They Don't Want to Buy Your Job: Peter Boolkah on What Founder Dependency Costs at Exit

Peter Boolkah spent fifteen years inside McDonald's, which is about the most ruthlessly systematized business on the planet, and then spent twenty one years coaching owners out of the trap he watched them build. His line, and the title of his book, is that if the business cannot run without you then you do not own it, it owns you. The part of this one that will sting is the exit math. When a buyer sees that the founder is load bearing, they do not walk away. They discount. ## In this episode * Why a twenty year old could run a three million pound restaurant, and why the same kid could not be trusted with a company car * How founders train the company to depend on them in the years before the first hire * The first employee, and the loop where the owner ends up doing both jobs * What a private equity buyer actually looks at, and why founder dependency turns into a price cut * The split deal, roughly 40 percent up front and the rest tied to numbers you no longer control * Why getting a company ready to sell starts about five years out * Everybody overcomplicates it before they learn to simplify it * The 25 year goal, and why anything shorter keeps the founder in the middle * Do not be lazy with AI, and what lazy actually costs ## Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:11 Fifteen years inside McDonald's, starting at sixteen 01:50 Taylorism, and a twenty year old running a three million pound restaurant 04:19 You do not own a business, your business owns you 04:54 How the dependency gets trained in from day one 07:32 The first hire, and why it often makes things worse 09:08 Influence instead of control 10:41 Choosing Scaling Up, and leaving after sixteen years 13:17 What a buyer looks at in due diligence 14:46 Why founder dependency becomes a discount 15:56 The 40 percent up front and the earnout behind it 17:40 Getting a business ready to sell, five years out 18:51 Complexity fails, simplicity scales 21:29 Steve Jobs, the first tenure and the second 23:45 Consistency as a strategy, McDonald's and Chick-fil-A 26:22 What he looks at on the first deep dive 28:00 What do you actually want out of your life 30:14 The 25 year goal 31:57 Why he wrote Your Business Sucks 36:42 Do not be lazy with AI 40:05 Where to find Peter ## Peter Boolkah Known as The Transition Guy. Fifteen years at McDonald's, then twenty one years coaching owners across five continents, taking companies through to sale and IPO. His book is Your Business Sucks, on Amazon. He is at boolkah.com ## A note on the book Peter mentions a 99 cent Kindle price near the end. That was a launch offer at the time we recorded, so check Amazon for the current price. ## One more thing Most of what makes a business hard to sell is the stuff living in one person's head. That is the work I do at Front Range Systems: https://crm.frontrangesystems.com/discovery