I am so excited to be writing this blog post that I could barely wait to put down my thoughts on “paper"!

This is a story about what nature can teach us as business owners. But before I get into details, let me confess that I’m a health freak! There, I said it. Yes, I’m gluten-free, vegetarian, can’t eat certain foods due to allergies, and I try to eat vegan whenever I can. Even the sight of meat makes me feel nauseous. In my own home, I eat and drink organic almost exclusively. In other words, I’m one of those people party hosts dread and will eventually ask to bring their own food and beverages. Little do they know what got me to this point–a multi-year personal journey of recovery that led me from debilitating food sensitivities to now almost completely restored health.

But don’t worry. You don’t have to be a health geek like myself in order to appreciate what I’m going to tell you. 

In our free time,...

Sooner or later, business owners wonder what their company may be worth in the marketplace–or, in other words, what an able buyer might be willing to pay for it. What most don’t know is that business value is not a fixed, immutable number but it can actually be increased by taking some deliberate actions on the business over time. 

Before we look at that in more detail, let’s start with how business value is calculated.

Don’t worry! I won’t go into the nitty-gritty of business valuation here. That has become a whole science and industry of its own. 

Selling a Home vs. Selling a Business

To start with, it may be useful here to compare selling a home with selling a business. 

When you are selling your home, there are some universally accepted elements that determine its value, for example:

1. Location (what state, city, or neighborhood is it in?)
2. Square footage
3. Number of bedrooms
4. Number of bathrooms
5. Size of your lot
6. Condition of your home (is...