Richard

Over the past 10 years, when do you think was the best time to sell a business?

Believe it or not, it was just after the pandemic. In June 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury reported that American business investment had exceeded expectations, outperforming pre-pandemic projections by $430 billion. “The outlook for future business investment growth is encouraging,” the report stated. “Firms are observing persistently high returns to their capital, and founders are starting new businesses at historic rates.”

Across industries, 2020–2022 outperformed even 2019 in many metrics. Manufacturing, for example, “surged back” in Q3 2020 with record gains in output and hours worked, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The real lesson: It’s not about timing the market

You don’t sell based on headlines. You sell based on your business, your industry, and your momentum.

Company valuations have stayed remarkably consistent over the past 25 to 30 years — even during recessions like 2008–2009. Waiting for the “perfect” economic moment to exit is a common mistake that often leads to missed opportunities.

One of our software clients was nearly ready to sell last year. But their industry began heating up so fast, we advised them to hold off. They now have a 10-year growth runway — and a chance to exit at a significantly higher valuation. On the other hand, we had a client in the print-and-postage business who waited too long. They ignored clear signs of declining demand. By the time they were ready to exit, their window had closed — and so had their leverage.

The point: There’s no universal “right time” to sell. There’s only the right time for your business, in your industry.

Related: When Should You Get Your Business Ready to Sell? The Best Time to Start Is Now — Here’s Why.

Three steps to build value in uncertain markets

Economic volatility causes many owners to second-guess their exit plan. Should I move faster? Should I take the first good offer?

In most cases, the answer is no. Instead, refine your original plan with three key adjustments:

1. Prioritize profitability over revenue

Buyers don’t pay for top-line growth — they pay for what drops to the bottom line.

One of our marketing clients was bringing in $5 million in revenue but losing $200,000 annually. After focusing on profitability, they trimmed revenue to $3 million but turned a $220,000 profit. That leaner, more profitable business was ultimately worth more — and attracted better buyers.

2. Build operational efficiency

A well-run business is more attractive, more resilient, and easier to sell. Aim for:

• Fewer people delivering the same output
• Documented, replicable systems
• A team that can run the business without you

Buyers want to see a machine that works — and still has room to grow.

3. Stay realistic about valuation

Remember Quibi? The mobile streaming platform launched with $1.75 billion in funding — and folded in six months. Or any Shark Tank episode where founders get laughed out of the room for unrealistic projections.

Valuation isn’t about hype. It’s about performance, predictability and market reality.

So when is the right time to sell?

Here are two signs we see consistently:

• Growth takes more effort for less return.
• You start thinking, “I’ve got a couple good years left in me.”

Those thoughts are signals. Don’t ignore them. They’re often the earliest signs that it’s time to plan your exit.

The market moves, but your strategy shouldn’t

Selling a business takes time — sometimes years — especially if you want to maximize value. Public markets fluctuate daily. But private business sales operate on a different timeline and follow different rules.

The buyers are different. The financing is different. The valuation metrics are different.

So don’t rush. Don’t panic. And don’t let headlines distract you from your long-term strategy.

Related: Sell Your Company When You Least Expect It — How to Properly Scale and Sell Your Business

Final thought: Focus on what you can control

The best time to sell isn’t about market timing — it’s about business readiness.

Ignore the noise. Focus on profitability, operational health, and what’s actually happening in your sector. That’s where real value lives — and where the best exits are made.

Stay strategic. Stay grounded. And don’t sell your business short.

You made it. After years of building, optimizing and scaling to the nth degree, you’ve earned a seat at the table in the C-suite. Not just a C-suite title, still reporting to another executive who makes the real decisions; you are actually in the “situation room.” You bring a deep understanding of the technology that powers your business. You celebrate. You update your LinkedIn. Then day one arrives.

And you realize something: People are a bit skeptical of you, and it isn’t just the people below you. People above you, your peers and the investors all seem to have a certain take on you.

You learn quickly that a title alone doesn’t build trust. Your technical brilliance doesn’t move your team, your peers and your executive counterparts. They’re looking for leadership that values business outcomes rather than just technical best practices. This is why you’re the CTO/CIO, not the IT person.

