About Harvey Zemmel30+ Years Building, Growing and Selling Businesses
I've spent more than 30 years as a business owner and operator — acquiring businesses, growing them, building management teams and ultimately selling them.
Much of that experience has been in the UK care sector.
I built my first care-home group to 12 homes, approximately £6 million revenue and more than £2 million EBITDA. Two subsequent transactions achieved outcomes substantially above the prevailing expectations I had been given — one by more than 200% and another by more than 100%.
Years later, I acquired another care-home business for approximately £3.2 million. We increased occupancy from around 88% to 97%, private-paying residents from approximately 22% to 38%, and EBITDA from around £500,000 to approximately £750,000.
A share sale has now been agreed at £4.5 million and is progressing towards completion.
Those experiences led me to a question:
Why Are Some Businesses Worth So Much More Than Others?
Revenue and profit matter. But they don't tell the whole story.
Owner dependency. Customer concentration. Management strength. Predictable revenue. Pricing power. Systems. Competitive advantage. Growth opportunities.
Two businesses can produce similar financial results and still have very different underlying value.
And some of those differences take years to change.
Why I Created Business Exit Insights
Most owners understandably focus on running and growing their business. Business value often becomes a serious consideration much later.
I believe it's worth thinking about much earlier.
The best time to think about business value is when you still have time to influence it.
Reducing owner dependency, strengthening management, diversifying customers and improving predictable revenue, margins and systems can create a better business today — whether or not you ever sell it.
And if you eventually do sell, you've spent years building value rather than trying to create it at the last minute.
How Strong Is Your Business Behind the Numbers?
The free Business Value Assessment helps identify what's strengthening your business, what may be holding it back and where to focus next.
It isn't a valuation and it won't tell you when to sell.
It's designed to help you build a stronger, more valuable business — and give yourself more choices about what you ultimately do with it.
Business Exit Insights
Better insights. Better businesses. Better exits.
Get in Touch
If you've successfully sold a business and would be interested in sharing what you learned, I'd be delighted to hear from you.