#5: The bravery to change a business with Craig Herbst and Graham Jones

8 February 2024

The bravery to change a business – value your company

From working in the business to working on the business – this is the story of GreenHouse Energy, a company that was ahead of its time in the South African market.

It looks easy to now be in the solar market, as Eskom continues to implement “load shedding” (rotational power blackouts) across the country. In reality, this business has been years in the making.

It takes incredible bravery to change a business. The founders made the decision in 2018 to walk away from 60% of revenue in order to focus on the most profitable activities.

The strategy worked.

In this episode of the bizval podcast series – We value your company #5, co-founders Craig Herbst and Graham Jones joined The Finance Ghost to talk about topics like

  • The biggest challenges in starting a business with a friend and the impact that it has on the relationship
  • The importance of hiring people with similar values and how long it took before making the first hire
  • The experience as a founder of venturing into the great unknown and making substantial changes to a business, especially for long-term gain and with short-term risk
  • The appeal of the Tesla Powerwall in South Africa and thoughts around servicing higher income South Africans looking for premium products
  • The concept of building a business for sustainable income vs. for sale and how that changes over time
  • Advice for entrepreneurs going through tough times

Enjoy this episode and visit our How it Works page to learn more about our valuation tool that helps entrepreneurs value their businesses at an affordable rate.

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Less than 3 years old

Pre or post revenue

Business plan and forecasts available

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Less than 10 day turn-around time

Access to bizval webinars and education sessions

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Business that provides services to other business owners

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Access to bizval webinars and education sessions

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Single business entity

Basic business knowledge

2 years financial statements and/or management accounts

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Includes bizval exit scorecard

3 valuation methodologies (DCF, EM and NAV)

Secure and confidential

Access to bizval webinars and education sessions

Priority support

Scenario sensitivity analysis

Personalized evaluation of results

Less than 5 day turn-around time, once all information received

Quick and easy to use – Does not require detailed technical or accounting knowledge

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Requirements

Single business entity

Knowledge of key business and financial information

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Includes bizval exit scorecard

3 valuation methodologies (DCF, EM and NAV)

Secure and confidential

Access to bizval webinars and education sessions

Includes complimentary 15 min consultation

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Access to valuation scenarios add-on

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Quick and easy to use – Does not require detailed technical or accounting knowledge