In an article he co-authored, Harvard Business School professor Boris Groysberg said, “Technical skills are merely a starting point, the bare minimum. Requirements for all the C-level jobs have shifted toward business acumen and ‘softer’ leadership skills.” This next stage is about blending driving value with your expertise, rather than just explaining how things work.

Let’s go over some of the roles you need to fill and milestones you need to hit in your first year on the job.

Related: I’ve Managed 260 Employees — Here’s How to Tell If Your Leadership Style Is Actually Working

Day one: Everyone is going to lie to you (unintentionally)

On day one, you’ll ask questions and hear confident answers. But most of them will be incomplete and even sometimes completely inaccurate, but hold your judgment initially.

It’s not deception. It’s diffusion. In any organization of scale, no single person holds the full picture. Documentation is outdated. Systems are interconnected in convoluted and undocumented ways. History is buried in inboxes and hallway conversations. Late-night crises solved by sleepless IT staff have gotten the company back up by morning, but only by a patchwork that makes little sense.

The instinct, especially as a first-time leader, is to clean house. To draw hard lines between what’s broken and what’s working properly and who’s to blame. Trust me, resist that.

Why? Because if you say, “This is all bunk, we’re starting over,” or we are in the mess because the last guard was incompetent, you’re not leading; you are actively setting yourself up for the same demise. As The Who once sang, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”

Instead, don’t give in to the easy blame, trust that there is always context and be the empath in your organization. This means active listening without judgment, understanding how and why decisions were made before assuming they were wrong and recognizing that institutional constraints often explain more than incompetence ever could.

When you seek to understand, not audit, you become the kind of leader people trust with the truth.

Week one: Start speaking in business, not just systems

The fastest way to lose trust in your first week is to speak in technical jargon and expect others to keep up. They won’t. And they shouldn’t have to.

Your job now is to be the translator. That means reframing technology conversations into business impact.

Saying, “We need $250,000 or we risk being hacked,” might be true. But it sounds like fear-based budgeting. Instead, say, “This investment reduces our incident response time and enables faster feature delivery, which directly affects our speed to market.”

You’re not dumbing it down. You’re tuning it up. You’re connecting the dots between what the system needs and what the business values. That’s leadership.

And if you can’t do that yet, now’s the time to learn.

Quarter one: Deliver value that ripples across departments

You don’t need a moonshot in your first 90 days. However, you do need a win, one that demonstrates your understanding of how the business operates, not just how the tech stacks up.

Pick a persistent pain point that cuts across teams. Fix a bottleneck in onboarding. Streamline reporting. Solve something people have silently suffered through.

This is where the operator shows up, a role that combines execution with empathy. You’re proving that your leadership isn’t just smart. It’s useful, visible and repeatable.

And just as important: make sure the win isn’t just yours. Highlight the teammates who made it possible. Trust builds faster when people see your leadership as expansive, not self-serving.

Year one: Don’t demand the seat — earn it

There’s a common refrain among technical leaders: “We deserve more authority.” You want to report to the CEO. You want a louder voice in strategy. You want influence.

If you want to be at the table, learn how that table works. Understand margin pressures. Know what drives your CFO’s decisions. Learn how compliance constraints shape your CMO’s roadmap. Understand how product timelines interact with hiring cycles.

A real executive doesn’t just ask for influence. They wield it responsibly, cross-functionally, and with context.

Related: Want to Be a Better Leader? Show Employees You Care.

Create a space where tech leaders can thrive

If you’re already in the C-suite, part of your responsibility is to make sure your technical leaders gain buy-in and succeed.

That doesn’t mean coddling. It means creating clarity.

• Invite them early. Don’t bring your CTO in at the end of a strategy session to “weigh in.” Bring them in when the goals are still being shaped.
• Set expectations. Don’t just ask for deliverables. Ask for insight. Ask them to explain how tech can enable outcomes, not just avoid outages.
• Eliminate the silo. Technology touches every department. The org chart should reflect that.
• Reward translation. The best CTOs turn complexity into clarity. They make everyone around them smarter. That’s the leadership skill we should be measuring.

