Two SMEs at the same turnover can be worth wildly different amounts. One sells for 5x EBITDA, raises capital easily, and runs without keeping the founder up at night. The other sells for 1.5x, struggles to find investors, and grinds the founder down. Same sector. Same size. Vastly different outcomes.
The difference is rarely the product, the market, or even the team. It's a small set of financial and operating disciplines that quietly compound to multiply business value, fundability and scalability. In this panel, hosted by Daniella Wainwright (Fractional FD and Founder of Wainwright Consulting) and joined by a regional growth funder, a commercial law firm and a wealth specialist, we'll share what we see across hundreds of SME deals every year. You'll leave with a clear view of what creates value, what destroys it, and the disciplines you can start building this quarter.
Who should attend:
Founders, leaders and operators running SMEs in the £1m to £10m turnover range, particularly those thinking seriously about scaling, raising, or building optionality. Especially relevant for leaders who already have decent management information but suspect there's more to extract from it.
Why it matters:
Whether you ever sell or not, the same operating disciplines that make a business investable also make it more profitable, more scalable, and easier to run. This is the conversation founders rarely get to have in plain English with the people who actually price these businesses. No theory. No pitch decks. Just the patterns that separate the businesses worth more from the ones worth less.
