Placing a price on a privately-held company is usually more complex than placing a value, or a price, on a publicly-held company. There are many reasons for this fact, but one of the top reasons is that privately-held companies don’t have audited financial statements. Why are Audited Financial Statements Lacking in Privately-Held Companies? Preparing an audited financial statement is expensive and, as a result, many privately-held companies that have not gone public simply forego the expense. Most privately-held companies are also not accountable to bankers, investors or partners so there is no need to incur this cost. Compared to a privately-held company, a publicly held company can often seem like an “open book.” Buyers are left with the proposition of having to dig out a lot more information from a privately-held company in order to assess whether or not a valuation or price is accurate. What Can You Do to Overcome this Factor? You, as the seller, can help streamline this … [Read more...]
selling a business
When is the Right Time to Sell Your Business?
Like many things in life, timing can be everything when it comes to selling your business. Every day more and more baby-boomers are now reaching retirement age. The marketplace is already showing signs of increasing inventory with the increasing amount of businesses coming to market as more and more business owners are looking to sell to retire. According to a 2016 survey of Business Brokers, 54% plan to exit in the next ten years. We may be on the verge of a massive wave of businesses hitting the market. Getting out in front of that wave could be in your best interests. Now very well may be the time to sell. Are You Suffering from Burnout? If you’ve been running your business for many years, it is quite possible that you are suffering from burnout. This issue is remarkably common with business owners and it is also very dangerous. Owners suffering from burnout don’t invest as much of themselves and their creative energy into their businesses, and that has a range of … [Read more...]
Fairness Opinions When Selling a Business
Since one often hears the term “fair value” or “fair market value,” it would be easy to assume that “fairness opinion” means the same thing. A fairness opinion may be based to some degree on fair market value, but there the similarities end. Assume that you are president of a family business and the other members are not active in the business, but are stockholders; or you are president of a privately held company that has several investors/stockholders. The decision is made to sell the company; and you as president are charged with that responsibility. A buyer is found; the deal is set; it is ready to close — and, then, one of the minority stockholders comes out of the woodwork and claims the price is too low. Or, worse, the deal closes, then the minority stockholder decides to sue the president, which is you, claiming the selling price was too low. A fairness opinion may avoid this or protect you, the president, from any litigation. A fairness opinion is a letter, usually only two to … [Read more...]
