Value Growth Advisory for Established Business Owners
Grow the value of your business, not just the size of it
Most owners are growing a business that still depends too much on them. Value Growth Advisory helps you improve profit, reduce risk, strengthen leadership, and build a more transferable company — one that is worth more and less dependent on you.
Growth can be a trap. A bigger business is often a more fragile one: more dependent on the owner, harder to sell, and worth less than its revenue suggests. One key departure or one bad year can erase years of work. Value Growth Advisory helps you build the other kind of growth: the kind that compounds into freedom and real enterprise value.
Identify your biggest value constraints.
The owner's reality today
Most owners feel trapped in their own business
You built something real. But somewhere along the way, the business started depending on you for everything, and growing it began to feel like adding weight instead of freedom.
That's not a personal failing. It's the ceiling of what any one owner can hold together by sheer effort. The way through isn't working harder. It's building a business that's worth more and no longer runs through you on every decision.
- Stuck in day-to-day operations
- Growth feels unpredictable
- The team depends on you for everything
- No clear plan to reach the next level, lower risk, and increase value
What owners achieve with DBC
Average results from the 2024 Denver Business Coach Growth Study, after an average of 28.6 months as a client. Individual results vary.
Business value is the scoreboard
A growing business is not always a more valuable business
Many owners assume that if revenue is growing, the business is becoming more valuable. Sometimes that's true. Often it isn't.
A business can be growing and still be fragile. It can be profitable and still depend too heavily on the owner. It can have loyal customers and still carry risks that would concern a buyer, lender, partner, or future leadership team.
Enterprise value is the better scoreboard. It forces the business to answer deeper questions:
- Is the company profitable in a durable way?
- Can the business run without the owner solving every problem?
- Are the systems repeatable?
- Is the leadership team strong enough for the next stage?
- Is revenue reliable, diversified, and healthy?
- Are the biggest risks being reduced over time?
Same revenue, very different worth. Two companies can post the same top line. What a buyer, lender, or successor actually pays for is the value underneath: durable profit, owner independence, repeatable systems, and lower risk.
Value Growth Advisory helps owners move beyond busy growth and focus on the improvements that make the business stronger, more transferable, and more valuable.
The aim is a business that creates more freedom, more profit, and more options for the future.
The three gaps
Closing the gaps between today and your goals
Exit planning measures an owner's position through three gaps. Value Growth Advisory works on the two you can directly control, and that is how you close the one that matters most.
Business · VGA focus
Profit Gap
The profit you're leaving on the table by not operating at a best-in-class level: the distance between your current margins and a best-in-class company at your revenue.
Business · VGA focus
Value Gap
The enterprise value you're sacrificing below best-in-class: the gap between what your business is worth today and what a best-in-class company in your space commands.
Personal · The outcome
Wealth Gap
The distance between your current net worth and the number you need to reach your personal goals. For most owners, the business is the single biggest lever.
VGAs focus on the profit and value gaps, the levers inside the business. Closing them grows what the company is worth and shrinks the wealth gap between you and the future you want.
What is value growth advisory?
A structured way to build what the company is worth
Value Growth Advisory is a structured advisory process focused on improving the performance, transferability, and long-term value of a privately held business.
The work goes beyond general business coaching. We look at the company through the lens of enterprise value: what would make the business more attractive, more scalable, less risky, and less dependent on the owner?
Our advisors help owners assess the current state of the business, identify the value drivers that matter most, and execute a practical plan to improve the company over time.
That may include improving profitability, strengthening the leadership team, reducing owner dependence, documenting key processes, improving financial discipline, reducing customer concentration, or preparing the company for a future sale or transition.
This isn't only for owners planning to sell.
It's for any owner who wants a stronger, more valuable business.
How value growth advisory works
A proven, structured engagement model
The work runs on a structured engagement built to create measurable value over time: clarity first, a roadmap second, and a disciplined execution rhythm that keeps it moving.
Immersion
A half-day deep dive into the business (goals, challenges, and priorities), paired with a full review of P&L, cash flow, and KPIs benchmarked against peers and industry data. We map where the business is today, define the vision for three to five years out, and build clarity on the gap and how to close it.
