Lifestyle business

A consultancy earning $400,000 a year with three staff and no investors will never be a unicorn, and does not want to be. It is designed to fund a life, not to be sold.

The term is sometimes used dismissively by people in venture capital. For most people aiming at a first million, it is the higher-probability path by a wide margin.

Run it out. A consultancy earning $400,000 a year for ten years is $4,000,000, taken in cash along the way rather than at an exit that may never arrive. It can also be sold: at two to four times SDE, that same business is worth $800,000 to $1,600,000 to a buyer. Calling it the unambitious option requires ignoring both figures.

Its real weakness is not ambition, it is dependence. If the business cannot run for four weeks without you, it is a well-paid job, and it is worth very little to anyone else for precisely that reason. Writing down how the work is done and hiring someone to do it fixes both problems at once: it gives you time now and creates the option to sell later.