Introduction

If you own a business, it’s probably one of your most valuable and prized assets. If you advise people who own businesses, don’t underestimate you’re dealing with “their baby” and you better know what you’re doing or you won’t be advising this client for long.

Knowing the value of a business can change the life of a business owner – especially over time.

If a property developer has access to property valuation data, they make better decisions and build more wealth over time. If a CEO has access to their share price valuation data, they make better decisions and build more wealth over time. It’s no different for the millions of small and medium size business owners – knowing valuation data equals better decisions and more wealth.

Perhaps you don’t know the worth of your business or your clients businesses. Maybe you’re afraid of what it will show. Maybe you don’t have the spare $7,500.00 or the four weeks it traditionally takes to focus on an offline business valuation assessment.

Until recently, no software or service that could help you understand your value in a fast, simple, and cost effective way existed. As a result, 98% of all businesses on the planet have not been independently valued.

Think about it: there are software apps that tell you the value of your car, your house and your lawnmower but nothing that helps you to understand the value of the most important asset for many people – the value of their business.

That has all changed now, with the launch of BizEquity. Access to valuation data is a revolution for privately held businesses; it has already affected the lives of small business owners and their advisors.

In this book, I’ve brought together some of the best minds I know to share their knowledge. It is my pleasure to coauthor this book with two good friends and colleagues who happen to be two of the smartest people I know in the area of business value; best-selling author Daniel Priestley is well known for the brilliant entrepreneurial insights that he shares with his legion of social media followers and readers; and Scott Gabehart is one of the most recognized experts on business valuation, and the author of The Business Valuation Book.