Can you see the money?

marketing 2026, small business, jim connolly

Photo by Olena Bohovyk

A former client of mine sold a business in 2024 for almost $6 million. When she purchased it in January 2020, it was valued at $250k. Here’s how she did it and how you can blow the roof off your financial potential in TODAY’S economy!

To start, I’d like you to ask yourself the following question. If I work hard and smart for the next 4-years, what’s the maximum I could sell my business for?

Here’s why that question is so valuable

I clearly remember my former client, Jill, calling me. She started by saying she had some good news. The sale of her business had just gone through. We had been waiting for weeks. It was so exciting.

I was working with Jill when she bought the business. It was already in pretty good shape. It didn’t need any meaningful capital investment. What it did need was an owner who could see the financial potential of the business. As she told me when she purchased it; ‘He just couldn’t see the money.’

  • The previous owner saw the potential value of his business as $250k.
  • Jill saw the potential value as $5 million.
  • Interestingly, they were both proven to be right.

What happened over those 4-years to make all that money?

The core difference was that the previous owner made decisions based on a $250k payday. Jill made decisions based on a $5 million payday.

Our beliefs

When we believe that our business has the potential to sell for a certain amount, we act accordingly. It looks like this.

  • Jill believed that the business she bought was potentially worth $5 million, so she bought it.
  • As owner, she made $5 million decisions regarding her business… decisions consistent with her valuation.
  • Her decisions led to $5 million actions, actions consistent with her decisions.
  • And her actions saw her make $5.8 million.

The key here is that we need to be able to see the money. That’s the spark. We need to genuinely believe in the potential value of our business. Only then will our decisions and the actions we take, be consistent with achieving the potential.

Why am I sharing Jill’s story, from 2024, with you today?

It’s 10 times more important in 2026!

Think of the small business owners you know. They can’t see the money. They are focused on the economy and the uncertainty. Most of them would settle for just getting through the year.

Now let’s go back to Jill: Do you remember what happened a few months after Jill bought her business? She bought it in January 2020. Just a few months later, the pandemic came. Nothing was certain. Its impact on lives and the economy was unlike anything in living memory.

Regardless of what was happening around her, Jill needed this to work. I reminded her to keep her eyes on the money, so that’s what she focused on. We put some ideas together on how to adapt the business so it could make money during the uncertainty, and those multiple lockdowns. It became evident very quickly that Jill’s business came out of the pandemic in much better shape than her competitors. She then carried that momentum forward.

What is guiding your business decisions today?

I hope it’s the financial potential of your business and the enormous opportunities all around you.

Enormous opportunities?

Yes.

Your competitors are in survival mode, just like Jill’s were in 2020. They’re making decisions based on, at best, treading water. They are leaving the market wide open to you, or any competitor, with the vision to see the money that’s being left on the table, and plan ahead accordingly.

The best time to make your move is when your competition is standing still, frozen with fear. And that is what’s happening around you, right now.

Like every opportunity, this moment will pass. Don’t let it pass you by.

Can you see the money? was written by Jim Connolly and originally published on Jim's Marketing Blog



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