to someone, and it makes certain conversations very hard to have. Early employees are often the most loyal people in a growing company, and founders feel a real debt to them. The difficulty comes when the role grows faster than the person in it. A controller who was a great fit at $8 million may be stretched at $40 million, and the people around them usually see it before the founder is willing to say it. What I've learned is that delaying the conversation is rarely the kind choice. Having it early leaves room for real options. Loyalty deserves honesty, and honesty is usually the harder thing to give.

Concentration can be the result of success. One market gets hot, attention follows the growth, and other relationships quietly thin out. enterprisevalueletter.substa…

I sure do love this woman!

Go HAWKS!

Back in TX! Off to the Rodeo at the Stockyards 🤠

Concentration isn't only one big client. It can be an industry or a geography. Ten customers in one market can still be one risk. enterprisevalueletter.substa…

A big customer can make this year's numbers look better while making the business more vulnerable. A buyer's question: what happens if that one source weakens? enterprisevalueletter.substa…

Owners spend years working to grow their earnings, which makes sense. What gets less attention is how a buyer will value those earnings, and that's often where the bigger gap sits. That question is what Hidden Multiples is about.  Grateful to Cole Capriotti for the research behind it. Grab a copy: amazon.com/Hidden-Multiples-…

Before the workshop, J.R. Covey will talk with each applicant on a short qualification call. Book yours: bookings.oneaccord.co/473219…

Writing a book about the value inside a business forces you to admit how much of it is hard to see from where the owner sits. That’s the idea behind Hidden Multiples, and launching it in a room full of the people who shaped it felt right. The ideas behind this book were shaped by years of conversations with business owners and leadership teams, including many of the people who joined us at the Bellevue Club that night. Founders who built something real and then learned a buyer saw it differently. Leadership teams who realized the business leaned too heavily on one person. I didn’t invent those lessons. I watched people work through them. Thank you for being part of that and for celebrating with us. If you’ve started reading, I’d like to hear what lands for you and what doesn’t.

I'm not giving a talk at Sagecliffe. I'm building with 30 owners and CEOs, laptops open, on their own processes. Nov 9-10. oneaccord.co/ai-workshop

My advice for the weeks before the workshop: pick one process you want gone from your week. Bring it on your laptop. We will build on it. Nov 9-10, limited to 30 people. oneaccord.co/ai-workshop

Who do you trust to run what we build at the workshop? Bring them. Plus-one is $1,750, capped. Nov 9-10, Sagecliffe, limited to 30 people. oneaccord.co/ai-workshop

There's a particular kind of quiet you only get at the top of a run like this. I'll take it every chance I get.

Not technical. Not a seminar. Not for people who want to watch. Two days, laptops open, 30 owners and CEOs, building on your own processes at Sagecliffe. Nov 9-10. oneaccord.co/ai-workshop

Price, plainly: $3,500 for the first person, $1,750 for a plus-one. Confirmed on a short qualification call. Two days, 30 people, your own processes. Nov 9-10. oneaccord.co/ai-workshop

Strategy offsites go well. The real challenge is keeping things moving six weeks later. By then the urgent work is back, and the priorities everyone agreed on are competing with a full inbox. Nobody decides to abandon the plan. It just stops getting time. What I've seen in companies that actually execute comes down to rhythm: a standing meeting where priorities get reviewed, and a named owner for each one. It's closer to maintenance than inspiration, but a decent strategy with a weekly rhythm will outperform a brilliant one that gets discussed twice a year.