When your day is full of wreckers, welders, paint guns and primer, the value of your body shop may be the furthest thing from your mind. But if you've ever wondered what's involved in an auto body shop valuation, wonder no more. Here's an inside look at how the entire process is handled, what factors can impact your shop's value and what you can do with the valuation report you receive at the end of the process to grow your business and maximize your profitability.

How is an Auto Body Shop Valuation Handled?

To start, let's take a look at how the valuation process is handled. Once you've decided to work with an appraiser, they'll gather a certain amount of information about your shop to help with the valuation process. This will include information about your business' financial situation, assets, competitors, position in the industry or community, reputation and similar areas of interest to the appraiser. The business' finances will be adjusted to accommodate any one-time income or expenses to create a more normalized cash flow picture. Community goodwill and reputation will be taken into account as intangible assets. Competitors will be considered to help determine potential growth in the future and market share. 

These factors that impact value are not the only areas of concern, however. Does your body shop have a reputation for innovation and new approaches to how you get the job done? Do you have higher-than-normal bad debts from customers or high overheads due to an expensive location? Do you have unusually high assets from inheriting a shop or high liabilities due to an expensive business loan or poor tax choices in the past? These issues will also impact your business' overall value.

Another area to consider is why you're having the appraisal performed. If the body shop's owner has died suddenly and the heirs to the estate are pushing for a fast sale, the business will be appraised using very different methodologies than if it's being appraised for fair market value to determine current value or future income approaches to valuation to help determine the sale price of the company for a retiring owner.

There are a number of benefits to having a valuation report on hand for your business. If you suddenly have to shut down your business for several weeks due to a natural disaster, a crisis in the building or other issues, being able to quickly provide your insurance company with documentation of value helps to speed an insurance claim along. If you need a business loan to purchase a competing shop that is suddenly up for sale, proving the value of your company to your financial institution helps make it happen faster.

An auto body shop valuation can seem like a complex process, but the benefits you receive at the end through a comprehensive valuation allow you to grow your business and leverage that value towards a great future. However, not all shop appraisals are the same. It's vitally important that you work with an accredited business valuation specialist, so that you can rest assured that the value that is calculated is fair because it has been worked up by an independent third party with no interest in your business' future dealings.

There are a wide range of businesses in operation today to help keep us in the best possible health, and those businesses each hold a value that can be calculated on a wide range of factors. However, a health and wellness business valuation can be a little different than other types of valuations that are performed to calculate value. What are these differences, how can they impact your business and how do you determine which ones need to be fixed? Here's a quick look at the overall process to help you get started.

What's Unique About a Health and Wellness Business Valuation?

• Reputation: As a health and wellness business, your reputation is of paramount importance to your company's value. You wouldn't take your car to a bad mechanic and hope everything would be okay, right? Neither will your patients and customers want to go to a practitioner who has a poor reputation. That reputation has value, which is taken into consideration for your company's appraisal. Practitioners and offices that have exceptional reputations will have much more business, can charge a premium for their services and their practice will have a much higher resale price.
• Services Plus Product Sales: Many businesses provide either services or products, but often with health and wellness businesses, there's a unique combination of both to facilitate patient care. A chiropractor offers specific muscle rubs to help clients between visits. A spa offers a range of anti-aging products to improve appearances between treatments. This combination of service value plus inventory must be carefully taken into account when your business' value is determined, a task that is best handled by a qualified business appraisal specialist for that specific reason.
• Market: Right now, people are very aware of their health issues, and it's popular to take steps to stay in shape, improve your outlook or take care of old health problems. That makes the health and wellness market very popular right now and gives health and wellness businesses a higher profit margin when they are being bought and sold. However, if that market were to slump, such as around the 2008 economic recession, that will also impact value, lowering the value of the business, which must be taken into consideration. A business valuation will reflect the value of your business at a specific point in time.
• Training: One of the constants in health and wellness is regular training. Your staff's certifications show that you have additional capabilities that other practitioners or businesses may not be able to offer, and that has value. A massage therapist who only has a regular state certificate will not have the volume of business that a therapist with certifications in cranial-sacral release, maternity massage or similar certificates, and that volume will be reflected in the company's value due to the difference in business income.

By having a good understanding of how your company's value comes together, a health and wellness business valuation can provide you with significant insights into where you can improve your business to maximize your profitability, either during regular operations or when you're changing ownership. However, it's important to have your business valuation performed by an experienced, accredited valuation specialist who will provide you with an honest calculation of value.

