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How Business Value is Built

How Business Value is Built: workshops for 2027

Four online workshops for owners of HVAC, renewables and electrical contracting businesses. Each one takes a single part of how a buyer, lender or investor values a business, explained by guest experts who do that work every day.

Register your interestGet Your Deal Ready Score

January 2027

Quality of earnings

March 2027

Funding and working capital

May 2027

Risk

July 2027

Revenue quality

Why value, not just profit?

Profit tells you how the year went. Value tells you what the business has become.

A buyer looks past this year’s profit. They ask how much of it they can rely on, what it takes to keep it coming, how it would be funded, and what could go wrong once they own it. Each of those questions sits with a different professional: an accountant, a lender, a lawyer, an insurer.

The workshops bring those experts into one conversation, one part of value at a time, so owners can see how the whole picture fits together.

How does each workshop work?

01

Online and live

A focused session with time for questions, kept to a small group so everyone can take part.

02

One topic, one guest expert

Paul Freudenberg leads each workshop with a guest expert in that part of value.

03

How things work, not advice

Each workshop explains how buyers, lenders and advisers look at a business. It does not give tax, legal or financial advice for any one business.

04

Something to come back to

Each workshop is followed by an episode of the How Business Value is Built podcast and a lesson in the online course on the same topic.

The 2027 programme

What does the 2027 programme cover?

Exact dates are confirmed with each workshop’s guest expert and sent first to everyone who has registered interest.

January 2027

Quality of earnings

What buyers trust in your numbers

How a buyer turns reported profit into the figure they actually value.

  • How profit is adjusted before a business is valued
  • What one-off costs and owner costs do to the numbers
  • Why reliable monthly management accounts matter to a buyer

March 2027

Funding and working capital

How finance shapes what a buyer can pay

How lenders look at a trade business, and why cash matters as much as profit.

  • How lenders assess a business and its owners
  • Working capital in project-based work: stage payments, retentions and cash cycles
  • How the funding of a deal affects the price and the terms

May 2027

Risk

What buyers find and price in

The issues that come up in due diligence, and how they change a buyer’s view of value.

  • Dependence on the owner and on a few key people
  • Customer concentration and the strength of contracts
  • Warranties, accreditations and compliance gaps

July 2027

Revenue quality

Which revenue buyers value most

Why two businesses with the same turnover can be worth very different amounts.

  • Service and maintenance contracts compared with one-off installation work
  • How far ahead the order book can be seen
  • Margin by type of work, and what it tells a buyer

Led by Paul Freudenberg

Register your interest

Where does your business stand today?

The Deal Ready Scorecard gives a starting point before the first workshop: a short set of questions on how ready the business is for a buyer’s scrutiny. The workshops follow the same value drivers used in GRAX, the Rostone business improvement system.

Get Your Deal Ready Score

Register your interest

Choose the workshops that interest you. Registering doesn’t reserve a place: dates and booking details go to registered owners first.

Workshop interest: How Business Value is Built 2027

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For guest experts

How can experts lead a workshop?

Accountants, commercial finance providers, lawyers, insurers and other professionals who work with trade businesses are invited to lead a workshop topic as a guest expert and appear on the How Business Value is Built podcast.

Each guest expert explains their part of how value is built. They are named in the workshop, the podcast episode and the course lesson that follow, and have a profile page on rostoneopex.com.

Enquire about leading a workshop

Workshop partner enquiry: How Business Value is Built

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Frequently asked questions

Who are the workshops for?

Owners and directors of established HVAC, renewables and electrical contracting businesses, from owner-managed firms to companies with a full management team. Advisers to those businesses are welcome too.

What does a workshop cover?

Each workshop explains one part of how a business is valued: how buyers read the numbers, how deals are funded, which risks they price in and which revenue they value most. It explains how these things work rather than giving advice for any one business.

When will dates be confirmed?

Each workshop has a month set. The exact date is confirmed with the guest expert leading it and sent first to everyone who has registered interest in that workshop.

How do the workshops link to the podcast and course?

Each workshop is followed by an episode of the How Business Value is Built podcast with the same guest expert, and a lesson in the online course on the same topic. Together they give three ways into each subject.