When technical leaders fail, it’s rarely a failure of intelligence. It’s a failure of integration.

If you’re seated in the “big chair,” you can’t expect people to intuit where they need to go. You need to build the bridge. You have to make everyone around you smarter, more capable, and more confident in their decisions because you’re part of the conversation.

That’s what makes you trusted. And that’s what makes you dangerous — in the best way.

It’s hard to imagine modern life without air conditioning, heating and plumbing. For Josh Campbell, founder of Rescue Air and Plumbing, these necessities have been the foundation of his success as an entrepreneur.

“We may as well be doctors,” Campbell says. “Doesn’t matter what’s happening in this world — we can’t have our quality of life without [these services].”

Rescue Air and Plumbing doesn’t just rely on necessity for growth, however. The $25 million business has achieved success due to the ingrained, small-town values Campbell grew up with.

“We treat people like we did when we grew up in the country, and we do what we say we’re gonna do,” he says. “Because if you burned a bridge where I’m from, that burnt bridge is gonna follow you forever.”

Related: These Brothers Turned a 2-Man Operation Into One of the Most Trusted Companies in Their Area. Here’s How.

This service mindset gives Rescue Air and Plumbing an edge in an industry where customers often feel like just another transaction.

“[Businesses in Dallas] tend to move through people a little more. You burn a bridge here, you just move on to a new person,” Campbell says. “So I think having a country upbringing gives us a big competitive advantage in the city.”

Campbell built his business around the idea that when people feel seen and cared for, not just sold to, they’ll keep coming back. “We do a killer job, and it’s just included in the service,” he says. “Once somebody uses us and they experience how well we do it and how differently we do it, they keep using us.”

From the start, Campbell had a clear vision for growth. One of his most significant milestones came when he acquired a local plumbing business in 2022, expanding the company to more than 100 employees. “It’s very, very healthy in your company to demonstrate that you’re growing in interesting ways that people want to be a part of,” he says. “If you’re not growing, look for turnover in your company.”

Related: Two Industry Leaders Share Their Best Advice for Restaurant Owners – And Reveal the Exact Amount You Can Raise Prices Without Losing Customers

The decision to expand beyond HVAC services wasn’t just about increasing revenue. Campbell sought opportunities that aligned with Rescue Air’s existing customer base, team culture and operational strengths.

“If you buy a company, you’ve bought an entire system,” he says. “Don’t change anything. Don’t break the machine. It’s already enough discomfort and change [for the employees].”

The acquisition taught him that timing, resources and a clear purpose are essential when planning an expansion. You must be ready for new responsibilities and understand the workings of the business you’re plugging into your own.

Campbell’s advice is to take things slow. Acquired businesses come with their own set of procedures and people. He recommends waiting two to three months to make changes, so new employees feel valued instead of confronted by changes to their daily work life.

“If you’re gonna change the pay plan, it better improve their quality of life,” he says. “Give them wins before you start doing any procedural stuff they might not see any gains out of.”

That same philosophy shapes his leadership style. Campbell focuses on creating an environment where his team can succeed, because when they win, the company wins.

Related: This Is What the CEO of Kickstarter Wishes Aspiring Entrepreneurs Knew

Campbell also stresses the importance of structure, time management and personal discipline. “I think it really is important as entrepreneurs to be mindful about your time,” he said. “So often you’re pulled in a million directions, so having those habits or things you do that are for yourself and for your business on a recurring basis are really important.”

This discipline extends to finances as well. Although financial oversight might not be every business owner’s favorite task, Campbell views it as essential to informed decision-making.

“If you don’t know your P&L, there is a ceiling for how far you’re gonna be able to grow your business,” he says. “Truly, if you wanna operate your business successfully and even think about growing, you have to know your numbers.”

Whether it’s integrating a new acquisition or serving a long-term client, Campbell’s approach centers on transparency and accountability. “Don’t leave anybody in the unknown,” he says. “Over-communicate, as uncomfortable as it might be.”

It’s this commitment that drives Rescue Air and Plumbing’s reputation and growth and sets it apart in a competitive industry. For Campbell, the equation is simple: Treat people right, follow through, and build customer trust that lasts.