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You run a security company, so much of your daily focus is on hiring the right employees, having the right monitors in place and reducing your response time to emergencies to an absolute bare minimum. But what is your business actually worth? Not knowing the answer to this question can put the security of your business at risk. What happens when you have a security system business appraisal performed on your company? Here's a quick overview to give you the basics of what to expect.

What's Involved With a Business Appraisal for Security Systems Companies

To start, a business valuation specialist will take a solid look at your business' finances. They'll make adjustments to your accounting books to remove any one-time income or expense that is skewing what your usual figures would look like, determine if there are areas that are inaccurate, such as fully-depreciated equipment that has no value on your accounting books, but still has significant value in the regular operation of your business. They may be able to make some suggestions, such as if you're carrying a lot of bad debt from clients who are not paying their bills and how to handle that type of situation so that you can improve your business' overall financial health.

Next, they'll take a solid look at your business operations. Are there areas where you're leading the pack in terms of ingenuity, efficiency or similar areas? Are there areas where you're lagging behind, actually causing harm to your business? If there are areas where your business is seeing high overhead, they may be able to make recommendations about how to make that part of your company operate more efficiently to reduce that excess overhead and improve your profitability.

What about your competitors? Is the area you're in saturated already or is there room for business growth? The business valuation specialist will take a long, hard look at your competition, whether it's on a regional level based on geography or a comparison to other businesses that handle the same specialty that your business is focused on. They'll be able to determine differences between the companies and adjust your business' value in their calculations accordingly, providing you with a much more realistic picture of your company's value.

The next area they'll take on is the condition of the market. Is it growing or shrinking? If some hot new technology is giving homeowners a different option than traditional security systems, that may be impacting your business' ability to compete in the marketplace. The business valuation specialist will also take a hard look at other businesses in the market, using them as a final ruler to calculate your business' value by comparing your company to the other businesses that are in the market that have sold recently.

By staying on top of your company's value with a security system business appraisal, you can rest easier that your company is as secure as your clients' homes and businesses. A quality business appraisal report from an accredited business valuation specialist provides you with a solid tool for fighting bad tax assessments, proving your company's value in court, securing financing for expansion or working with an insurance adjustor for downtime after a disaster strikes your area. Shouldn't it be part of your emergency response toolkit?

security system appraisal (included for keyword counter)

Whether you're considering buying or selling a business, it's a big decision, one that you want to get right. One way to ensure that you're getting the deal you're looking for is by getting a business appraisal for sale or purchase of a company. This process confirms the company's estimated value through an unbiased third party while providing solid documentation that leaves you in a position of strength in your negotiations. Here are a few examples of why you should have a business appraisal performed on the company you're considering transferring ownership of.

Why Do You Need a Business Appraisal for Sale or Purchase?

Let's approach this situation from two different viewpoints: that of the buyer and of the seller. The buyer wants to maximize their profits from the sale of the business, but may not be exactly certain of the areas in which their business is strong or weak. They may have some idea based on guesses, but nothing that has been verified by an expert outside of their own business. Where should they improve their business? Where should they invest some funds to help improve profitability when they sell the company? Without outside insights, this process can be arduous and may not end up in the best interests of the seller.

Now let's look at the buyer. They want to purchase a company, but at the same time want to make sure that they're making a good investment. They want to make sure that they won't suddenly find themselves in financial trouble because income, assets or liabilities were not properly represented while they were researching the company. Do they know whether the high-dollar sale last year was normal or a fluke? Can they depend on that kind of performance in the future, or is the market simply in an upswing that isn't expected to last? Without this information, it's hard to determine whether this business is a solid purchase. 

When a business appraisal is performed by an accredited third party, the results aren't being skewed by someone with an interest in the final result. Whichever party requests the valuation receives the same information that would have been provided to the other party. This makes it easier for both parties to sit down at the negotiating table and come to an equitable agreement based on the fair market value of the company. Instead of having to waste time arguing over small details about whether the sales transactions in the books are an accurate description of the business' usual state of affairs, you can spend your time in the real details of the deal. Rather than worrying if the equipment has more equity that is represented because it's been fully depreciated, you can negotiate how long the current owner will remain to train the new owner, or whether personal introductions to important current contacts can be arranged.

By having a business appraisal for sale or purchase of a company, you can ensure that you're making an intelligent decision with the change in ownership. However, it's important to remember that the best way to ensure that you're getting an accurate value of the company is by hiring an accredited independent business valuation specialist, who has no possible benefit from the outcome of the company's sale. 

