Business Valuation Blog | Understanding Buying / Selling a Company

What Kind of Skills Does a Business Appraiser Need to Have?

Posted by Business Valuation Specialists LLC on Nov 7, 2018 5:14:00 PM

When you're in a position to have a business appraisal performed on your company, have you ever thought about the vast amount of knowledge, skills and expertise that a certified business appraiser needs to have to be able to determine the value of your business? It's a very specialized skill set that is often overlooked in everyday life. Here's a quick look at the skills that are required of business valuation specialists as they go about their jobs every day.

What Kind of Skills Does a Business Appraiser Need to Have?

  • Serious attention to detail. Consider, for a moment, the complexities of your business. Now imagine having to determine all those complexities within a very short period of time! Business valuation specialists need to have a serious ability to ferret out every detail about your business that is necessary to create an accurate assessment of its value.
  • Ability to work through complex calculations. The market is up, the market is down, one business is very similar, another is very different. There are a wide range of factors that come into play when calculating an accurate business value, requiring an appraiser to have a very strong set of math skills to keep up with constant changes during the process.
  • Thirst for knowledge. Because an appraiser needs to get into the nitty-gritty details of every aspect of your business, they need to have an innate thirst for knowledge. Not only do they need to understand the value of your products, they need to understand where your company is innovative and where it needs to catch up. This requires a strong love for learning.
  • Strong research abilities. Which other businesses is your business similar to and which ones is it different than? Being able to pick out these differences and discover the fine lines that make companies unique is a definite strength when an appraiser is working on different company valuations all day.
  • Real-world communication skills. Have you ever worked with someone who just couldn't explain the process? Because business valuation specialists have to work with their clients to develop a fair value for a business, they need to have strong communication skills to get the job done right. This allows them to ask the right question for every situation that may arise.
  • Ability to adapt to changing circumstances. Is this company going out of business because of a bankruptcy or is it being sold at a premium to the perfect buyer? Because every appraisal is different, it requires the business valuation specialist to go into each situation with the ability to adapt to that particular case and apply their knowledge fairly across the board.

A business appraiser needs a diverse set of skills to be able to perform the job they do on a daily basis. It takes a lot of time and dedication to develop these skills, whether through a training program or through on-the-job experience. When you need to have your business appraised, do you want to have the business appraisal determined by someone who is simply making a guess based on their general experience, versus a professional who has taken significant time and effort to become certified and develop these skills? Working with a certified business appraisal specialist delivers real value for your company

Topics: Business Appraiser