The number you’re not tracking, and the five-step path that turns your valuation into something you can actually grow.

Value isn’t handed to you at the end; it’s built over years by a handful of things you can control.

We asked bizval CEO and co-founder Graham Stephen, who’s run thousands of valuations across multiple markets, how founders should go about growing what their business is worth.

Start with the number. Most founders only get a valuation when they’re ready to retire, then discover the business is worth a fraction of what the whole plan depended on. Get a baseline now, while you still have years to act on it.

Here’s how to know what your business is worth before you want to sell it.

Once you have a number, learn what it actually means. A multiple compresses a whole valuation (the profit, the risk, the growth) into one figure, so “3x” tells you nothing until you know what it’s three times and what sits underneath it. Use multiples as a sense-check, never as your valuation.

Here’s how to read a valuation multiple without fooling yourself.

Now map the levers. Two businesses with identical profit can be worth wildly different amounts, because value is set by everything around the profit: recurring revenue and systems lift it, owner dependence and thin margins drag it down. List yours honestly, then pick one to three to actually work on.

Here’s how to find your business’s value drivers.

For most founders, the biggest detractor is themselves. Around 70% of businesses are, in effect, the owner, and a buyer isn’t buying a personality they can’t keep. Move the relationships, the decisions and the knowledge off your desk and into a team and systems that run without you.

Here’s how to build a business that can actually sell.

The other big one is concentration. The client making up half your revenue feels like your greatest asset; to a buyer it’s the risk of losing half the business overnight. Work out what share each customer really is, then diversify deliberately.

Here’s how to check if you’re overly dependent on one customer.

Work through the five, and your valuation stops being a verdict you receive years too late and becomes a number you build on purpose, with a clear view of which levers move it and which are quietly holding it down.

These five steps are drawn from Business Valuation for Founders, Graham’s full masterclass inside the Founder Collab. It’s part one of a three-part series that takes founders from understanding their number to actively growing it:

You’ll also get access to 40+ other masterclasses from SA founders and operators on sales, fundraising, UX, paid media and more inside The Founder Collab.

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