Are you wondering what your business is worth? If you are, do you know how the value of your business is calculated? Unlike public companies, which are often valued at least partially based on the cost of their shares on the open market, a privately held business valuation uses a variety of methods to determine your company's value. But exactly what kind of methods are used in this process? Here's a quick overview of common business valuation methods used on privately held businesses.

An Overview of Privately Held Business Valuation Methods

Guideline Public Company Method

Are you wondering what your company may be worth if you go public, but don't want to go public until you have an idea of what that value may be in case you can take advantage of other options for financing? When your business has a great deal in common with a publicly-traded company, such as being in the same or a similar line of business, similar revenues or other areas in common, a business appraisal specialist can take the financial data that is available from a publicly traded company. This type of valuation takes the actual price paid by investors to gain a minority interest in that company.

Guideline Company Transactions Method

Another method that uses information from publicly traded businesses, it's most commonly used to calculate the value of several closely held businesses that are in a similar or same line of business as the company that is being valued. The companies that are being compared in this situation must have very similar aspects, such as the size of the business, the products or services being produced, the industry and the regional location. In this situation, business sale transactions that are more recent are considered to be more accurate and meaningful that business sale transactions that are more dated.

Capitalization of Earnings Method

If you don't want your business compared to a publicly traded company but would rather determine what your company is worth based on its income, the capitalization of earnings method can provide a solid answer. This valuation method is applied by taking a company's historical cash flow and projecting it into the future. The appraiser will study the company's financial history, make corrections for extreme or unusual transactions and create a normalized income estimate based on this information. This income estimate is then projected over a period of time to determine the company's value. It provides the most accurate results with businesses that have tended to have a consistent income level and cash flow over an extended period of time.

Discounted Earnings Method/Discounted Cash Flow Method

Another valuation method that uses income and cash flow to determine a company's value, the discounted earnings method, which is sometimes referred to as the discounted cash flow method, is used when a business has unstable or irregular cash flow. It can be applied very well to determine future value.

By understanding the methodology used in a privately held business valuation, you can better understand how market forces, income, transactions and discretionary earnings can impact your company's value. However, it's important to make sure that when you're having a business appraisal performed that you use an accredited business valuation specialist. The certification process ensures that the appraiser you're working with has the expertise, knowledge and experience to properly calculate your company's value.

The building industry is both one of the world's oldest as well as one of the world's toughest to succeed in. Changes in the weather, job site conditions that couldn't have been expected prior to starting and customers who either flake out on the bill or change their mind one a project is substantially complete are among some of the regular issues faced by contracting companies. But what if you could use insider information about your business to make it stronger and more agile to changing market conditions? A construction contracting appraisal may be exactly what you're looking for.

Why Construction Contracting Appraisal is Vital to Your Business' Growth

Let's take a minute and talk about Ned. Ned's got a construction company that he runs with his brother, which they inherited from their dad. The business is four generations old and is well-known in the area. Ned's family has helped out with Habitat for Humanity from the start and regularly provides donations for a wide range of community organizations. Ned and his brother know that their business can grow, but are worried about risking the business in the process, like when great-granddad almost lost his decade-old business back in the Great Depression.

They've decided to have an appraisal performed on the company to determine what it's worth. They know that taking out a loan to grow the business can be risky, and they want to minimize that risk by knowing what the company and its assets are worth before they determine what direction to go from there. They make sure to work with an accredited appraiser, because they know that working with someone who has their own business in mind may not provide the most accurate details.

After the appraisal is performed, they get together for a weekend at granddad's old hunting cabin to go over the report and strategize. They discover that the business has a huge amount of intangible assets in the form of a reputation for excellence and goodwill in the community, which boosts their company's value much more than they had expected. They also discover that their older tools and equipment, though serviceable enough, may be holding them back on the job site compared to newer machinery that would help them get the job done faster and more efficiently, much like some of their competitors. Though their brand is well-known throughout the region, it could use some work to take advantage of that awareness on the internet.

Once they've gone over the report, they decide to focus on building their brand by hiring a marketing company to build and manage a website and social media pages for the company and update their equipment. Because the heavy construction equipment is a tangible asset, it allows them to use it as collateral to secure the loan they're going to take out.

By having a construction contracting appraisal performed on your construction business, you'll be able to gain strong insights into your company's strengths and weaknesses, making it much easier to move forward with smart changes to build your business. But when you're having an appraisal performed, make sure that you're working with an accredited business valuation specialist. The accreditation process ensures that your appraiser has solid experience, knowledge and education to be able to accurately estimate the value of your business.

