3 years back, I wanted to sell part stake in my business to raise capital. Few people known to my CA approached me.

They offered 10 lakhs for the business that was making 12-15 lakhs turnover.

I gave them my valuation model which showed the value at 70L. They wanted me to sell the business to them for 10 lakhs, and also help them until they get up to speed.

There was another party who wanted me to sell the business to them but stay on and take care of marketing, for a salary (not even a % of sales). The guy who offered me this crazy deal of selling 100% equity to him and being his employee also told me

that going to US for master’s degree

and the other things I was going to pursue were all waste of time and energy. Needless to say the very few suitors we had for our business didn’t work out.

What’s surprising was that even CA’s are unreasonable (or probably suck at it) when it comes to valuing a company. Since then, our turnover (and profits) has grown 2-3x every year (even despite lockdowns).

We have paid rent, salaries, loan EMI every month including during the lockdown, no-business periods (about 5-6 months in the last couple of years). The business is on track to do 8 figure turnover in the coming financial year.

In another 2-3 years, the valuation of this company, if properly done, would be high 8 figures.

But we have decided not to sell. The uncertain days during lockdown when we kept paying out 2-3 lakhs every month for rent, EMI, EB, employee salaries without any cash inflow was the hardest.

We couldn’t have done that for >6mo. Thankfully lockdowns were lifted and business resumed.

Every single one of our customers were badly hit by lockdowns as they are all in the hotel-restaurant-cafe (HORECA) industry. So, our business slumped too.

But we kept adding clients at a sustainable pace. Even in 2021 there were lockdowns, and the same story repeated for 2-3 months as 2020 having no business.

Then there were floods last year end, and ~1month of no business.

Despite this, the turnover grew 2.5x compared to 2020. In business, you only need to find a way to survive for 5 years and consistently keep putting in the hard work, serving customers, creating value, to find out how far you can go.

If you do that, you survive long enough to put chance on your side, to make it big.

Sometimes what you want NOT happening is a stroke of luck.

“Getting rich slowly” is the most underrated way of getting rich.

Most people want to get rich fast, so they end up making mistakes and going out of business very fast.

If you prioritise survival for the first few years, and sustainably grow your business year over year, eventually you’ll hit an inflection point after a while.

It reminds me of this @visualizevalue image.

Everywhere I go, I see this pattern of survival for first few years, and then an inflection point after which exponential growth happens.

Even at the place I work, traders hit their inflection point after 4th or 5th years where they make 8-9 figure bonuses.

For years, if you can keep your head down, put in the work, be consistent, and focus on improving the process, no matter what your business is, you’ll improve your odds of success drastically.

So, hang in there. Do your best. Keep improving.

Your time will come.