Predictability is The New Premium

Welcome back to the Mid Market Insider!

Today, I’m diving into why predictability is the new premium, the true meaning behind “boring” businesses, and why they often command a higher multiple.

Predictability is the new premium.

The more “boring” a business looks, the more valuable it usually is.

It seems like everyone loves to talk about boring businesses these days, and that’s fine for influencers, but to us, boring has a different definition.

To us, boring often means:

• Fewer surprises

• Recurring revenue

• Documented processes

• Reduced key man risk

Of course, there are exceptions, but steady, systematized businesses often command higher multiples than fast-growing, chaotic ones.

You don’t need flashy growth.

You need consistency, clarity, and transferability.

Boring is predictable, and that gets priced in.

The bottom line:

Buyers pay for what they can underwrite, tight forecasts, recurring revenue, and results that don’t depend on a single “hero” in the business.

As variance shrinks and processes run without you, risk drops and multiples increase. The more “boring” your business looks, the more attractive it is to potential buyers.

Reader Question of The Week

For context, this is a recent section I’ve decided to add. After receiving many questions in my day-to-day as the co-founder of Four Pillars, I wanted to share the most common ones in my newsletter in hopes that it’s valuable to you in some way.

If you have a question you want answered in a future newsletter, please reply directly to this email and I’ll do my best to answer it. Now, onto this week’s question:👇

Q: “How do I implement SOPs so people actually use them (and keep them current)?”

I think the question depends on why the SOP is being implemented. Is it to document institutional knowledge or improve a process (or both)?

If it is the former, my personal belief is that the SOP should serve as a training document so that someone without knowledge of this process could perform it if they had the SOP.

If the goal is to improve a process, getting folks to actually use them can be tough.

Really, it just comes down to basic leadership. In manufacturing settings in particular, folks can be very averse to changing the way they do things.

Long story short, there is no easy answer here, and each individual on your team might require different methods.

That’s all for today’s newsletter! Thanks for reading!

📅 Next Week:

Next week, I’ll be diving into what’s happening in the M&A market this month, some key movements in the industry, and what you should keep an eye out for as a business owner.

Keep building,
Nick

P.S. 

If you want to discuss your business goals in greater detail, book a discovery call: