You may sell your business only once…but chances are you will seek a true business valuation multiple times. Even if business owners are years away from selling a business, it is still important to know what the business is worth today. Guessing what your business is worth just won’t cut it. Why? Well, most business owners know that at some point they will transition to “life after business.” Their ultimate post-business lifestyle will be determined by the cash flow stream from the proceeds of the sale and subsequent investments. If the current business value is lower than the anticipated sales proceeds…there’s work to be done. The good news is…you will have time to create and implement a business plan to bridge the valuation gap between current value and desired sale price. Valuation specialists can provide an accurate measure of your business worth as a first step. There are a variety of methods experts can use to arrive at the business valuation. Lee Crawley in our Tulsa office wrote a great piece on the types of valuation methods that can be employed and is worth the read. You can read the article in its entirety here. Bottom line…any business exit plan should begin with an accurate valuation.
