Its Approach to Approving Franchise Loan Applications This article summarizes changes implemented that affect SBA lending in the franchise context and that became effective in 2017. Within the franchise industry, financing backed by the SBA is one of the most important sources of funding for franchisees who wish to establish or grow a franchise. However, since the beginning of 2017, SBA funding within the f ...

Effective Opening Statements in Mediation What is an effective opening statement? How does one prepare such a statement? In this article, Nancy Neal Yeend, an experienced mediator, shares the steps and processes that lead to an effective opening statement and how that statement can lead to resolution of disputes. ...

Apply the Key Person Discount Is there any evidence that a key person discount exists? In this article, Steven Egna, shares his views on the subject matter and provides an illustration of the statistical basis for supporting such a discount. ...

How to Silence the Hired Gun While evidentiary rules and ethical codes issued by professional bodies like the NACVA and AICPA prohibit accounting and valuation experts from taking an advocate position, the adversarial nature of the U.S. legal system creates a market which at times demands a “hired gun” expert witness who caters their opinion of damages or business value to that which most convincingly favor ...

For Calculating Future Lost Profits Robert Dunn and Everett Harry published their oft cited Modeling and Discounting Future Damages in 2002. The article laid out the process for assessing future lost profits and discounting them to present value. They argued modeling future losses reduced the uncertainty related to the loss calculation and therefore reduced the risk premium to be included in the discount ra ...

The Adjusted Net Asset Value Method This discussion is the fifth part in a series regarding the asset-based business valuation approach. Previous discussions described the theory and application of the Asset-based Approach. And, previous discussions described the theory and application of the asset accumulation (AA) method. This discussion describes the theory and application of the adjusted net asset value ...

Asset Accumulation Illustrative Example The previous discussion in this series, part III, described the typical methodology and application of the asset accumulation (AA) method of the asset-based business valuation approach. This discussion presents an illustrative example of an AA method business valuation analysis. ...

Assess Change, Communication, Control, and Emotions before Implementing Changes Exploring change, communications, control issues, and emotions is often the best way to begin to understand what is causing conflict in the workplace, and what can be done to curb or control the situation. Once there is a basic understanding of these elements, it is much easier to develop a management strategy that constructivel ...

Strive to Differentiate Yourself and Become the Visible Expert In this article, Dr. Frederiksen discusses three sales and marketing strategies to drive growth in 2017. ...

Introduction Valuation analysts are retained to value closely held businesses, business ownership interest, and securities for a variety of transaction, financing, taxation, accounting, litigation, and planning purposes. For each engagement, analysts consider the three generally accepted business valuation approaches: the Income Approach, the Market Approach, and the Asset-based Approach. However, most anal ...

A Critique of the Ibbotson Methodology In this paper, the author argues that the Size Premium in Excess of CAPM (and other similar size premium measures) should not be used by valuation practitioners because: a) it is inconsistent with the empirical evidence; b) it is constructed using a method that is inconsistent with how practitioners estimate their CAPM cost of equity; and c) it does not properly calcul ...

Use of Benninga-Sarig to Estimate Debt Betas in a Valuation Engagement In the July 8, 2016 In re Appraisal of DFC Global Corp. Opinion (DFC Opinion), the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware suggested that debt betas should be estimated for individual companies and it cited Pratt and Grabowski’s Cost of Capital as a source for debt betas based on the firm’s credit rating. In addition, the Court also a ...

Part I of II Everyone knows there is a stock market and cannot help but hear daily updates—whether they understand it or not. Here are some basic principles and terminology that can help clients better understand the stock market and their investment decisions. ...

Negotiating, Structuring, and Reaping the Reward The authors share their views on what business owners should consider doing in anticipation of selling their business. The authors also share structuring considerations to close the transaction and reap the reward. ...

What do You Have to Lose? Since only a fraction of the cases filed go to trial, it seems prudent to explore settlement sooner rather than later. It is not rocket science, and statistics support the claim that the earlier a case settles the lower the expense to achieve that settlement. If this is not enough to encourage someone to consider mediation sooner rather than later, then perhaps recent court statist ...

After Actions Reviews A firm’s intellectual capital is the most important source of its long-term wealth creating capacity. It must be constantly replenished and created to build the firm’s invisible balance sheet. Constantly focusing on doing rather than learning, creativity, innovation, and knowledge sharing is the equivalent of eating the firm’s seed corn. In this article, Ron Baker discusses the value o ...

Marketing in the New Year In this article, Dr. Frederiksen discusses the importance of thought leadership marketing and how that differs from content marketing. ...

The New Revenue Recognition Standard and Accounting for Licenses Wiley author, Joanne Flood, looks at how the new revenue standard affects reporting of licensing revenue. Copyright Wiley, 2016. To be published in February 2017 in the book: Wiley Revenue Recognition plus Website: Understanding and Implementing the New Standard (Wiley Regulatory Reporting). ...

A Case Study (Part II of II) This is the second of a two-part article. In the first part, Dr. Needham provided factual background regarding this commercial damages case where he served as plaintiff’s damages expert—the case ultimately went to trial. In this second part, Dr. Needham describes the financial data, discovery challenges, the Daubert motion to disqualify him, how the case was decided, and then se ...

A Case Study (Part I of II) Most commercial damages assignments call for the calculation of lost profits or lost business value. However, some cases, particularly those relating to lost profits, contain elements of additional economic damages. These situations require the expert to focus on multiple areas of loss while insuring each element does not contain losses claimed by another. In this two-part articl ...