Codie Sanchez is milestone-stacking in 2026. The Austin entrepreneur, founder, podcast host and CEO of Contrarian Thinking, is expecting her first child before the year is out and started fall with the release of her second book, Own or Be Owned: Build a Business So Good It Doesn't Need You.
The timing feels fitting. The New York Times bestselling author of Main Street Millionaire has long argued that an owner's life shouldn't hinge on being present for every decision, and her new book makes that sentiment the central theme.
"This isn't hustle culture repackaged; it's the antidote to it," Codie says. "If your business still requires your constant input and your final say, you don't own a business. You own a job with more risk."
She calls the problem owner dependency, citing that McKinsey projects roughly 6 million U.S. small businesses will change hands between 2026 and 2035, with about $5 trillion in value and says many of those owners will sell for less than they should, or not at all, because the business can't run without them.
Her fix borrows from private equity and she tested the approach across her own laundromats, car washes, roofing companies and service businesses, then refined it with more than 15,000 operators. The cover sums it up - heroics don't scale, systems do.
In the book, readers get a 10-minute Owner Score Quiz to pinpoint bottlenecks, 12 Profit Levers, pricing guidance, advice on hiring A-players, and a one-page dashboard for running a company at a glance. Spotting the weak link is the easy part, Codie says; the hard part is rebuilding while the business keeps running.
Early praise is strong. Negotiation expert Chris Voss called it "a book for winners," and Jay Shetty called it smart and relevant for entrepreneurs navigating growth, leadership and burnout.
For a founder about to welcome a baby, having a business (or many) that can run without them isn't just part of a business strategy, but a life plan.