Customer Reviews

What Every Business Owner Should Know About Valuing Their Business

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I found this book to be logical and informative about many matters that I've had trouble getting good information about. We small business people may often find ourselves going it alone, wandering about in the wilderness, so to speak.

This book offers education and guidance about matters very relevant to the management of one's business in order to make it more profitable and ultimately more valuable at the time of sale. The ramifications of various decisions about what to include as tax deductible necessities are spelled out. I recognized how many times my desire to minimize my taxes had driven my decisions rather than looking at the larger picture--my need for an adequate retirement income. This is an even bigger issue for someone who hopes to ultimately sell their business to fund their retirement than for me as a professional practitioner.

I especially liked the fact that the authors explained the various methods of business valuation and their underlying assumptions. They spelled out the pros and cons of each so that they could be selected for appropriateness as well as weighted if they were all combined to provide a ballpark figure.

The examples were detailed, varied, and interesting. They seemed very realistic. They were effective at illustrating various points the authors wished to make. While this book is targeted more to owners and sellers, it would be very beneficial for any potential business buyers to read. It makes clear many areas to be probed so that there are not unpleasant surprises later on.

... The book is quite inexpensive and the valuation service, although it sounds expensive at ... is inexpensive and fast compared to any other alternatives. The ways in which the information the valuation process yields can be used are amply demonstrated in the various examples. The authors are also available for consultation as part of the package and there are options to tailor services to meet a specific legal need.

This book has the potential to save a business owner a tremendous amount of money if he or she plans to maximize the value of their business for 3-5 years prior to a projected sale, rather than manage their business in their usual way. It's a great resource to help business owners (and/or their families)prepare for transitions! Buy it and read it if you are a small business owner now or are considering becoming one!

This book about valuing one's business - in my case, an S Corporation; essentially, however a partnership - is worth far more than its cost - exponentially more.

In the few short hours it took me to read it initially, I came to view new angles about our company that I'd not even considered before. As we studied the work further, both my partner and I developed a clearer understanding of how others may evaluate the level of our business success when we reach the point of wanting to sell the company. And, there are real life ideas spread throughout the book that will aid us in valuing the business when that time comes, as well as helping direct us to the kinds of buyers to whom the business would be worth more than to others in the general community.

Several real life-like examples of companies going through the process of being valued, sold and bought were eye-openers, too. We have a more clear understanding of the fact that valuation done by several different firms or accountants will usually yield several different sets of valuation numbers. Now we also know how we might interpret these results. The authors, too, explained in some detail how we could increase our firm's (or anyones' firms) real and perceived value as we ready to transition ourselves to retirement when we sell. Seeing the different results yielded by "value maximization strategies" versus "tax minimization" ones have led us to begin revising part of the fundamental foundation upon which our business has rested the last 15 years.

When the time comes for us to obtain updated business valuations for our firm, we now know where we can go for good information - bizownerHQ - and see how we can effectively use that information when the time comes to act on it.

Finally, I should note that the book isn't completely "dry" as some might expect. Stories of companies undergoing valuation, in the process of being bought and sold, were in some cases amusing and entertaining, probably because the stories describe processes all of us who own businesses have been through on many occasions ourselves! An enjoyable read on top of the big information value make this a terrific buy for any small business owner.

I just picked up a copy of this book because I needed to know the value of a family business. I thought I could just pick a formula and presto that would be the number. After reading this book, and going over the case studies, I now know differently. There is a lot more involved than randomly assigning a value to your company. And this book showed me how. Its straight forward approach and readability will now let me see what I need to do in order to maximize the value of the company. Thanks for the tips!

I have just completed the purchase of a small business with less than 1 million in sales and 6 employees. Reading and reviewing this book as I went through the negotiation process was extremely valuable in helping to understand the seller's motivations and valuation assumptions.

I am also using this book as a guide for how to maximize the value of the business that I now own. And I expect that it will pay off handsomely in the long run.

Buy this book if you're a seller contemplating sale, or a buyer contemplating purchase.

An excellent book for not only explaining the technical side of valuing a small business, but giving the small business owner a framework for thinking strategically about how they should be running their business. It is too easy to get caught up in the day to day operations of a small business and this book helps one focus on the longer range goals.

All this is done with case studies, which are enjoyable to read and drive the points home in a way that is easy to understand.

I would recommend this book to anyone who owns or is thinking about getting involved in a small business.

This book is a breath of fresh air in the complicated world of business valuation. As an entrepreneur looking to purchase a business, this book clearly explained valuation methods in a way that was not complicated and I did not have to be a Ph.D. to understand it. When I become a business owner, this book also provided me with great advice on how to increase the value of my business. In short, I learned a lot and I know that I will be a better business owner because of it.

There is one and only reason that these people wrote this book, and it is to promote their website, that does business valuations, www.bizownerhq.com. It's funny, because I went to this website once, but it was really confusing. The book, however, isn't confusing.

Basically, their service is a $600 online business valuation where you type in your financials and answer an online questionnaire, and it spits out how much the value of your business is.

However, they do provide a lot of content. And, this has some excellent stuff in it. It's mostly financial content related to maximizing the value of your business in a sale. But, that's the kind of thing that you really need if you're selling a business.

I think that most business owners will probably pick up this book too late. The book recommends that you start your preparations to sell at least 3 years before you actually want to sell. This is targeted toward small business owners, and I've never met a small business owner who really plans that far in advance. Most people like that become medium-sized business owners very soon after they start planning.

One weird thing about the book--the appendices are included after every chapter. I would recommend that you skip over them--they just regurgitate what was in the chapter. I wish they would have been all lumped into the back of the book, like they are with most books. I like to read books all the way through, and so having an appendix after each chapter was distracting.

I just finished reading What Every Business Owner Should Know About Valuing Their Business. As a partner in a midsized insurance agency, I found the case studies to be very thought provoking as we begin thinking about ways to increase the value of our business toward our ultimate goal of selling the business as a means of funding our retirement. Although we found the insurance agency case to be the most interesting, the other case studies were also very helpful in illustrating different valuation related concepts. I would highly recommend this book to any business owner who would like to learn more about various elements that drive valuation. This book would also be helpful for people buying a business so that they can get a better understanding of the thought process of both sellers and buyers.

I was contemplating buying a small sales and service business from the owner where I worked for several years. Axiom's book and resulting suport helped me decide not to buy the business or spend any extra money on evaluation fee's or accountants and lawyers. They recommended that I would be better off investing my money in my own start up and indeed this is what I did.
I found the book well organized and it points the reader to the appropriate section based on the valuation needed.
The case study method was very straight forward with specific financials and valuation results.
The book gave me an understanding of the discounted cash flow method and why it is best.
After reading the book I called Axiom and after the free consultation I was advised that in my case the evaluation was not warranted as the company only had liquidation value and was not a going concern.
I would recommend that if you are selling or purchasing, read this book first and by all means get your free consulation.
Canadian Client.

The book contains some useful examples and case studies but overall feels like advertising for author's valuation website.
A lot of information is repeated in several places.