When your business is storage, every day brings a new challenge. Someone lost their key, didn't pay their bill or is worried about their ex getting into their storage unit. But beyond these daily matters, have you ever given serious thought to the value of your storage company and how that value is calculated? You might be surprised at some of the many steps and aspects that take place when a professional storage facility business appraisal takes place. Here's a quick look inside the process to help you get started.

How Does Storage Facility Business Appraisal Work?

The first thing that most business valuation specialists will do when you request an appraisal of your storage company is to determine a number of factors that will help them to calculate the value of your company. They will start by looking at your company's overall finances, making adjustments if necessary for large transactions that may skew the end results. They'll take a look at your competitors in the area and market, looking at what they're doing well and what they're doing poorly. They'll take an overall view of your business to determine how different factors will influence that value.

They'll also consider a number of other outside factors. What condition are your industry and market in? Are there a lot of companies trying to get out of the business before they lose their investment? Are there entrepreneurs trying to buy in before the price goes up? That may not be the time to sell. Is it just a regional issue? If so, excess materials or equipment can be listed online and sold to businesses outside of your regional slump. Is the storage facility down the road getting more business because it's closer to the interstate or less because it's in a high-crime area. All of these factors must be carefully considered before your business' overall value can be calculated accurately.

After this, there may be some additional fact-gathering. Are your doors 20 gauge or heavier 26 gauge metal to prevent theft? What level of capacity do you typically see rented out to your customers and which portion remains empty, costing you potential income? Are you charging high enough rents to keep the place secure but not so high that you're driving customers away? Do you have a solid reputation in the community and do you volunteer time, resources or materials to local organizations? All of these aspects can impact the overall value of your storage business beyond the simple value of the land, buildings and security structures.

If you're wondering where you can use a business valuation, the simple fact is that they are very useful documents with a range of possible applications. They can be used in court, with your insurance company, to settle a question of appraisal for a tax bill or help you secure financing for your business' next big expansion.

Storage facility business appraisal can be much more challenging and involved than you may have initially guessed. However, when you're working with an independent, third-party business valuation specialist who has experience in your industry, you can get a lot more than you may have expected from the process. Make sure that the valuation specialist you work with is certified to ensure that they are qualified to offer you a solid calculation of your storage company's business.

When you run a preschool or daycare, business valuation may be the furthest thing from your mind. Why does it matter when your days are full of sticky fingers, happy faces and crayon drawings? To protect the future of that business and those children, a child care business valuation can provide a wide range of insights and information that can impact your business. Here's a quick look at some of the many reasons why having a business valuation performed on your daycare, preschool or other child care facility is vitally important to keep it in successful operation.

Why is Child Care Business Valuation Important to Your Facility?

Consider your child care business. Whether you have a few dozen or a few hundred children at your facility, you have a vested interest in making sure that they are taken care of, for their families and for their future. You run background checks on new employees. You have safeguards in place to prevent abductions, abuse or other tragedies. But are you protecting your business as carefully as you're protecting the children that are under your care?

Your business provides a valuable service to the community and the families you serve. What would happen to those families if your business failed? What would happen to the children that you care for? As the families scramble for a new place for their kids to stay while they're at work or school, they may not have the ability to choose a child care facility that is as careful, considerate or responsible as yours is. What care will those children receive in those facilities? How will the care that they receive - or not receive - impact their families and their futures? As you can see, protecting your business is important to not only you and your employees, but those families and children as well.

When you have a business valuation performed on your child care facility, you can get the information you need to protect your business. You'll gain a number of insights into where your company is strong and where it's weak. This allows you to continue to keep up the strong areas of your business while building up the weak areas. It provides you with solid values on your child care facility's worth, so that you can carry sufficient insurance in case of a fire, disaster or other situation that shuts you down for any period of time. Having sufficient insurance and a solid valuation report means that you can quickly make a claim and get back into business again.

Though it can be difficult to see the reason for a child care business valuation initially, the insights that are provided by it will help you grow your business, allowing you to help more families and children as they explore their world and learn about it. However, not all business appraisals are the same. Working with a certified business valuation specialist means that you'll receive a calculated value that is independent of any outside interests, which will hold up well in a wide range of circumstances, including financial, legal, insurance and tax circles. When hiring a business appraiser, make sure to take the time to determine whether they are certified or not, to ensure that your investment is a solid one.

