Business Valuation Blog | Understanding Buying / Selling a Company

When you work in manufacturing, you often work with numbers on a daily basis. Specifications, supply costs, overhead: these numbers are very important to the daily operation of your company. But what about valuing a manufacturing company? There are many benefits to having business appraisals performed on your business for a wide range of reasons. One area where manufacturing companies see real results from business valuations is in reducing overhead and production costs through a solid look at where your company is strong and where it is weak. Here are some ways  business appraisal helps:

Maximizing Production: Valuing a Manufacturing Company

Improving Production and Operations

One of the first areas where you'll find room for improvement in your business is through a solid study of business operations. An experienced business appraiser can provide insights into where your company meets the average, where it excels and where it is lacking. Because a business appraiser looks at specific parts of your business, they can quickly determine, for example, if your company is losing money in excess manufacturing waste, inefficient machinery that uses too much electricity or material and whether you're paying too much in property taxes due to a poor assessment by your local tax assessors office.

Improvement in Management and Accounting

Another area where there's room for improvement is in management. If your company is relying on tax accounting records to estimate value, assets and equity, you may be selling yourself short. Tax accounting often depreciates value for a piece of equipment over a specific period of time. If your equipment is failing before that point, you're not getting the full depreciation out of it and you may be overestimating your assets, because the machine is not worth its depreciated value. On the other side of the coin, machinery that is lasting significantly longer than the depreciation period may still have value when the books report a zero value. That means you aren't able to take advantages that come your way, because you don't think your assets are high enough to cover the potential risk. In either case, a business appraisal allows you to determine when to replace vital equipment, providing better budgeting intelligence.

Projecting Income and Market Growth

But what about income? When you're getting ready to expand your manufacturing operation, being able to project your expected income is important both in assessing the risk and in obtaining financing. A certified business appraiser can quickly determine your projected business income based on past income. Though this is easier to calculate when a business has regular income, it can also be estimated for irregular income. A business appraiser also has the knowledge to look at current market conditions and account for those potential disruptions in their calculations. This means when your industry is expected to do well for a period of time, the appraiser takes that into account.

As you can see, valuing a manufacturing company can provide great benefits and insights into how your business works and where it needs improvement. It also provides proof of value for any number of other purposes, from financing to insurance to sale value. If you need to get the valuation of a company, please feel free to contact us today to be paired with an experienced certified company valuation specialist. At Business Valuation Specialists, our job is making sure your business appraisal is completely accurate to your unique situation.

Our world has two things you can always count on: death and taxes.  Unfortunately, many people are unwilling to discuss end of life planning, whether it's those who are faced with health problems and their own mortality or those who will be left behind who do not want to discuss the loss of a loved one. But failing to put a plan in place to deal with this eventuality can leave your business open to serious problems, including insolvency from death taxes. When it comes to estate planning and taxes, it's vital that you take the time to determine the value of a business before the time of need so that you can plan for financial methods that will ensure the continuity of your business. 

Death and Taxes: Preserving Your Business Through Estate Planning and Taxes

What exactly does the valuation of a company have to do with estate planning and the taxes that are incurred when a business is passed to the next generation? Quite a lot, as it happens. Business valuations provide a legal basis for the value of a company, allowing taxes to be charged based on the company's actual value instead of an incorrect estimate based on tax accounting. It also helps you determine areas where your company is strong and where it is weak, allowing you to get it into shape before worrying about passing on your legacy. By getting a valuation from business appraisal specialists, you can ensure that you have some financial means in place to deal with taxes that will fall into play at the time of death. Here's' a little more on each of these areas:

• Legal basis: By having a company valuation performed by a certified business valuation specialist, you can ensure that your company's value will hold up in court. A certified business valuator has gone through a vigorous training process to ensure they're using the proper methodology to value your company. Because the national accreditation organizations have certified these methodologies, the business appraisals that are calculated using these methods hold legal weight.
• Strengths vs. weaknesses: A business appraisal looks at all aspects of your business and can help you determine where it is strong and where it needs work. Because the first few years of independent operation can be somewhat rocky for new business owners or even for those who have experience in the company but are taking the reins for the first time, having your company operating in a position of strength at the time of transfer can help ensure your company remains solvent and your legacy remains intact.
• Estate Planning: Part of estate planning means planning beyond the death of the current business owner. In its most basic, estate planning should include contingencies for taxes that will come into effect at the time of death, when a business passes to your heir. What legal challenges will they face? Have you outlined who you're leaving your business to? What about taxes that will come into effect? A good business valuation allows you to work with an accountant to estimate the amount of death taxes and set up contingencies to ensure those taxes can be paid.

Though estate planning and taxes are a delicate subject, it's important that you look at having a quality company valuation performed to ensure that your legacy will live on after your passing. If you haven't had a chance to have a quality business valuation performed, please feel free to contact our valuation specialists to ensure you have the information you need to properly plan your estate.

When you're selling a business to a third party, the topic of business valuations may arise. But why is a business appraisal important when you're selling your company, and what difference will it make at the end of the day? As it turns out, the valuation of a company is one of the key documents that several parts of the process revolve around. Here's why:

Why a Valuation is Important When Selling a Business to a Third Party

When you're selling a business to someone you don't know, you want to make sure you can get everything you have coming out of the business into which you've put so much of yourself. A quality business valuation is the first step to ensuring that happens. By having a company appraisal performed, you can see any areas where your business needs improvement, whether it's getting a few pieces of machinery repaired or improving your facilities to make them more welcoming to customers. At the same time, you'll learn where your business is already strong so that you don't have to put further effort into areas that are already in excellent shape. Once you've made the changes and improvements, your business should have increased in value, allowing you to see more benefit from your actions.

The next step is to list your business for sale and entertain offers. If you're like many business owners, you know that your business should be worth more than the assets on the balance sheet, but probably don't know what that figure actually works out to be. By having a business appraisal in hand, you have a much better idea of what that figure should be, and so you can consider offers that are reasonable while dismissing those which are not. You can also decide between appraisal methods, whether you want to ask a price that is in line with similar businesses in your market or if you feel you have a unique position that should be accounted for and request that the appraisal reflect future income from your current business.

But don't feel that you need to snap up the first offer that comes along that is within your acceptable price range. If there is still a significant difference between the offer and the appraised value of your company, having a company appraisal helps you at the negotiating table. Because a company appraisal is based on a standardized methodology, it represents the very best of appraisal practices and procedures, even holding weight in legal, insurance and financial circles. If you want the other party to come up in price, providing them with a copy of a certified business appraisal report may make them aware of facts and circumstances about your business they may have previously been in ignorance of. This then gives them a chance to either change their initial offer or meet a counteroffer you've proposed to them during negotiations.

Business appraisals are vital to your success when selling a business to a third party. If you're getting ready to sell your business and haven't contacted a business valuation firm, please feel free to contact us today. Our qualified business appraisal specialists are ready to help you get the maximum benefit from your business sale.