The Three Business Value Plays

In a recent episode of Profitability Playbook: The Simple Numbers Podcast, hosts Brandon Gray and Mike Maxson break down one of the most critical frameworks for entrepreneurs: the three business value plays. Their conversation offers practical insights drawn from real businesses, current economic pressures, and the financial realities facing owners in today’s marketplace.

Whether you’re running a service company, building a tech product, or preparing an exit, this episode delivers a strategic roadmap for understanding how your business creates value — and how you, as the owner, ultimately extract it.

Why Business Value Plays Matter

Every business falls into one of three value-creation paths. Knowing which one applies to you helps clarify decisions about pricing, reinvestment, staffing, capital needs, and exit expectations. As the hosts point out, many owners chase the wrong model, misjudge the risk, or misunderstand what buyers truly want. This episode provides clarity.

Value Play 1: Run to Harvest

The “run to harvest” model describes businesses that generate strong ongoing profitability but aren’t designed to sell for a premium. These companies often involve operational complexity or heavy owner involvement. Examples include in-home senior care agencies, small law firms, or owner-dependent service organizations.

Key characteristics include:

• Profit is earned steadily during ownership rather than through a major exit event.

• The business can deliver exceptional returns on investment, often 50 percent or more.

• Scale is hard to achieve before reaching roughly 10 million dollars in revenue.

• Exit multiples tend to be modest due to operational demands or owner reliance.

  
  

This model is ideal for owners who want reliable cash flow, healthy distributions, and long-term stability, rather than banking on a big sale.

Value Play 2: Harvest to a Premium

Some businesses not only produce ongoing profits but can also command premium multiples at sale. These companies tend to operate with strong systems, recurring revenue, and customer relationships that are transferable, not tied to the owner.

Common examples include HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and other home-service companies that utilize maintenance clubs, memberships, or other subscription-style relationships. These “sticky” models create predictable cash flow and high buyer interest.

What sets these companies apart:

• Recurring revenue streams that improve valuation.

• Documented processes, infrastructure, and leadership depth.

• Customer relationships that persist beyond the owner.

• Strong competition among buyers, which drives up exit multiples.

  
  

Owners pursuing this play can benefit from both annual harvest and a premium exit when the business is built intentionally for both.

Value Play 3: Build to Sell

This is the highest-risk, highest-reward strategy and is especially common in software and technology ventures. Unlike the previous two models, a build-to-sell company constantly reinvests capital into development, marketing, and scaling. Cash flow is often negative to neutral for years.

This model requires:

• Significant upfront and ongoing capital.

• Comfort with delayed gratification and minimal distributions.

• A willingness to reinvest every available dollar into growth.

• Acceptance that many build-to-sell efforts never reach a lucrative exit.

While stories of billion-dollar acquisitions grab attention, they are extraordinarily rare. Most buyers in this space are purchasing the product, not the team, and may strip assets rather than continue the company’s existing structure.

This model is best suited for entrepreneurs and investors willing to take substantial risk for the chance of an outsized payoff.

The Current Economic Context: Pricing, Wages, and Consumer Behavior

Throughout the episode, the hosts also touch on the realities shaping these business value plays in 2026:

• Rising overhead costs are pushing companies to increase prices, with mixed consumer reactions.

• Wage inflation remains uneven across sectors, with skilled trades and specialized roles commanding significant premiums.

• Consumers are selectively reducing discretionary spending, affecting certain business models more than others.

• Smaller companies under 10 million dollars in revenue continue to struggle with overhead leverage and scale.

Understanding your value play helps you navigate these trends strategically, rather than reacting to them.

A Framework for Owners and Investors

This episode closes with a reminder that knowing your business’s value play is foundational. It affects everything from hiring and pricing to reinvestment decisions, tax strategy, and eventual exit planning.

Owners should evaluate which model truly fits their business, align reinvestment decisions with that strategy, build systems and structure intentionally if aiming for a premium sale, and recognize the risk profile of each play before committing to it.

Final Thoughts

The three business value plays offer a clear, actionable framework for understanding how your business creates and returns value. Whether you’re harvesting steady profits, building toward a premium exit, or aiming for a high-growth sale, clarity is key. With the right strategy, every model can succeed.

If you would like help creating your strategy to reach profitability, contact us to get started.