Valuation scrutiny
Financial performance matters, but it is considered alongside the quality, durability and transferability of those earnings.
ABOUT SOLOMON APEX GROUP
We would rather help build the value than arrive only when it is time to sell.
Solomon Apex Group works upstream of traditional transaction advisers. Our focus is the business itself: how it grows, how it runs, what it depends on and how confidently another person could understand or own it.
MEET THE FOUNDER
Anietie Eka
Founder & CEO
Anietie Eka is Founder & CEO of Solomon Apex Group. He works with UK Founder-led businesses on enterprise value, governance and resilience — with the aim of making quality visible while there is still time to improve it.
Across that work, one problem kept appearing.
Founders were often asked to prove the quality of their business only when a sale, investment or succession was already close. At that point, the biggest weaknesses were visible, but there was too little time to repair them properly.
EVOS grew from a simple question: what if a Founder could see those issues earlier, understand how they connect and improve them while there is still time to act?
That is why Solomon Apex Group works with the Founder's starting view, the evidence inside the business and the questions a future buyer, investor or successor may ask.
THE PROBLEM
The issues that weaken a future deal often begin years before it.
Due diligence readiness
Weak records, unclear contracts and inconsistent information can create avoidable questions when the business comes under scrutiny.
Founder dependency
When sales, decisions or key relationships rely heavily on one person, the continuity of the business becomes harder for someone else to assess.
Timing
Leadership depth, reliable systems and a meaningful operating track record need time to build. A sales process is usually too late to begin that work.
OUR METHODOLOGY
The thinking behind EVOS.
EVOS is Solomon Apex Group's proprietary Enterprise Value Acceleration methodology. It was developed by examining transaction, due diligence, value-creation and advisory frameworks, then asking what those approaches missed for Founder-led UK businesses in our market.
The result is a joined-up view across twelve parts of the business. It connects financial quality with leadership, customers, operations, technology, risk and the company's ability to continue beyond its current Founder.
EXPLORE THE EVOS METHODTHE 12 PILLARS OF ENTERPRISE VALUE
One business, viewed from twelve connected angles.
The pillars provide a common structure for the Scorecard, the independent Diagnostic and any later implementation work. They help preserve a clear line from the first Founder view to the evidence and decisions that follow.
WHY SOLOMON APEX GROUP
Built around the Founder, but designed to reduce Founder dependency.
Specialisation in your market
Our focus is UK businesses with £1 million to £20 million in annual revenue.
A timing advantage
EVOS is intended to begin 12 to 36 months before an acquisition or other major ownership event, while meaningful change can still be made.
An upstream perspective
We work on the quality of the business before a transaction adviser is asked to market or execute a deal.
Progress you can evidence
The method is designed to connect priorities with documents, data, interviews, decisions and evidence of improvement over time.
A connected partnership
The Scorecard, detailed Founder report, independent Diagnostic and later implementation work are designed as one traceable journey.
A Founder-centred approach
We start with what the Founder is trying to build, protect or change, then examine what the business itself can support.
HOW WE WANT TO WORK
Evidence before certainty
We distinguish what is known, what is inferred and what still needs to be tested.
Plain English
A useful answer should be understandable to the Founder who needs to act on it.
Build, measure, learn
EVOS will keep evolving as better research and real engagement outcomes give us stronger evidence.
AN IDEA WE KEEP TESTING
A strong method should improve when the evidence improves.
Enterprise Value Acceleration is a developing proposition. We are reviewing transaction evidence, M&A and consulting frameworks, academic research and the experience of real Founders to strengthen the method.
Where an idea remains useful, we find better support and make it easier to measure. Where the evidence points somewhere better, we change it. We will not dress up an early model as settled science.
We are rebuilding the research base behind the method, including evidence that supports, challenges or improves the original ideas. EVOS should become more defensible as the evidence becomes stronger.
YOUR FIRST VALUE SIGNAL
Start with the same view we use with Founders — the Scorecard.
The complimentary Enterprise Value Scorecard takes around 15 minutes and gives you an immediate band plus three areas to explore first.