Related: She Created the Dance Studio She Was Looking For. Now, It’s a Nationwide Brand.

After growing Rescue Air and Plumbing into a trusted name in the Dallas area, Campbell shares the guiding principles of the company’s success that can help other service businesses thrive:

• Invest in people first. Whether it’s a customer or a team member, relationships matter. Be honest, keep your word and show people you value them beyond the transaction.
• Lead with integrity. Always keep your promises to customers. Reliability and consistency are the foundation for long-term customer relationships.
• Build a team you trust. Surround yourself with people who care about doing the job right. Set employees up for success by outlining clear expectations and processes.
• Stay resilient through challenges. While navigating the ups and downs of running a business, staying true to your values can help you persevere.
• Focus on lasting trust. Success in the service industry isn’t just about solving problems. It’s about earning a place in the customer’s life as a trusted partner.

Watch the episode above to hear directly from Josh Campbell, and subscribe to Behind the Review for more from new business owners and reviewers every Wednesday.

Editorial contributions by Jiah Choe and Kristi Lindahl

This article is part of our ongoing America’s Favorite Mom & Pop Shops™ series highlighting family-owned and operated businesses.

Moniqueca Sims, owner of SSG Appliance Academy, got her first glimpse into the appliance repair industry while dating a man who worked in the space. “He worked all the time, seven days a week,” Sims recalls, “so I used to go out with him just to spend time with him. I saw how easy it was for him to repair those appliances, and he was repairing them quickly.”

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of SSG Appliance Academy. Moniqueca Sims.}

Sims believes in “working smarter, not harder” and had the idea to hire technicians to help the man she was dating with repair calls. She did, but when he didn’t slow down, she ended up with her own appliance repair company.

However, in running that business, Sims lost a significant amount of money purchasing parts. Many people she hired didn’t actually know how to repair appliances — and would just switch out part after part in search of a fit.

Related: After Experiencing the ‘Lack of Diversity’ in Tech, This Software Engineer Started a Business That’s Changing Lives: ‘People Are Waking Up’

So Sims took matters into her own hands again. She enrolled in an online course to learn about appliance repair and started handling jobs herself, even taking her kids along sometimes.

“When you fix something, it boosts you up, every time you do it.”

Still, Sims knew there had to be a better way to train and hire technicians for business growth, so once more she set out to make it happen: She founded SSG Appliance Academy, which provides hands-on training courses on the fundamentals to have a career in the appliance repair industry, in Atlanta in 2019.

“ I saw how appliance repair was the gift that keeps on giving,” Sims says. “When you go out, when you fix something, it boosts you up, every time you do it. It’s not a grunt job. It’s a feel-good job.”

When Sims went out on jobs with her daughter, she found that many of the clients were stay-at-home moms who breathed a sigh of relief when they realized they wouldn’t be alone with a male worker. Knowing that, and seeing firsthand what a confidence booster appliance repair could be, Sims committed to bringing more women into the industry.

The total appliance repair industry revenue reached an estimated $6.3 billion in 2023, yet women make up less than 3% of home appliance repairers, according to data from ConsumerAffairs.

Related: Raised By an Immigrant Single Mom, She Experienced ‘Culture Shock’ Working at Goldman Sachs. Here’s What She Wants You to Know About ‘Black Capitalism.’

Sims decided to partner with shelters to grow SSG Appliance Academy and offer a viable career path to the women there. Although there was a lot of interest, the shelters didn’t have the funding to back it. So Sims got approved for grants through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).

The funding helps low-income, under- or unemployed women and men complete SSG Appliance Academy’s program and “turn their life around,” Sims says.

SSG Appliance Academy’s classes typically enroll eight to 10 students. The most recent course had three women in it. In the past, Sims often had to attend events and convince women to come to the class; now, word-of-mouth is helping them find it themselves, she says.

“ You constantly have to prove yourself [as a woman] in this industry.”

Sims looks forward to seeing even more women take advantage of SSG Appliance Academy, despite the challenges that can come with being a woman in the space.

