Business value & leadership consulting · Ontario & Atlantic Canada
You know your numbers. Do you know your value?
Find out what your business is worth, why, and how much of it depends on you. Then build it on purpose.
What is your business really worth, and why?
Leadership In Focus is a business value and leadership consulting firm based in Milton, Ontario and Halifax, Nova Scotia. We help owner-led companies understand what their business is worth and why, using the free 13-minute Value Builder Score, which measures the 8 drivers buyers look at. Then we help fix what holds value back, especially owner dependency.
THE PROBLEM
The business runs on you. That's the expensive part.
You built it. You know every customer, every workaround, and every reason the spreadsheet says one thing while the warehouse says another. That knowledge made the company. It's also the first thing a buyer, a successor or your bank will discount.
Three or more? Your business is worth less than it should be. The upside is that it's fixable, and it's measurable.
Signs the business is wired to you
Your team brings you decisions they could make themselves.
Your biggest customers ask for you by name.
One or two people would take half the know-how with them if they left.
"Vacation" means answering email from a different chair.
You've thought about selling or stepping back, and couldn't picture who'd run it.
You know your revenue to the dollar, and your company's value to the nearest guess.
Your value score is a culture score in disguise.
The Value Builder Score rates your company on the 8 drivers acquirers use to price a business. Companies scoring 80+ receive offers 71% higher than the average business. Half of those drivers come down to how the company is led and what it stands for.
HUB & SPOKE
Would the business survive three months without you?
We build a leadership team that makes decisions without you in the room.
SWITZERLAND STRUCTURE
Is one person, customer or supplier holding you hostage?
We spread knowledge, relationships and trust across the team.
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
Do customers get the company you promise?
We close the gap between your brand promise and the front line.
MONOPOLY CONTROL
Can anyone explain why you’re different?
We sharpen your identity until team and customers can say it in one line.
The score finds the gaps. BrandTruth Alignment™ closes them.
BUILT FOR WHAT’S NEXT™
From score to sale-ready, in four moves.
How we take a business from "I think it's worth something" to a number you understand and a plan to grow it.
Value
Take the free Value Builder Score. We walk through it with you and add an honest read on your leadership and culture.
VALUE BUILDER SCORE → BUSINESS VALUE DIAGNOSTIC™
Elephants
Name the two or three issues everyone knows about and nobody says out loud. Usually they're the ones costing the most value.
THE ELEPHANT BLUEPRINT™
Alignment
Fix them at the source: how decisions get made, who owns what, and whether your team delivers what customers were promised.
BRANDTRUTH ALIGNMENT™
Action
Install the operating rhythm that keeps it fixed. Re-run your score and watch the number move.
STRATEGIC EXECUTION PARTNERSHIP
Most clients start with a 4-6 week diagnostic and blueprint.
Owners at a turning point.
THE BUILDER
Revenue is growing, headcount is growing, and somehow you're busier than when it was five people. You need a leadership team that scales without routing everything through you.
THE EXITER
You're thinking about a sale, a succession, or simply stepping back in the next three to five years. You need the business to be worth more, and to look like it can run without you, because buyers check.
Whether you're planning a sale, handing over to the next generation, working through a partnership change, hiring a new CEO, or answering your board's questions, the first step is the same: know what you're working with.
Brands We’ve Empowered
What changes when the business stops depending on one person.
CASE STUDY - CONSUMER GOODS
Footlogix
Aligning professional credibility with consumer growth
“They truly understood our roots in professional foot care and helped us grow our direct-to-consumer business without ever compromising the trust we've built with professionals. Their work aligned every part of our message—from education to ecommerce—and helped make D2C a real growth engine for us.”
— Katharin von Gavel, Founder & CEO, FootlogixCASE STUDY - CONSTRUCTION
EasCan Building Systems
Turning customer truth into a cohesive brand system
“Evoke Consulting has gained great value from working with Curtis and his team. As our strategy advisors, they’ve used a consultative approach in helping us define our strategic direction and establish priorities. As a woman-owned small business, we appreciate the values with which their team operates. Inclusion, openness, and courage are seen in all they do, and that matters to us.”
— Evoke Consulting
CASE STUDY - NON-PROFIT
Heart to Heart Marriage & Family Ministries
From vision to fundable growth strategy
“He (Kurtis) demonstrated an exceptional ability to organize complex information, clarify our message, and communicate both who we are as a non-profit charity and what we hope to achieve over the next five years. The final document not only articulated our vision with excellence, but also laid out specific goals, projects, and funding opportunities in a way that was easy to understand and inspiring for our supporters.”
— Rev. Ron Mainse, President, Heart to Heart Marriage & Family MinistriesTwo partners. Two coasts. One system.
Between us, more than 45 years building brands, teams and growth across Canada and in over 30 countries. Today we work with owners across Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, in person and virtually, as part of your leadership bench.
Kurtis Graham
CO-FOUNDER & PRESIDENT · MILTON, ONTARIO
More than 25 years leading sales and marketing teams across Fortune 500 organizations, high-growth mid-sized companies and founder-led businesses, in Canada, Europe and Southeast Asia. Kurtis has built growth platforms inside established organizations and worked directly with founders navigating scale, change and cultural tension. He measures leadership by alignment under pressure, not optics.
Curtis Scaplen
CO-FOUNDER & CRO ·HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
A relationship-driven entrepreneur and Certified Value Builder™ with more than 20 years building brands and leading growth across Canada and in over 30 countries. Curtis has partnered with some of the world's largest suppliers, challenges assumptions and pushes for clarity. Back in Atlantic Canada, he's focused on building organizations that strengthen the regional economy.
Find out what a buyer would see, before a buyer does.
13 minutes. A score out of 100. A clear view of what's holding your value back.
Common Questions
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A free, 13-minute online assessment that rates your business on the 8 drivers acquirers use to value a company, including how dependent it is on the owner. You get a score out of 100 and a report showing where value is strong and where it's leaking.
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It depends on your financials and on how buyers see the risk in your business: owner dependency, customer concentration, recurring revenue and how you're differentiated. The Business Value Score shows how you rate on those drivers. For a formal valuation for a sale or legal purpose, you'll need a chartered business valuator; we help you get ready for that step.
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A valuation gives you a number for a specific purpose, usually at the point of a transaction. A value assessment shows why your business is worth what it is and what would make it worth more, while you still have time to act on it.
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No. Most owners use it to build a more valuable, less owner-dependent business, whether they sell in two years, ten years or never. A more valuable business is usually a better one to own.
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Start by finding where the dependency sits: decisions, customer relationships or know-how that lives in your head. Then build a leadership team, decision rights and an operating rhythm that let the business run without routing everything through you. That's the core of our work
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Several of the 8 value drivers, including owner dependency, key-person risk, customer satisfaction and differentiation, depend on how the company is led and what it stands for. The score measures the gap. BrandTruth Alignment™ closes it.
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We're based in Milton, Ontario, the GTA, and Halifax, Nova Scotia, and work with owners across Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, in person and virtually.
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Most owners start with the free Business Value Score, followed by a review call to walk through what it shows. From there, you decide whether to go further.
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We have different levels of programs, from single workshops, to multi-month engagements. Most clients start with a 4-6 week diagnostic and blueprint, then choose whether to continue with an ongoing advisory.
INSIGHTS
Practical thinking on building a business worth more.
Leadership, culture and business value, from Kurtis Graham and Curtis Scaplen. Weekly. Unsubscribe anytime.
Free White Paper
Your business may be profitable, growing and successful. But is it actually becoming more valuable? A look at the hidden dependencies, risks and strengths that determine whether a business is truly built for what’s next.