• Practice Management - QuickRead Top Story

    What Would an Experienced Appraiser Say

    About Your BVFLS Practice? There are three ways to deliver professional services. The benefits and detriments of each are discussed in this article. The author also shares his opinion regarding what model(s) BVFLS practitioners should adopt. We’re supposed to be smart, sophisticated, experienced business appraisers who deliver insights that assess value. Why, then, do most of us operate with a one-dimensional business model? You know, the thing that generates our cash flow and having a high “practice specific risk premium.” What would an experienced appraiser say about our BVFLS practices? There are three ways to deliver professional services like ours.…

  • Mergers and Acquisitions/Exit Planning - QuickRead Top Story

    The Impact of Value on M&A Activity

    The “Market” is Not Always Right When it Comes to Value, Especially in M&A Transactions The mergers and acquisitions market began a slow recovery this last year after a sharp downturn in 2009. Was the slowdown caused by banks reducing lending activity, cash hoarding by businesses, economic uncertainty, or the simple failure of buyers and seller to agree upon price? Michael Blake takes a look at how value is variously defined—“fair market value,” “fair value,” “investment value,” and “market value”—and offers an assessment of what may prove to be the primary market M&A activity drivers going forward.

  • QuickRead Featured - Valuation/Appraisal

    Keys to Effective Presentation: Graphical Illustration of Quantitative Data

    How to graphically illustrate ratio analysis as a way to enhance and simplify summary findings. A key to providing clients with effective valuation reports—and persuading jurors as an expert witness—is the ability to provide quantitative analysis in a compelling visual fashion. Here, Greg Gadawski and Darrell Dorrell provide an example of how to graphically illustrate ratio analysis as a way to enhance and simplify summary findings.

  • Mergers and Acquisitions/Exit Planning - QuickRead Top Story

    Smart Acquisitions Drive Growth. Here’s How to Get the Owner to the Table.

    Competitive Intelligence is Key to Smart Acquisitions Part of growth is acquisition.  To do smart acquisitions, you need insight into a business owner’s thoughts—specifically, her concerns vis-à-vis selling the businesses. These are not questions with simple yes or no answers; it’s more critical to figure out what an owner thought was missing in previous acquisition overtures. What, aside from price, will it take an owner to sit down and discuss a sale?  The McLean Groups’s Zane Markowitz offers a case study and blow-by-blow analysis.