Every business owner I know spends time thinking about growth. But not all growth is created equal. You can be incredibly busy and still not be building real value in your company.

The lesson is clear: start building these systems at least 2-3 years before you plan to sell. This owner's decades of hard work deserved a better outcome, but buyers can only pay for verifiable, transferable profit.

Owners assume their company is worth 1x or 2x revenue.

Here are the five warning signs your plan is holding you back—and exactly how to fix each one.

Without systems or delegated authority, every decision bottlenecked at the top, and the owner was the source of the bottleneck.