What we do
- Immersion workshop and deep dive into financials, people, and processes
- Benchmarking and financial analysis to surface risks, gaps, and quick wins
- Current-to-future-state analysis to clarify the vision and the gap
Strategic Planning
We turn the vision into a clear, prioritized plan. A 12-month roadmap aligns short-term wins with long-term value, a KPI scorecard makes progress visible, and every priority is broken into 90-day action plans with owners and timelines.
What we build
- A one-year roadmap with annual goals and prioritized initiatives
- A KPI scorecard and dashboards for visibility and accountability
- 90-day action plans that set the rhythm for execution and review
Execution
This is where strategy meets reality. Regular strategy and accountability workshops, plus priority support for high-stakes decisions when timing matters, keep the right priorities moving and turn the plan into results.
From there, a steady rhythm of execution workshops and quarterly, annual, and financial reviews keeps the work moving and value compounding. We'll walk you through the full cadence when we talk.
A repeatable system for measurable value growth.
The S3P value growth lens
The four areas that drive a more valuable business
We look at value growth through four connected areas: Strategy, People, Process, and Performance. Together they show where value is being created, where it's limited, and what needs to improve next.
Strategy
Clarify where the company is going, which opportunities are worth pursuing, which distractions to avoid, and how today's decisions affect long-term optionality. Value improves when the business has a clear path and the team knows where it's going.
People
Strengthen leadership, clarify roles, develop managers, and get the right people in the right seats, so the business no longer runs through the owner alone and the team can lead, decide, and execute.
Process
Build the playbooks and SOPs that create consistency, reduce errors, and make the company easier to operate, scale, and transfer, producing reliable results without relying on heroics.
Performance
Understand the numbers that drive value, improve profitability, track the right KPIs, and decide using real data benchmarked against top standards, so the company performs consistently and the owner can prove it.
What we help owners improve
The drivers that increase business value
Every business has different constraints. Value Growth Advisory helps identify which improvements matter most and turns them into a focused plan.
Improve profitability
Revenue growth doesn't always create value. We help owners improve margins, understand the financial drivers, find profit leaks, strengthen pricing discipline, and build a more durable operating model.
Stronger margins and a more durable operating model.
Reduce owner dependence
A business is worth less when the owner is the main salesperson, decision-maker, and safety net. We help build the leadership, systems, and accountability to reduce that dependence over time.
A company that keeps running without the owner in every decision.
Strengthen leadership depth
A company is more valuable with leaders who can manage, decide, and execute without constant owner involvement. We clarify roles, develop managers, and build stronger accountability.
A team that expands the capacity of the business.
Build repeatable systems
Transferable businesses run on repeatable systems. We help document, simplify, or improve the processes that deliver consistent results: sales, onboarding, delivery, operations, hiring, and review.
The processes that protect value, made repeatable.
Improve revenue quality
Not all revenue is equal. Recurring, diversified, profitable, predictable revenue creates more value than revenue that's concentrated, inconsistent, or tied to the owner's relationships.
Revenue that is recurring, diversified, and predictable.
Reduce business risk
Risk reduces value. Customer concentration, employee dependency, weak financial controls, inconsistent systems, and unclear roles all limit what a business is worth. We help reduce the risks that matter most.
Make the business stronger before risk becomes urgent.
What changes
What the business looks like after the work
A different experience of owning the business, and a company that's worth more if you ever choose to sell.
"I hired Denver Business Coach when I wore every single hat in my business: assistant, front desk, attorney, paralegal, marketing head, CEO, and so on. Now, after a couple of years of working hard with DBC, I wear one hat: CEO. My time freedom is incredible, I have the best team working beside me, and I'm doing the work I love. If you're looking to stop working in the business and start working on it, Denver Business Coach is perfect for you."
C. Kelly, business ownerWhy Denver Business Coach
Experienced operators, proven tools, and execution support
This isn't theory from someone who's only read about running a company. Our advisors have built and owned businesses, and they pair that experience with proprietary tools and a disciplined execution model.
