Owner Dependency
Reliance on the current owner’s personal work, relationships, or decisions that a successor cannot yet reproduce.
Owner dependency is the extent to which economic performance requires the current owner personally, whether or not that owner founded the business. Assess sales, retention, delivery, exception handling, and decision authority. A buyer who will personally perform the owner’s work faces different replacement economics from a buyer hiring a management team. The relevant test is whether this successor can reproduce the work with the required access, rights, and resources.
Separate duties a new owner can assume from capabilities that require funded replacement or a tested handover. A fixed revenue or earnings threshold does not determine whether the work transfers.
Identify the required successor, incremental recurring cost, transition cash, and evidence that customers and operating results survive the change.
Founder dependency and buyer underwriting · Founder Dependence · Owner Dependency Discount · Transferability
