Is Your Business Buyer-Ready—Or Just Burnout-Ready?Unlocking Business Value with Terry Chevalier | Fulcrum Group STARPower Strategy

By Steve “The Doctor” Meek | Talk To Th3 Doc Podcast | Fulcrum Group

Podcast Doc-umentary – Episode 105 of Talk To Th3 Doc
In this episode, Terry Chevalier, Chief Value Architect at Mastery Partners, joins me to explain why most small businesses don’t exit successfully—and what we can do about it.

I’ve been thinking about this episode ever since we hit “stop” on the recording. You ever realize how many businesses look healthy on the outside but fall apart the moment the owner tries to step back? It’s like my gas grill at home—sometimes I am so busy cooking, I fail to clean it often enough and so my food is always in danger of catching fire!

💡 The Problem: Most Owners Wait Too Long to Prepare

Terry shared a stat that hit me like a brick: Only 17% of businesses actually sell successfully. That means 83% of business owners either settle for far less than they hoped—or never sell at all.

Why?
Because their business isn’t transferable. It’s them. The owner is the infrastructure, the IP, and the HR department all rolled into one. And buyers? They’re not looking to buy you—they’re looking to buy a machine that can run without you.

🛠️ The STARPower Way: Build a Business That Doesn’t Need You

At Fulcrum, we see this in the trenches. Most of our clients don’t show up saying, “Help me exit.” They come to us because things are too chaotic, too reactive, or too dependent on a handful of people holding everything together with duct tape and prayer.

That’s why we built our STARPower framework—to help SMBs create scalable, resilient, and valuable businesses long before they ever consider selling.

Here’s how STARPower directly supports exit readiness:

  • Strategic Planning: Our fractional CIOs help prioritize projects that increase valuation—automating processes, improving documentation, and reducing owner bottlenecks.
  • Technology Alignment: We map tech to your business model, not just your ticket count. That means every investment ties to security, scalability, or compliance—just what buyers want.
  • Automation & Documentation: We eliminate tribal knowledge and document the way your business runs. That alone can increase your valuation multiple.
  • Quarterly Success Reviews: We keep owners focused on long-term strategy, not just support tickets. You’ll have a roadmap—and proof—for potential buyers or partners.
  • Insight: The combination of our “best practices” assessments and instant snapshot of our tools empowers the owners to always have a baseline of where they are
  • Budgeting: Budget tracking and planning show the financial discipline that M&A covets

Bottom line: If your business requires you to function, it’s not a business—it’s a job with overhead.

🚀 Innovation = Higher Valuation

Terry and I agreed on this point loud and clear—innovation is now a valuation driver. Companies that lean into new technology, cybersecurity, and automation aren’t just more efficient… they’re more valuable.

And that’s something we’ve believed at Fulcrum since day one. We don’t sell tech—we help you leverage it. Whether it's connecting your applications to Microsoft Teams, cyber insurance readiness, or strategic cloud migration, we're always looking for ways to help our clients scale smarter—not harder.

You don't need a Silicon Valley budget to be innovative. Or Silicon Hills, like they call Austin. You just need the right partner. And one of our STARPower clients said it best:

“Before Fulcrum, we were chasing fires. Now we’re building systems buyers want to invest in.”

🔐 Cybersecurity & Compliance: Your Deal Breakers (or Makers)

Want to turn off a buyer real quick? Show them a network without MFA everywhere, backups but no reporting and no documentation.

Want to win their trust? Show them a CIS-aligned environment with documented policies, automated internal pentesting, and MDR in place.

That’s why our SPOT Managed IT Services include a baseline stack that checks many of these boxes automatically. We're already preparing your environment for compliance audits—so if a buyer ever shows up, you’re not scrambling.

📈 The Payoff: Even If You Never Sell, You Win

Maybe you’re not planning to sell for 10 years. Maybe ever.

Doesn’t matter.

An exit-ready business is a better-run business.
It’s more efficient, less stressful, and easier to scale. And it gives you options—whether that’s selling, passing the torch, or just taking more vacations without your phone buzzing off the hook.

👋 Want to Find Out Where You Stand?

Whether you’re dreaming of an exit or just tired of being the bottleneck, our STARPower IT strategy can help you build a business worth more—to you and the market.

Let’s take a look under the hood together.

📞 Schedule your free strategy call or IT maturity assessment today.

Use the signup box to the right.

🎧 Listen to the full conversation with Terry:

🎧 Listen to Episode 105 on your favorite podcast platform: