Picture this: you've built something real. Revenue's climbing, customers keep coming back, and your team runs like a well-oiled machine. Then a potential buyer walks in and drops a number that makes your stomach sink—sometimes half of what you thought the place was worth.

Feels unfair, right? But here's the thing—it's not necessarily about one side being wrong. It's about using completely different measuring sticks.

Owners tend to see what they've built: the growth trajectory, the relationships they've fostered, the operations they've refined. Buyers? They're looking at something else entirely. They're calculating risk, market position, scalability, and what cash actually flows to the bottom line. One person's thriving business is another person's collection of operational vulnerabilities waiting to be fixed.

It's less about perception and more about metrics. And that's where most negotiations get bumpy.