We blend coaching, consulting, and hands-on execution support, so you're not left with a plan and no one to run it with. We meet you where you are and take you where you want to go.
- Advisors with 10–30+ years of real-world business ownership experience
- Proprietary DBC Playbook, Value Builder, and PYB dashboards
- A blend of coaching, consulting, and execution support
- A model that meets you where you are and takes you where you want to go
Meet your VGA team
The advisors who do the work with you
Value Growth Advisory is delivered by advisors who have built and owned businesses, not theorists. You work directly with the people below.
Steven Kohnke, CEPA
CEO | Value Growth Advisor
Leads the Value Growth Advisory practice, helping established owners build more profitable, transferable, owner-independent businesses.
Simon Zryd, CEPA
Founder | Value Growth Advisor
A former multi-unit franchise owner who sold his own company, Simon helps owners reduce owner dependency and build businesses that are stronger, more valuable, and ready to sell.
Lisa Bard, CEPA
Value Growth Advisor
After 33 years building and exiting her own marketing and publishing company, Lisa guides owners through strategic planning, financial management, and the systems behind profitable, sustainable growth.
Sharon Moskowitz
Value Growth Advisor
Drawing on two decades across industries, Sharon takes a people-first approach, helping owners strengthen leadership, align their teams, and build sustainable, scalable businesses.
Mike Blandford
Value Growth Advisor
With 25+ years in product development and R&D leadership across industries from energy to AI SaaS, Mike brings an engineering and operations lens to scaling businesses from concept to maturity.
Tools behind the work
Proven tools, applied with judgment
We use proven frameworks, but the real work is judgment, prioritization, and execution. The tools help us diagnose the business. Advisory turns that diagnosis into progress.
Value Builder
Pinpoints the drivers of company value: profitability, growth potential, recurring revenue, customer concentration, and owner dependence.
Exit Planning Institute
Frames value maturity and the personal, financial, and business gaps that affect readiness for a future sale or succession.
Profit First
Strengthens financial discipline and cash flow to build a more consistently profitable business.
S3P Lens
Our own model connecting strategy to execution across Strategy, People, Process, and Performance.
Who this is for
Built for owners ready to build a stronger company
Value Growth Advisory is best for established business owners who want a more valuable business and more options for the future. You may be a fit if you:
- Own an established business with meaningful revenue and a team
- Want to increase the value of your company
- Feel too involved in daily operations
- Want stronger profit, systems, and leadership
- Are considering a sale, succession, or transition in the next few years
- Want to grow without creating more complexity
- Need a clearer roadmap for building long-term enterprise value
- Want the business to create more freedom, not just more work
If several of these resonate, you're the kind of owner Value Growth Advisory is built for.
Where value growth advisory fits
Coaching, value growth, and exit planning
These three are connected, but they're not the same. Many owners need all three over time.
Business Coaching
Helps owners run the business better: strategy, leadership, accountability, systems, financial performance, and the day-to-day issues that limit growth.
Value Growth Advisory
Helps owners build a more valuable business: enterprise value, transferability, owner independence, risk reduction, profit quality, leadership depth, and long-term optionality.
Exit Planning
Helps owners prepare for a future sale, succession, or transition: timing, buyer readiness, wealth gap analysis, personal goals, and coordination with financial, legal, tax, or transaction advisors.
What you get from the process
Clarity, focus, and accountability around value
Depending on your goals and current situation, the engagement may include:
- A clear view of what's driving or limiting business value
- A prioritized value growth roadmap tied to your goals
- A plan to improve profit, systems, leadership, and owner independence
- An advisory cadence to keep execution moving
- Better options for growth, transition, or eventual sale
A business that performs better today and creates more strategic options for tomorrow.
Start here
Ready to build a more valuable business?
Start with a Value Growth Assessment: a structured look at where the business is today, what's limiting its value, and the highest-impact next steps. You'll leave with a clear picture of your biggest value constraints, whether or not we work together.
Build a stronger business now so you have more options later.
Questions, answered