ValuAdder Business Valuation Blog

Business valuation tips, updates and advice. Pick up a few suggestions on how to value a business. Feel free to browse the contents or share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

Does the value of a company depend on which country it operates in? The answer is yes, and here is why. Business value is about risk and return. In other words, what makes a business valuable is how much money it makes given an acceptable level of risk. Investors, including business owners, look to put… Continue Reading


Whether you are buying or selling a private business, establishing its market value is critical to a successful transaction. Depending on which side of the transaction you are, you may need business valuation for these reasons: Determine a reasonable selling price Support your asking price Screen businesses for sale to select promising acquisition targets As… Continue Reading


If you are considering a dental practice appraisal, here are some interesting industry statistics: There are over 133,000 privately owned dental practices in the US alone, classified under the SIC 8021 and NAICS 6212. Dental practices are a large part of health services and generate around $104B in annual revenues growing annually at 11.6%. Yet an average dental practice is… Continue Reading



Ask any professional business appraiser and you will get an earful about the financial statements, adjustments and the true economic income estimation. Why all the fuss? In a perfect world, you should be able to figure out business value by just using the company’s financial statements. After all, don’t the income statements and balance sheet… Continue Reading


What type of business earnings do you use in private business valuation? The difference could be huge, the results misleading. Public or private, business value is about returns at a level of risk you can accept. Risk is typically captured in the form of discount or capitalization rates. You can calculate these by using the… Continue Reading


If you ever valued a private company, you probably ran across the venerable Multiple of Discretionary Earnings business valuation method. This technique is perhaps the most common in valuing owner-operator managed businesses. Its appeal is simplicity and excellent coverage of value factors that demonstrate what creates business value and how you can improve operations in… Continue Reading


A business appraisal is a serious project. Making sure clients understand what to expect is something you would want to handle with care. Spelling out what happens each step of the way can save you some grief down the road. Consider just some possible situations that could lead to client disappointment. Let’s say you prepare… Continue Reading


As you probably know, the Internal Revenue Service is the tax arm of the US Treasury Department. Unsurprisingly, valuation of businesses and other assets is of interest to the IRS. Through the years, the service has published a number of interpretations that have come to be widely supported in professional business appraisals. These revenue rules,… Continue Reading


If you are considering using the income based methods in your business valuation, you have two main choices: capitalization or discounting. In simple terms, the difference boils down to how you intend to treat the expected changes in business earnings going forward. In using the discounted cash flow method, you specify the anticipated earnings explicitly… Continue Reading



Take a look at a professional business appraisal report and you will see the valuation date prominently displayed. Clearly, business appraisers deem this date worthy of mention. Why is this the case? Business value changes over time Business value can change quite a bit depending on circumstances that change over time. If you pay attention… Continue Reading


Can you use financial ratio analysis in business valuation? If done correctly, this could be a helpful adjunct in your valuation. Specifically, reviewing financial ratios could help you spot the company’s strengths and weaknesses, and compare its performance to industry peers. Here are the major groups of ratios to consider in valuing a company: Short-term… Continue Reading


Business appraisers usually pick two approaches when valuing a start-up: the income approach and market comparables valuation. Income valuation challenge: earnings forecast If you focus on the income approach, be aware of its limitations. Since the young companies have limited track record of earnings, you face a challenge in forecasting the income stream with any… Continue Reading


Business people, investors, and creditors pore over financial statements to make decisions. If you are a business owner, you look at the company’s financials to see how well it has done, and what investments are needed to achieve its goals in the future. Investors, of course, want to know if the value of their investment… Continue Reading