When you're considering an employee stock ownership plan for your business, how do your employees know whether the value they perceive from their shares is realistic or not? Business values fluctuate with a wide range of factors, from industry changes to market conditions and consumer interest to supplier price changes. How do you ensure that your employees feel true ownership in your business? One option to consider is having an ESOP Plan Business Appraisal performed by an independent third party. Here's how this type of appraisal helps to build trust by your employees in the ownership you're creating for them.

How ESOP Plan Business Appraisal Provides Real Employee Ownership

If you've created an employee stock ownership program for your company, you may have realized that there's a difference between simply creating the program and creating a sense of real ownership in your employees. Many companies simply stop at offering stock to their employees, but fail to create solid ownership. In some businesses, lack of trust in management can cause employees to hold back from taking true ownership in the company. But to really create solid growth and improve employee franchisement in the company, having a transparent process is vital.

One of the best ways to create that transparency is by not relying on your company's own internal reviews, audits and accounting, but by providing a business valuation of your company from an independent third-party appraiser. This process allows employees to see exactly where your company stands. A valuation report provides detailed information on your company, including its strengths and weaknesses. Your employees can see whether the market issues that you've mentioned in the past are really a concern, or if they are simply an excuse to keep from moving in a particular direction. It provides them with validation of the information that you're providing to them, from an independent party that has no vested interest in whether the report favors your management team or the employees at large.

But what if your employees have strong confidence in your company's management team? Even in these situations, having a business valuation performed and distributing the results for employee review can still reap great benefits. The strengths and weaknesses that will show up in your report help to show the employees where improvements need to be made. This insight allows your employees to carefully consider areas for improvement and new ideas that they can recommend, giving them the opportunity to take true ownership in your business. It allows you to harness the full potential of every employee at your company for the company's improvement and growth, rather than simply hoping that someone speaks up if they have an idea, because they have a vested interest in seeing their company succeed.

An ESOP plan business appraisal is a great way to improve employee interest and sense of ownership in your company, because it's calculated by an independent, third-party appraiser. This gives you a great place to build your business further in the future, through the feedback that you and your fellow employee-owners receive in the appraisal report. However, for this reason, it's vital that you use a certified business valuation specialist during the process so that the results you receive have been properly calculated using standardized methodologies.

When your business is moving goods or people over the water from point A to point B, you may know the value of those goods and the services you provide, but do you know the value of your water transportation business? Though it can be difficult to understand the processes behind it, marine transport valuation is a great option to help you get an estimate on your company's value. Here's a look at how to process works.

How Does Marine Transport Valuation of Businesses Work?

A marine transport company may move a variety of things to various points, whether it's a barge moving sand to a concrete company on a river, a ferry moving people, goods and vehicles across a channel or a cruise ship moving thousands of people from port to port across international waters. Because of this wide range of services, the value of marine transport companies can vary greatly. A simple, one-boat ferry company that moves vehicles and people to a neighboring island will certainly have a different value than a cruise business that has dozens of ships, each carrying thousands of passengers through a range of ports around the world every day.

But exactly how does the valuation of these businesses work? For a simple barge service, the business valuation specialist may look at the value of the company's services, the expected remaining useful lifespan of its barges and other assets and project those figures into the future to determine the company's future income, providing them with solid figures to calculate value. It's the company's utility and the rate of replacement of its marine assets that help determine its value on the open market, provided that it doesn't end up with a terrible reputation that causes it to lose business.

For businesses that interact with the general public, such as a sail and snorkel tour operation off the Florida coast, the company's reputation and public reviews may need to be taken into account. Why? Some companies are able to build a significant portion of their income off of intangible assets, such as public goodwill or its reputation on online review sites to continue earning income well into the future. If the company recieves a large number of average or poor reviews, fewer people will want to use its services, which leads to a direct reduction in its income and the company's overall value on the open market.

A business valuation specialist will take a solid look at the company's finances, assets, reputation and the current state of the market in which it operates to determine the business' value. If our sail and snorkel operation, for example, is operating in times when market conditions are causing a decrease in tourism that is expected to continue far into the future, those condition will have a direct impact on the company's future income and its value on the open market.

By using marine transport valuation to determine the value of your company, you can ensure that you have a solid grasp of its estimated value for a wide range of uses. But don't settle for a general estimate that could be inaccurate or be influenced by the interests of the other party. Using an experienced accredited business valuation specialist provides you with peace of mind that the estimated value was calculated by an independent third party.