“ You constantly have to prove yourself [as a woman] in this industry, and not just to the customers,” Sims says. “You have to prove yourself to everybody that works in the industry.”

Sims is also excited to see more people across the board jump into the appliance repair industry, noting that learning a trade can help people make more money than they might through earning a four-year college degree.

“Appliance repair can really help change people’s lives,” the founder says.

Related: This Black Founder Stayed True to His Triple ‘Win’ Strategy to Build a $1 Billion Business

“You want to learn your craft from the inside out.”

To other women interested in starting their own careers or businesses in the appliance repair industry, Sims has some straightforward but essential advice: Enroll in a program that can help you learn all you need to know about the trade.

“You want to learn your craft from the inside out,” Sims says. “A lot of technicians in the field now learn on the job, so they become part-changers because they don’t learn how to diagnose and troubleshoot the appliances properly. So my advice would definitely be to take a class. It doesn’t have to be my school — any school.”

Related: I Interviewed 5 Entrepreneurs Generating Up to $20 Million in Revenue a Year — And They All Have the Same Regret About Starting Their Business

Sims notes that there will be plenty of obstacles along the way, but she encourages anyone interested in learning appliance repair to stay the course — because “it’s a very rewarding career and business.”

This article is part of our ongoing Women Entrepreneur® series highlighting the stories, challenges and triumphs of running a business as a woman.

Serial entrepreneur and longtime restaurant group chief executive Julia Stewart, 70, is going viral this week for making one of “the best moves in leadership” when it comes to business deal comebacks.

After seven years as a senior leader at Taco Bell, Julia Stewart joined Applebee’s as president in 1998. She left after three years when she was denied a promotion to CEO, she says, despite being promised and earning the role — during her tenure, company and franchise sales skyrocketed, and so did the stock price, per Fortune. Soon after the snub, she joined IHOP as chair and CEO in 2001, per LinkedIn.

Related: How Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Transformed a Graphics Card Company Into an AI Giant: ‘One of the Most Remarkable Business Pivots in History’

After about six years in the role, in November 2007, IHOP acquired Applebee’s for $2.1 billion, and Stewart had a phone call to make.

“I called the chair and CEO of Applebee’s, and I said, ‘Just wanted to say hi.’ And he said, ‘I was expecting this call,'” Stewart recently told The Matthews Mentality Podcast. “And I said, ‘As you know, this morning, we announced that we have purchased, for $2.3 billion, the company, and we don’t need two of us, so I’m gonna have to let you go.”

@kylematthewsceo Replying to @Lindsay The best do ever do it… Julia Stewart. Episode 59 of The Matthews Mentality Podcast #f#fypp#podcastclipsp#plottwistp#powermove ♬ original sound – Kyle Matthews | Sales Tips

Stewart would continue to serve as the chair and CEO of the parent company, Dine Brands Global, for another decade.

And at 70, Stewart is still working. She’s currently a board member at Bojangles, among other places, and the founder of a wellness app.

Related: Airbnb’s CEO Says He Personally Manages 40 to 50 Employees as Direct Reports: ‘A Lot of Work’

I’ve built companies like SetSchedule and Rentastic across proptech, fintech, AI and insurance. I’ve sold businesses that generated billions in financial products and tens of millions in recurring revenue. I’ve hired wrong, I’ve hired right. I’ve scaled too fast, and I’ve scaled smart. And I’ll tell you this from firsthand experience: Hiring offshore isn’t controversial — it’s intelligent. It’s practical. It’s how real businesses scale in the real world.

It’s not wrong to have your customer service rep in the Philippines. It’s not unethical to have your dev team in Poland or your marketing analyst in Bogotá. In fact, if you care about sustainability, profitability and actually building something that lasts, offshore hiring isn’t just the right move — it might be the only move.

And yet, people still hesitate. They still whisper like it’s a dirty secret. They still think “outsourcing” is a code word for corner-cutting. But if you’re serious about building a company that competes and wins — globally — you need to reframe the entire conversation.

