We need three years of financial statements (Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Statement).

The accuracy of your valuation estimate depends on the quality and completeness of the financial and operational data provided, as well as the current market conditions and industry benchmarks at the time of the valuation.

We use a combination of:

✅ Your recast EBITDA (to reflect true cash flow)

✅ Current industry multiples (sourced from the DealStats database)

✅ Comparable recent sales in your industry

✅ Business-specific factors like customer concentration, recurring revenue, management strength, and market position

Because a business valuation reflects a snapshot in time, it can change as your business grows, your financial performance shifts, or market conditions fluctuate.

For example:

• If your EBITDA increases and your business processes become more efficient, your valuation could rise.

• If the market becomes more competitive or economic conditions decline, it could reduce the multiple buyers are willing to pay.

That’s why it’s important to treat your valuation not as a fixed number, but as a benchmark that helps you adjust your strategy and maximize long-term value.

A Fair Market Valuation (FMV) performed by a CPA is typically focused on compliance and reporting purposes, such as:

• Tax planning and reporting

• Estate planning

• Partner buyouts or shareholder disputes

• Divorce settlements

• Gift valuations

A CPA’s FMV valuation is often more conservative and based heavily on historical financial performance and IRS-defined guidelines. It assumes a hypothetical transaction between a "willing buyer and a willing seller" under normal market conditions — but it typically doesn't account for strategic value or future growth potential.

How the Market-Based Valuation We Do is Different From FMV

Forward-Looking vs. Historical – While a CPA’s FMV focuses on historical data, our valuation takes into account future growth potential by identifying opportunities to improve profitability and scalability.

Strategic Value vs. Compliance Value – We assess how attractive your business would be to strategic buyers — those willing to pay a premium for strong processes, recurring revenue, a solid customer base, and market leadership.

Recast EBITDA – We adjust your EBITDA to reflect the true cash flow a buyer would receive — including removing discretionary expenses and non-operational costs.

Industry Multiples and Market Trends – We use data from the DealStats database to compare your business’s performance to recent transactions in your industry, allowing us to apply a more strategic multiple.

Readiness and Attractiveness Factors – We evaluate factors like management strength, customer concentration, competitive advantages, and process scalability — elements that strategic buyers care about when determining value.

Strategy-Focused vs. Compliance-Focused:

A CPA’s Fair Market Valuation gives you a number for compliance purposes. Our valuation process provides the foundation for a strategy — showing you how to increase that number by improving your business’s readiness and attractiveness to buyers while helping you understand what your business could be worth if it performed at a best-in-class level.

Faster and Less Expensive
Our market-based valuation process is typically faster, easier, and less expensive than a FMV valuation. This gives you the information you need quickly while also providing a perspective on how you could increase your valuation.

Think of it this way:

A CPA tells you what your business is worth today based on the past.

We tell you what your business could be worth — and how to get there.

That’s why many business owners start with a strategic valuation like ours before seeking a formal FMV for tax or legal purposes.

We don’t believe in delivering a report that just sits in a drawer. Our goal isn’t to just hand you a number — it’s to give you a clear, actionable roadmap to increase the value of your business. That’s why we back our service with a 100% Actionable Guarantee:

✅ If you don’t walk away from our valuation process with specific, actionable insights on how to increase your business’s value — you don’t pay.

✅ If the recommendations we provide aren’t clear, practical, and directly tied to increasing your business’s profitability, scalability, or market attractiveness — you don’t pay.

Most business owners find tremendous value before we even calculate the valuation. The conversations we have during the initial consultations often surface hidden opportunities and overlooked challenges that immediately shift how you see your business.

For example:

• You might realize that a small adjustment to your pricing strategy could improve your EBITDA by 10% — which could significantly increase your valuation multiple.

• You might uncover that a key customer concentration issue is holding back your valuation — and discover a strategy to fix it.

• You may discover that your business is undervalued simply because of inefficiencies in your sales process — and find immediate ways to streamline it.

Our process isn’t about just assigning a value — it’s about helping you see the bigger picture of what’s driving (or holding back) your business’s value. The report you receive is more than a valuation — it’s a strategic playbook for increasing the worth of your business.

If you don’t walk away with real, actionable next steps that you can immediately apply to improve your business — you don’t pay. That’s our promise.

We determine your multiple based on a combination of industry benchmarks, business-specific factors, and buyer perception:

Industry Benchmarking: We use real-time data from the DealStats database to establish the typical range of multiples for your industry.

Business Quality: Higher profitability, recurring revenue, diversified customer base, and strong management increase your multiple.

Risk and Transferability: Lower risk — like a business that isn’t dependent on the owner — increases the multiple.

If similar businesses sell for 4x to 8x EBITDA, we help you understand why you’re at a certain point in that range — and how to move higher.