Exit and Succession Planning

March 10, 2024

Unlocking Your Business’s Potential: The 7 Key Reasons for Valuing a Business

Understanding the valuation of the business is critical to the owners of closely held business in planning and management.
Closely held business owners typically have most of their personal wealth tied up in their company, but rarely know the current value of the enterprise.
Current valuation data is important for strategic planning, dispute avoidance, insurance purchases and tax compliance.

Business Valuation for Closely Held Business Owners

Understanding the value of your business is critical to the management and operation of a business, to protecting the value of the business, and to planning for the future. Many owners see valuation as an issue that you need to look at at certain stages in the life of the business—wwhen someone dies or gets divorced, when it’s sold, or when there’s a tax issue.

That value, however, doesn’t consider other, crucial reasons why valuation is necessary for the business owner. The reasons are both defensive and offensive. For example, you cannot know how much insurance you need for your business if you’re just guessing about what it’s worth. You need this information for the defensive purpose of protecting your investment.

Tools that You can Use

How much is your business worth today?
You can get an immediate estimate of a range of values here.

We counsel clients on the valuation issues in their business. Contact me with with questions.

Offensively, business valuation is a strategic tool that offers insight, guides decisions, and uncovers opportunities for growth.

Business owners, on average, have about 80 percent of their personal assets tied up in their businesses. But only 30 percent of the owners of closely held businesses have a clear picture of what the business is worth. Continue reading

March 8, 2024

Closely Held Businesses Can Use Agreements to Protect Value

by Jay R. McDaniel, Esq.

Agreements that limit former employees from soliciting customers or disclosing confidential information are critical to protecting the value of a closely held business.
Restrictive covenants and non-compete agreements are difficult to enforce and must be carefully drafted to assure that they are enforceable.
Closely held businesses should rely more heavily on contracts to prohibit solicitation and disclosures.

Restrictive covenants such as non-compete and non-solicitation agreements are vital to the stability of a closely-held business. Let’s examine how these agreements can be used to protect the value in the most important drivers of value, the intangible assets in your businesses.

Female-entrepreneur-signing-514339-1024x683

Female entrepreneur in casualwear sitting at wooden table and signing contract after successful completion of negotiations with business partner, close-up shot

Intangible assets are things like intellectual property, customer relationships, and proprietary information. Businesses can prevent employees or rivals from misappropriating these assets by implementing effective restrictive covenants.

Securing these intangible assets is essential in the business world for preserving a competitive edge, achieving long-term success, and increasing a company’s worth.

Contact me to answer your questions about restrictive covenants and how they should be used in your closely held business.

Are Restrictive covenants Becoming Unenforceable?

The restrictive covenant, however, is under attack from a number of sources. They may be difficult to enforce and in some states unlawful. Continue reading

March 5, 2024

Intangible Capital Holds the Key to Value in Closely Held Businesses

by Jay R. McDaniel, Esq.

Intangible Capital are the elements that define a company’s real earnings capacity and its value.
The Exit Planning Institute recognizes four intangile capitals in a business: human capital, structural capital, customer capital and social capital.
Intangible capital is closely tied to the intangible assets of a business, which commonly represents 80 percent of the value of a business.

We talk a great deal about how the most important assets of your business are those that can’t be seen or touched. I want to discuss something that exIt planners refer to as intangible capital. Intangible capital groups your intangibles into four classes that a business owner can identify, strengthen, and, in the process, grow their companies and make it more valuable.

Understanding Intangible Assets and Their Effect on Value

The most important and valuable assets of almost every business are the intangibles. They’re something that you can’t find on a balance sheet, but something that you need to understand, protect, and cultivate.

And they are critical to the business owner who is seeking to maximize the value of the business and who is planning an exit strategy.

Tangible assets are things like machinery, real estate, inventory, intangible assets, or things like intellectual property, patents, trademarks, copyright, brand recognition, customer relationships, goodwill, unique processes, and other kinds of proprietary technology. Continue reading

Understanding the valuation of the business is critical to the owners of closely held business in planning and management.

Closely held business owners typically have most of their personal wealth tied up in their company, but rarely know the current value of the enterprise.

Current valuation data is important for strategic planning, dispute avoidance, insurance purchases and tax compliance.

Tools that You can Use

Agreements that limit former employees from soliciting customers or disclosing confidential information are critical to protecting the value of a closely held business.

Restrictive covenants and non-compete agreements are difficult to enforce and must be carefully drafted to assure that they are enforceable.

Closely held businesses should rely more heavily on contracts to prohibit solicitation and disclosures.

Are Restrictive covenants Becoming Unenforceable?

Intangible Capital are the elements that define a company’s real earnings capacity and its value.

The Exit Planning Institute recognizes four intangile capitals in a business: human capital, structural capital, customer capital and social capital.

Intangible capital is closely tied to the intangible assets of a business, which commonly represents 80 percent of the value of a business.

Understanding Intangible Assets and Their Effect on Value