So let’s talk about the reality. Here are five brutal truths — and serious advantages — you need to accept if you want to stop playing business and start building it:

Related: Your Most Pressing Offshoring Questions, Answered

1. You gain 24-hour productivity without burning out your team

Your California team clocks out. Your team in Manila clocks in. That’s not outsourcing. That’s continuous operation. It’s a machine that runs while you sleep. Offshore teams allow you to build seamless, round-the-clock workflows that don’t rely on heroics or 14-hour workdays. Your customers don’t care what time zone your team is in; they care that they’re getting what they need, when they need it.

This isn’t about wringing more hours from fewer people. It’s about creating balance and momentum. Offshore hiring means your U.S. team doesn’t have to burn out trying to do everything. That’s how you scale with sanity.

2. You slash burn rate — without slashing talent

Let’s get real: Payroll will eat you alive if you let it. At SetSchedule, I watched our domestic payroll balloon inside one zip code. At our insurance brokerage, we rewired the model and went global, and guess what? We didn’t sacrifice quality. We found more of it.

A strong U.S.-based engineer might cost $180K per year. That same level of capability and output in Eastern Europe or South Asia? Closer to $40K. That’s not a knock on American talent. That’s just math. If you’re a startup or growth-stage company and you’re spending like a public one, good luck making it past Series A.

By going offshore, you’re not choosing lesser talent — you’re just choosing smarter economics.

Related: This Strategy is the Key to Scaling Your Business — and Reducing Costs Along the Way

3. You access a global talent pool hungry for opportunity

Here’s something few founders will say out loud: Some of the best talent in the world doesn’t live anywhere near Palo Alto or SoHo. It lives in Lagos. In Cebu. In Kraków. In Medellín.

I’ve worked with marketers in Colombia who bring more hustle and creativity than their LA peers. I’ve hired devs in India who write cleaner code, ship faster and solve problems with more urgency than Bay Area engineers making triple their salary. And no, that’s not a fluke. It’s a wake-up call.

Talent isn’t defined by proximity. It’s defined by grit, hunger and execution. And if you’re only hiring within a 20-mile radius, you’re not just limiting your headcount — you’re capping your potential.

4. You build cultural resilience into your DNA

Want to get better at leading? Try managing a team across five time zones. Try aligning deliverables across three languages and cultural expectations. Offshore hiring forces you to get tight with communication. It demands documentation. It levels up your leadership skills — fast.

And if your long game involves selling your product or service internationally, then you need that cultural fluency now, not later. Building globally from day one hardens your operations and future-proofs your company.

It’s not just a hiring strategy. It’s an organizational workout. And if you do it right, you’ll come out stronger.

5. You de-risk scaling

Let’s be honest: Not every hire works out. But when your entire team is local and expensive, every bad hire hits harder. Offshore teams give you flexibility. You can test a new role, explore a new market or pilot a new initiative without betting the house.

You don’t need a bloated org chart. You need agility. Offshore hiring gives you the ability to pivot fast, adjust cost structure on demand and keep experimenting until you find what works. And in today’s climate, agility is survival.

Related: 7 Ways to Make Outsourcing a Success Time After Time

If you’re still romanticizing the all-in-house, all-local, in-office team model — wake up. That version of company-building is outdated. It’s inefficient. It’s blind to reality.

Offshoring isn’t betrayal. It’s evolution.

I’ve done this across industries. I’ve won big. I’ve failed loudly. And I’ve learned this: Smart founders don’t build local companies in a global world. They go where the talent is. They go where the economics work. And most importantly, they go now.

So if you’re still debating whether to hire offshore, let me save you the time:

Don’t debate. Deploy.

We love a good story, especially when it keeps us comfortable. In business, these stories often become rationalized myths. They sound like logic, feel like experience, and masquerade as truth. But really, they’re just assumptions wrapped in a confident tone.

You’ve heard them:

• “Customers only care about price.”
• “No one wants to pay for service anymore.”
• “Our market is too commoditized to differentiate.”
• “People just don’t read emails these days.”

What makes these myths dangerous isn’t their persistence, it’s how we rationalize them. We tell ourselves they’re based on data. (A survey from 2018? Please.) We cite competitor behavior. We assume it’s “just the way things are.” And then we design strategies, products and entire business models around them.

