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Diary of a CFO | Financial Strategies for Smart Business Growth

Business Valuation: Why Buyers Ignore Your EBITDA Multiple - Mark Mills, OBE

Mark Mills · September 3, 2026

Entrepreneur · Leadershipin

Interview with Mark Mills

Diary of a CFO | Financial Strategies for Smart Business Growth cover artwork

Podcast: Diary of a CFO | Financial Strategies for Smart Business Growth

September 3, 2026 · 1 hr 40 min

Business valuation isn't a multiple of EBITDA. Cop a copy of my new book NOW: ⁠https://ademolaodewade.com⁠ Turn expertise into paid advisory work — Ethos (paid link): ⁠https://agent.askethos.com/refer/nd01w7e2eelw⁠ AI labs pay highly-skilled experts — Mercor (paid link):…

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Business Valuation: Why Buyers Ignore Your EBITDA Multiple - Mark Mills, OBE
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Diary of a CFO | Financial Strategies for Smart Business Growth

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Key topicsThe hardest part of selling your business is realising you are not the businessMany founders spend years preparing the numbers for an exit but far less time preparing for the identity shock that can come with handing over the company they built. A sale can look clean on paper while still bringing grief, doubt, relief, fear, and a sudden loss of purpose, especially for owners whose business has shaped their daily life for decades. Mark Mills OBE has sold five businesses himself and now guides founders through the full sale process, so he understands that a successful exit is not just about valuation, timing, and buyer interest. For founder audiences, this opens up a candid conversation about how to prepare emotionally for the sale, protect decision-making during the process, and step into life after exit without feeling like the best part of their story is behind them. The fastest exit is usually the one that leaves the most money behindMany founders start thinking seriously about selling only when they are already tired, distracted, or ready to move on, which can push them into a rushed process before the business is truly buyer-ready. Speed feels sensible when the owner wants certainty, but it often means accepting today’s value rather than building the proof, sales momentum, and operational strength that gives buyers confidence to pay more. Mark Mills OBE has seen through his own exits and advisory work that the biggest uplift often comes from using the 18 to 30 months before sale deliberately, not just waiting for a buyer to appear. For founder audiences, this creates a practical conversation about what to improve before going to market, how to time an exit properly, and why patience can be one of the most profitable decisions an owner makes. The money that changes your exit is usually hidden inside the business alreadyMany founders assume a buyer will value the business based on today’s accounts, but the biggest uplift often comes from value that has never been properly surfaced, packaged, or explained. Long-running companies can be full of underused assets, weak pricing, wasted margin, messy sales habits, and operational blind spots that quietly suppress the number a buyer is willing to pay. Mark Mills OBE has built and sold five companies, including Cardpoint at a £175 million valuation, and now uses a 40-step sale process to help owners find the hidden value before they enter the market. For founder audiences, this creates a practical conversation about what to fix, what to prove, and what to show a buyer before the sale process begins. View all topics →

About Mark Mills

Mark Mills, podcast guest

OBE Business Sale Advisor Helping UK Founders Maximise Exit Value

5 Businesses built & sold£175M Cardpoint exit valuation6,500 Cash machines in Cardpoint network£500M+ Monthly cash dispensed by Cardpoint network

Mark Mills OBE is a business sale advisor who helps UK founders sell their businesses for maximum value.

He got into this work after spotting overlooked value as a child selling broken biscuits at school and then carrying that instinct into founding and exiting companies. The early biscuit story taught him to see what others ignore and to turn small advantages into commercial wins, a thread that runs through his approach to identifying hidden value in mature businesses. Over time that practicality led him from founding companies to deliberately learning from each exit and packaging those lessons into a repeatable system.

He has built and sold five businesses, most notably building and exiting Cardpoint at a £175 million valuation; Cardpoint floated on AIM at £7 million, grew to 6,500 cash machines and 300 employees, and dispensed over £500 million a month. Since 2007 he has worked as a Non-Executive Chairman and advisor applying his methods to other owners. In December 2024 he was awarded an OBE for services to Business and Charity and he holds the title of Deputy Lieutenant of Lancashire.

Day-to-day he steps in as Non-Executive Chairman, works directly with founders to uncover hidden value, and manages the full sale process from preparation through to finding the right buyer.

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About this episode

Business valuation isn't a multiple of EBITDA. Cop a copy of my new book NOW: ⁠https://ademolaodewade.com⁠

Turn expertise into paid advisory work — Ethos (paid link): ⁠https://agent.askethos.com/refer/nd01w7e2eelw⁠

AI labs pay highly-skilled experts — Mercor (paid link): ⁠https://t.mercor.com/neABb⁠

Build the buyer deck in minutes — Gamma (paid link): ⁠https://try.gamma.app/f2d4kygskm1h⁠

Mark MillsOBE started Cardpoint plc from scratch in 2000. Two years later it floated on AIM at a £7 million valuation. By 2006 it was turning over £100 million a year on £19.8 million of EBITDA, and he exited in 2007 at £175 million.

He now sells other people's businesses. One owner was told his company was worth £3 million. Mark sold it for just over £10 million. Nothing changed in the accounts — what changed was who the business was presented to, and why they needed it.

In this episode:

- Why bids from strategic buyers don't resemble a multiple of EBITDA

- The £3m-to-£10m sale, and the buyer maths that produced it

- Rule one of any business model: recurring income — learned from a payphone business that died in the 1991 recession

- How Mark and his CFO reverse-engineered £100m of revenue onto a sheet of paper, then landed within 2%

- Why "in three years" is a useless target and "by 31 August 2029" is not

- Solving a working capital problem by finding a bank with too much physical cash

- The one metric he never ignores when assessing a company for sale

- FARM — why people work for Fun, Achievement, Recognition, then Money, in that order

- Selling to strangers, and why referrals cannot scale a business

- What AI actually changes about client acquisition and KPI monitoring

- Realistic exit timelines: 12 to 30 months, not six

Mark's book is Making Your Mark: How I Built a Fortune From £1.50 — and You Can Too.

He offered listeners a free signed copy — email him at ⁠mark@mark.co.uk⁠ with your address and he'll send one out.

More from Mark: www.mark.co.uk · ⁠linkedin.com/in/markrichardmills⁠

Hosted by Ademola Odewade — chartered accountant, author of Human-Led, AI-Powered Finance (foreword by Professor Dave Ulrich), and Founder of K-Dems Consulting.

The King Dems Podcast. Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights. Ranked in the global top 2% of podcasts.

Diary of a CFO. Finance leadership, unfiltered. Ranked in the global top 2.5% of podcasts.This description contains paid links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

#BusinessValuation #ExitStrategy #DiaryOfACFO #KingDemsPodcast

Guest: Mark Mills

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