You’ve been working on the sale of your business for months now. All the work, not just to complete this sale but to build a business someone else actually wants to buy, is about to pay off.

You hold your breath as the sales agent slides a piece of paper across the desk towards you…with a number completely different than you’d negotiated!

“As you know, we did a final business valuation last week to determine the final sale price for the closing today,” she explains. “After reviewing all of your records, we have determined that the value decreased from our initial estimate a year ago. As a result, the sale price will be 25% lower than we originally planned.”

What happened to the profitable sale you worked so hard for?!

You’ve decided to create an exit plan, and now it’s time to find out how much your business is worth. What if the value comes in lower than you expected? In this week’s Insights article, we talk about common issues that contribute to a low business valuation and how to move forward.

You’ve been reading our series and have decided to do some exit planning. You’ve audited your time, started planning for your free time, and have an idea how much money you’ll need for the next chapter. Now it’s time to find out what your business is worth now, so you can create a plan to get it to the value you need it to be. This week’s article shares the information you need to gather for a professional valuation, and what to do if you don’t have that information ready.

How do you determine the value of a business? We discuss four methods for determining value, along with the variables and complexities that valuation professionals must factor in. You can address some of these factors ahead of time to set yourself up for the best result.