But these myths are born from perceptions. Not facts. Not insights. Just patterns we’ve gotten used to seeing and explaining away.

Let’s start with one of the classics: “Customers just want the lowest price.”

A B2B manufacturing client clung to this like a security blanket. Every RFP became a downward spiral of discounting. When asked how they knew price was the only factor, they pointed to lost bids. But after diving into post-mortems with prospects, the real reasons surfaced: unclear value, slow response times and rigid contract terms.

The issue wasn’t price. It was perceived value. Prospects didn’t see what made this manufacturer better because nothing was communicated that truly differentiated them. They’d accepted the myth and acted accordingly.

When they shifted their focus to flexibility, transparency and proactive support, those things customers wanted but weren’t getting, suddenly they weren’t the cheapest option. They were the smartest.

Related: 10 Popular Myths About Leadership and How to Overcome Them

Perception is reality, but not always truth

Humans are perception machines. We don’t just see the world, we interpret it. In business, we build narratives around what we think customers want, based on our internal views. But customers don’t live inside your boardroom, your org chart or your sales targets.

Frustrations, unmet needs and past experiences shape their reality. Which means you can shape perception if you’re willing to dig deeper.

Differentiation isn’t about being louder. It’s about being clearer on what matters. Most businesses try to stand out by tweaking what they already offer, rather than tapping into what customers crave but aren’t getting. That gap is where perception shifts and myths start to crumble.

A logistics company once told me, “We’re basically a commodity. Everyone moves boxes.” They’d convinced themselves that brand didn’t matter, experience didn’t matter, innovation didn’t matter. So, they optimized for efficiency and disappeared into the noise.

When we interviewed their customers, something fascinating emerged. Clients were desperate for visibility. Real-time updates, proactive communication and simplified invoicing. None of the competitors was doing well.

They leaned into this. Invested in client portals. Added human touchpoints. Their messaging shifted from “we move stuff” to “we make sure you know where everything is.” Perception changed. They weren’t a commodity anymore.

Breaking the myth cycle

Rationalized myths persist because we’re listening for confirmation, not contradiction. We validate what we already believe and ignore what feels inconvenient. But strategy isn’t about being right. It’s about being relevant.

To break the myth cycle:

1. Listen for gaps, not praise. Ask customers what frustrates them, not just with your company, but with the entire category.
2. Challenge internal dogma. Just because it’s always been done that way doesn’t mean it still works or ever did.
3. Reframe differentiation. It’s not about being “better.” It’s about offering what no one else is offering in the way your customer truly needs.

Myths are comfortable because they make the world feel predictable. But they’re dangerous because they keep you from evolving. The truth is you can’t build meaningful differentiation on faulty perceptions. But if you’re willing to challenge those myths and the stories you tell yourself, you can find the whitespace your competitors don’t even see.

Customers don’t always want more. They often want something different. And different is where real value and growth live.

Related: Developing a New Product? Here’s How to Make It a Hit Success

Myths don’t linger, they multiply

The problem is myths don’t just linger, they multiply. One assumption quietly supports another until you’ve built an entire strategic house of cards. You stop testing, stop questioning, and start filtering every new idea through the same warped lens. And the real danger is the longer a myth goes unchallenged, the truer it feels.

I’ve seen companies spend millions chasing an edge that didn’t exist, simply because they never bothered to ask customers what they valued. Not in a survey buried in the quarterly report. Not through a sales team’s best guesses. But directly, candidly, without the bias of defending past decisions.

Because that’s the trap. When your brand, processes and pricing are built on untested beliefs, you’re not strategizing, you’re gambling.

If your calendar feels like a constant game of catch-up, you’re not alone. Most founders and execs spend their days fielding questions, solving problems, and responding to whatever’s loudest. It feels productive. It looks like leadership. But it’s a trap.

Reactive mode is where strategic thinking goes to die. In my time as the founder of ButterflyMX, I’ve learned that the longer you operate like this, the more you become a bottleneck, not a builder. Your team stays dependent, your vision stalls, and worst of all, your time stops being your own. This post is about taking it back and becoming the kind of leader your company actually needs.

