Business the Works For You
FirmValue helps Canadian small business owners build a business that runs without them, so they can grow it, step back or sell it.
The work that makes your business more valuable is the same work that increases your personal freedom.
Most Small Businesses Close instead of Sell
You have built something real. Something your community depends on, your employees count on, and your family has survived on.
And yet most owners in your position will never see a dollar from that business beyond what they paid themselves along the way.
Not because the business is not successful. Because the business cannot run without the owner.
When a business depends on its owner for everything, it is not a sellable asset.
The owners who get the best outcomes and have the most options are the ones who built the structures. They are the ones whose businesses could run without them. Those who had a clear picture of what they wanted next.
That is the work FirmValue does.
You are in the Right place if you….
Are the person the business cannot run without, and wondering how to change that.
Building something you are proud of but unsure if it could sell and for how much.
Thinking about what comes next, but not sure who you are without the business.
Running a business in a smaller city, a rural area, or a remote community.
Find that most of the good professional advice seems to be written for someone else.
Want to understand your options.
Most exit planning is built for large businesses in major centres.
The advisors are expensive, they don’t understand small communities, and the assumption is that you already have a team of professionals around you.
That is not the reality for most Canadian small business owners.
FirmValue is built for small business owners in smaller communities.
Robust Business. Richer Life
The work we do together has two sides, business and personal.
On the business side, we assess your business's Attractiveness and Readiness for growth or transition. In plain terms: how appealing the business would be to a future buyer or partner, and how prepared it is to scale or change hands. From there, we build a prioritized strategy to improve.
On the personal side, we assess your own financial and personal readiness for that same growth or exit, and build an action plan around what you need to feel secure and what you want your next chapter to look like.
Most advisors do one side of this work. FirmValue does both, because a plan that only accounts for the business, or only accounts for the owner, is not a complete plan.
This work is about creating options and maximizing the benefits available to you, whatever you decide to do with them. That readiness matters whether what comes next is an opportunity you're chasing, an exit you're planning, or an emergency you never asked for.
How will you prepare?
This work matters, and it does not happen on its own. The owners who end up ready for growth, a sale, or an emergency, are the ones who chose a path and followed through on it.
FirmValue offers a few options for support, depending on how you like to work and what you need right now.
The Course
Work through the Readiness and Attractiveness Course at your own pace. You will leave knowing what your business is worth, where the gaps are, and what to do about them.
A live, group version is planned for fall 2026, for owners who would rather go through it with others.
The Cohort
Go through the business-side work with a small group of peers. Facilitated by Michelle. Designed for owners who think out loud, value the perspective of other business owners, and want the accountability and community that comes from doing this work together. This is for owners who know what they need to do but want support to get it all done.
The Individual Retainer and Hour Bundles
For owners who want direct time with Michelle, whether ongoing or one-time. Can be used for the business side and the personal side, in whatever mix fits your situation.
Start Here
No cost. No catch. Just value.
There are two questions worth sitting with before anything else.
What do you truly want from your exit?
Who are you becoming outside the business?
Beyond the Business: A Guide to Your Legacy and Beyond the Business: A Guide to Living a Life You Love are two free guides that walk you through both questions.
Sign up once and we will send you both.
It is the kind of thing owners say they wish they had done years earlier.
Let’s Work Together
