You may be subject to the tyranny of the urgent. You may spend your time primarily working on tasks even though they could be easily delegated, meaning you don't spend enough time on the strategic areas of your business.

You have either not clearly defined your company vision or have not aligned your employees to work towards that vision. Without a clear vision of where your company is going, how are you going to know when you've reached it, and how are your employees going to help you get there?

You may not realise that your employees’ engagement is the most important factor to the success of your organisation. Or you don't know what steps to take to create a great culture and an engaged workforce.

Your sales revenue is inconsistent. Some years you grow, some years it's flat and others years, it's declining. You cannot make good business decisions without a predictable growth model. Potential acquirers find revenue inconsistency unattractive.

You do not have a strong brand. Strong brands: attract customers at a cheaper cost, retain them longer, and allow you to charge more for your product or service. Your customers may leave when they find a cheaper alternative.

Your product or service does not have a significant measurable point of differentiation from your competitors' offerings. Your customers and prospects do not understand the value your offering gives them vs. the competition. They may leave when they find a cheaper alternative.

You don't have a track record of consistently generating healthy profits and cash flow or you don't know what the profit averages are for your industry. You may be focused on turnover alone and/or have not identified operational efficiencies that lead to healthy profits. Only businesses that demonstrate consistent and healthy profitability will survive. You may be generating profit but are taking too much out of the business making it vulnerable to future downturns.

You may not know what your customers think about your service. You take your customers for granted or you have not created the culture and training required for your employees to provide great service. The majority of customers leave, not due to your product, but because of perceived indifference to them.

Your business is dependent on the skills and knowledge of one or more key employees. If they leave your business, you are likely to lose customers, experience delays, suffer service issues. It would require you to spend more time working in your business as a direct result

You probably don't have top performers in all key positions in your business. The top performers that you do have may not be loyal to you or your business and might leave if an equal or better offer comes along. You might not be looking at your business' skills gap strategically and making the necessary adjustments.

You have not developed a strategic 3 to 5 year plan that charts the course of your organisation, or you have not developed an annual operations plan that supports your strategic goals. Organisations that operate from strategic plans with supporting annual plans have a much greater likelihood of reaching their goals and realising their company vision.

You do not track your business using financial and operational KPIs or do not review them often enough or only use lagging indicators (eg financials from your accountant). KPIs allow for businesses and results to be evaluated objectively rather than subjectively. If you do not manage your business using KPIs, you are not able to identify warning signs in your business and respond to them accordingly.

You and your partner(s) and/or family members are not in alignment regarding the direction of the business or your succession plan. You may experience regular conflict which is counter-productive to the business and makes running your business less satisfying than it could be. It's likely you have not created a succession plan or there is discord regarding your eventual succession.

You have not developed a clear exit strategy and are unsure about the timing of your exit. You may not have structured your business to maximise valuation and may not receive the sale value that is in line with your expectations. You may be leaving your family or employees unable to run the business effectively in the event of your death or incapacitation.

Currently, your business would suffer significantly if you were not heavily involved day-to-day. You have not put the leadership team in place, do not delegate enough and have not formally documented ways in which your business can be less dependent on you. Your business therefore is not very attractive to a potential acquirer. You live to work rather than work to live.

You tend to make your business decisions in isolation; or discuss only with employees and/or family members or those who are not business owners (like accountants and attorneys and consultants). due to the limited input that you receive, you may not always make the best decisions for your business.

Your employees are not really clear on what is expected of them and aren’t really sure whether they are meeting expectations or not. They don’t take full accountability for their results and if dismissed, they would possibly be surprised. They are unclear about how their responsibilities contribute to the success of the business.