Related: Fixing Every Problem Isn’t Your Job — Here’s How to Empower Your Team to Handle Issues Without Your Constant Involvement

The trap of reactive leadership

At some point, most leaders realize they’re stuck in a loop: They wake up, dive into a flood of Slack pings and calendar invites and end the day wondering what they actually accomplished. Sound familiar?

This isn’t just a startup thing; it’s a leadership pattern. Early on, being in the weeds makes sense. You’re hands-on, scrappy and involved in everything. But what starts as necessary involvement often calcifies into chronic reactivity.

And the consequences pile up:

• You become the decision-making bottleneck.

• Your team learns to escalate instead of owning outcomes.

• And your most valuable asset, your time, gets spent on solving symptoms, not systems.

There’s also an emotional cost. Constant firefighting feels urgent, even heroic. But in reality, it pulls you away from the one thing only you can do: chart the course ahead.

Time is a leadership asset, not just a resource

There’s a quiet truth every seasoned leader eventually learns: Your calendar is a mirror of your priorities and your power.

When you treat time like a disposable resource, you spend it on whatever shouts the loudest. But when you treat it like an asset, you start investing it in what actually moves the business forward. That’s the difference between managing chaos and building momentum.

Strategic leadership doesn’t happen in 15-minute gaps between meetings. It requires protected time to think, plan and decide, not in theory, but in practice. That means blocking space for big decisions, pattern recognition and high-leverage conversations, just like you’d block time for a board meeting.

I’ve seen it firsthand: The leaders who scale aren’t the ones who do more. They’re the ones who do less, better. They get ruthless about what only they can do and design everything else around that filter.

The job isn’t to be everywhere. It’s to make sure the right things happen, even when you’re not in the room. And that starts by reclaiming your time.

Related: How to Reclaim Your Time and Start Focusing on Your Business’s Big Picture

How to reclaim your calendar and reset your role

This isn’t about downloading a new productivity app. It’s about shifting how you see your time and how you protect it.

Here’s how to start:

1. Audit your time like you audit your budget:

For one week, track where your hours go. You’ll be surprised how much time gets eaten by low-leverage work — things someone else could (or should) handle. Look for patterns: What drains your energy? What creates the most value? This isn’t busywork. It’s clarity.

2. Build “focus blocks” like your future depends on them, because it does:

Pick 2-3 hours a day (or even just a few slots a week) that are meeting-free and distraction-free. Use them to think strategically, review your org design, write out your vision or tackle the decisions only you can make. Treat these blocks like sacred ground.

3. Delegate outcomes, not tasks:

Too often, leaders delegate execution but hold onto ownership. Flip it. Give your team the “what” and the “why” and let them own the “how.” You’ll build trust, create more capacity and stop being the final answer to every question.

4. Install leverage, not just help:

If you’re drowning in scheduling, follow-ups or inbox triage, hire an executive assistant or Chief of Staff. But don’t stop at admin support. Empower them to shield your time, prioritize inputs and run point on internal processes so that you can stay focused on the big picture.

But what about the fires?

Let’s be real, urgent problems aren’t going away. Markets shift. People quit. Customers escalate. Even the best-run teams hit turbulence.

The goal isn’t to eliminate all fires. The goal is to stop being the only one holding the hose. Reactivity isn’t always bad; it’s just dangerous when it becomes your default. As a leader, you’ll still need to step in sometimes. But if every problem reaches your desk, that’s a system failure, not a leadership virtue.

This is where systems and culture matter. Build escalation paths. Set clear decision rights. Empower teams to solve at the level where problems occur. That’s how you create a company that doesn’t crumble every time you take a day off. Reclaiming your time means building the structure to handle itself without you.

Related: Dear Business Owners: It’s Time to Work on Your Business, Not in It

You can’t build the future while stuck reacting to the present.

The shift from reactive to strategic leadership isn’t just about time management; it’s about identity. It’s choosing to lead with intention instead of interruption. To focus on systems, not symptoms. And to spend your time where it creates the most value, not the most noise.

So, here’s the challenge: Look at your calendar this week. Is it a reflection of the leader you are, or the leader you want to be?

Take back your time. Your team, and your vision, are counting on it.

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