by George Sotiropoulos | Feb 24, 2026 | Business Value
This week, police in North Carolina found Michele Hundley Smith alive and well. She’d been missing since December 2001. Left home to go Christmas shopping at a Kmart. Never came back.Three children left behind. The youngest was seven.Twenty-four years of not...
by George Sotiropoulos | Feb 23, 2026 | Business Value
In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufrense didn’t wait until he was “ready” for his exit.When he picked up that rock hammer for the first time, he didn’t have a plan. Didn’t know the wall was soft enough to chip through. Didn’t have the poster to...
by George Sotiropoulos | Feb 20, 2026 | Business Value, Dependency on Owner, Scaling the Business
His name was Robert. Engineering consultancy. Fifteen years in business. Solid revenue. Good clients. Respected in his industry.On paper, worth north of $2 million.Then his wife filed for divorce.Robert wasn’t a bad guy. Just busy. Always busy. He’d been...
by George Sotiropoulos | Feb 19, 2026 | Business Value, Dependency on Owner, Scaling the Business
One of my first clients was proud of his spreadsheet.Massive thing. Hundreds of tabs. Colour-coded. Formulas nested inside formulas. He’d built the entire accounting and finance function of his business inside this beast.No bookkeeper. No finance manager. No...
by George Sotiropoulos | Feb 18, 2026 | Business Value, Dependency on Owner, Scaling the Business
“My customers are different.”“My employees wouldn’t respond to that.”“My industry doesn’t work that way.”BSI hear these lines constantly. From owners in construction. Professional services. Manufacturing. Hospitality....
by George Sotiropoulos | Feb 17, 2026 | Business Value, Dependency on Owner, Scaling the Business
A friend of mine owns a construction company.Every time I see him, he looks like he’s been dragged through a hedge backwards. Bloodshot eyes. Phone buzzing every two minutes. Always “just putting out a fire.”Last month I asked him why he...
by George Sotiropoulos | Feb 16, 2026 | Business Value, Dependency on Owner, Scaling the Business
I once had a potential client who ran a logistics company.Smart guy. Built the thing from nothing. Knew every truck, every driver, every client quirk by heart.He came to me because he wanted to step back. Maybe sell one day. Get his life back.So I asked him:...
by George Sotiropoulos | Feb 13, 2026 | Business Value, Dependency on Owner, Scaling the Business
This week I told you two stories. The first was a man who threw a chair across a Greek café, danced a warrior dance, and then quietly told me over wine that the insights I’d shared these past few years played a big part in where he is today. Where he is today:...
by George Sotiropoulos | Feb 12, 2026 | Business Value, Dependency on Owner, Scaling the Business
That’s how the conversation started.No excitement. No ambition. Just a man who’d spent years building a technology business and was ready to be done with it.He’d been through a brutal restructuring year. Revenue had dropped. Profitability had gone...
by George Sotiropoulos | Feb 11, 2026 | Business Value, Dependency on Owner, Scaling the Business
This week I’ve been telling you about a friend who turned down an 8-figure offer for his business that happened to be seven times bigger than what was on the table when we first started talking.So what changed?Well he didn’t hire me to run his company,...
