It’s been a long road to reach this point. Your business has been your baby and making a business transition isn’t easy. The first step to take when thinking of transitioning from your business is to receive a business valuation to intimately understand the worth of your work. No one knows your business like you do, so no one knows the value of your business like you do, too, right?
Maybe not.
Having a qualified appraiser value your business could unlock potential business value increases you may never have seen, otherwise. Like the editor of the New York Times, only a third party can identify trouble areas you may be overlooking. It’s not your fault, just blame your brain!How can another person be more familiar with your business value than you are? Find out! With these reasons to have your business valued by a qualified appraiser:
Qualified Appraisers Identify Trouble Areas to Improve Your Business’ Value
Like so many things in life, it’s often important to get multiple opinions before making any big decision such as a transition from your business. Getting your business valued in no way locks you in to the monetary amount of that one valuation. Many times, it’s a good idea to get a preceding business valuation before a final valuation in order to identify potential areas of business value improvement.
A qualified appraiser has the experience and knowledge to look for business value improvements in places where you or many other industry professionals would not think to look. Sheryl Brake, CEO of Encompass Transitions Solutions has the industry experience and knowledge to find that extra bit of value in your business. Furthermore, Sheryl understands the drawbacks and undercurrents of a business transition, as she has previously transitioned from being a partner at a top 25 national accounting firm to her own private business.
Let Sheryl’s industry expertise and understanding help you ease the trepidation of a business transition, starting with a business valuation.
Qualified Appraisers: Your Business’s Editor-in-Chief
Having an outside qualified appraiser to help value your business will give you perspectives and action plans never imagined. You never know what you might be overlooking or what might be holding you back until you have another party offer their input.
Take as a similar but not quite the same example; editing a piece of your own written content for grammatical and spelling typos and mistakes. There’s a reason why content writers and content editors are two different people/positions. No matter how detailed one reviews his or her own writing, it’s not until an editor reads the same piece for typos that the mistakes are revealed to the writers. It’s as if our brain purposefully skips over typos for concern with more complex tasks. That’s because that’s exactly what our brain is doing. Skipping over simple typos or grammatical mistakes to ensure we’re linking sentences and thoughts together to form a cohesive idea. This Wired article puts it well, “The reason we don’t see our own typos is because what we see on the screen is competing with the version that exists in our heads.” And of course, the version in our heads is most of the time perfectly free from any mistakes. While to err is human, our brain has other ideas.
The same thing happens when attempting to value your business on your own. Often, there are details, services, products, or branches of your business that you take for granted, or have no input into business value. There may be areas in your business that you think add value – having a large national account as a customer – but are actually detrimental to your business – that large national account makes up a large concentration of your revenue and if lost would significantly impact the company. After review by a qualified appraiser, however, these same seemingly mundane details and branches become pivotal pieces to your overall business value and provide areas of opportunity to enhance value and address areas that will likely be of concern to a potential buyer of your business.
Don’t allow your brain to potentially overvalue or devalue your business. Instead, chat with Sheryl about your business transition planning procedure which starts with a business valuation.
Qualified Appraisers: Providing Certified Business Value
If you are going to have your business valued, make sure you are working with a credentialed valuation professional. There are several valuation designations in the valuation industry: Accreditation in Business Valuation (ABV), ASA’s licensed through the American Society of Appraisers and Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA). Sheryl Brake, CEO of Encompass Transitions, holds the latter certification: Certified Valuation Analyst.
This means that Sheryl is recognized by the National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts as an officially certified analyst of business value. She also holds a license in the state of Colorado as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), and is also a Certified Global Management Accountant (CGMA), and Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA). Encompass Transitions Solutions provides unbiased, third-party business valuations, something you may not get with your company’s existing CPA whose job security depends on your business’ success – possibly leading to a biased valuation. Credentialed appraisers have the training and the experience to perform business valuations. That being said, be sure to interview professionals about their experience and what they bring to the table, while keeping in mind you get what you pay for.
Get the professional, certified assistance your business deserves. Call Encompass Transition Solutions, today!
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Author: Sheryl Brake
Sheryl is the CEO and Founder of Encompass Transition Solutions, LLC and former partner of a top 25 national accounting firm. She has been working with business owners in a wide variety of capacities for more than 30 years. Sheryl lives in her home state of Colorado with her husband, Michael.