Business Owners:  You are cordially invited to attend the Walking to Destiny Workshop in Los Angeles on October 14th.   Read More

You are cordially invited to participate in an Exit Planning Awareness Event. Within the next 20 years, in excess of 90 million people in the United States and Canada will be retiring (the baby boomer generation born between 1946 and 1964). It is estimated that one of every two privately held businesses will transition during this period, representing in excess of $10 trillion in wealth, the largest wealth transfer in the history of mankind.
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How would you answer the following three questions?
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Despite concerns about the continuing strength of the economy, middle market companies have shown remarkable pricing resilience -- however, nothing good lasts forever.  Although valuations appear to be holding steady, the number of middle market sale transactions declined to a 20 year low for the month of January 2016.  This result indicates that buyers are becoming cautious about completing transactions.  If this uncertainty persists, history shows us that valuations will go down.   As a result, if you or your clients have been thinking about selling, now is the time.  Read More

Selling a business is the most popular exit strategy for business owners.  In some cases, there are no successors who want to continue the business; in others, it was always the business owner's plan to sell the business at a certain point in time.  Whatever the reason for wanting to sell, the following considerations for the sale of a business will help to sell the business and secure the best sales price for the company.  Read More

Webinar: Setting the valuation of your early-stage food company with valuation expert, Melisa Silverman, hosted by Food Centricity.  On Wednesday, September 30, 2015 from 11:00 am - 12:00 pm PT, Melisa Silverman, President of Avenue M Advisors®, Inc., will explore business valuations for start up companies, share examples of recent business valuations, the reasons for the valuations, the value that business valuations can provide and the results to each business. Read More

There are many reasons that a business owner or individual may need to know the value of a business.  The standard of value that is typically utilized is fair market value.  The fair market value standard consists of an independent buyer and seller having the requisite knowledge and facts, not being under any undue influence or stressors and having access to all of the information to make an informed decision.  Below are 25 common reasons that a business owner or individual may need a business valuation:  Read More

The U.S. Department of Labor has a 2014 initiative to closely examine and scrutinize ESOP valuations. The U.S. government is increasing their scrutiny of business valuations of ESOPs (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) within sponsoring companies as a result of the inflated values and per share discrepancies in values in recent years.  The Labor Department is currently involved in 15+ lawsuits, most of them involving business valuations as the central issue in dispute.  The claims include deliberate inflation of values harming the ESOP Plan and the participating members of the plan.  Read More

In the past, most companies focused on their tangible assets such as buildings, equipment, receivables, inventory, etc., as composing the value of the business.  Not much attention was paid to intangible assets.  In recent years, this has changed and companies realize that their most important assets consist of their intangible assets such as brands, technology, patents, trademarks, proprietary processes, etc.  Some leading corporate brands today include such companies as Apple, Google, Disney, Coca Cola and Nike to name a few and they are aware of and focus intricately on their brands.   Read More

Do you know the value of the Intangible Assets in your company?   What are Intangible Assets?  There are two types of intangible assets:  Read More