In business, maximizing value is the name of the game. When strategies clash, though, how are small business owners to know which path is right for them? Shareholders face novel problems today, including significant SKU proliferation, rapid technological evolution, cybersecurity threats, international trade wars, and the appearance of entirely new industries tangential to their own, among myriad challenges.

Business owners on the battlefield must navigate this shifting environment in order to maximize their value. A very basic framework to help think through these challenges is the “buy, hold, or sell” model. Specifically, at any given point for any decision, an owner or manager has only three options: buy (invest more), sell (divest), or hold (maintain the status quo).…