Owner: What about me selling to trusted employees?

Recently, we've had several clients start down a path of selling their companies to a group of trusted employees. Which is understandable. Many of these companies owe much of their success to key employees, and the owners want to reward them. Plus, owners are positioned to establish a legacy by...

A Stock Market Valuation Pocket Guide

When I meet with company managements, it usually becomes quickly evident how vast the gulf is between how the talking heads on CNBC speak...and what I would call business "generalists"; i.e., everybody else. When discussing a firm's probable valuation, I'll sometimes refer to sector valuations in the public marketplace. When...

How to Make Your Company More Valuable

We meet new business owners in a wide variety of business sectors virtually every week. The companies’ sales and profitability levels, and overall success are all over the map.  During our conversations, I usually ask the owner if he/she has an idea of their company’s value (in buyouts). More often...

COVID 19 and Business Valuations

We are getting a lot of questions from business owners who wonder what impact the Pandemic is having on the value of their businesses. While it is impossible to give a blanket answer, we would like to share some 30,000-foot dynamics that likely apply to most businesses. First, we believe...

Do You Really Need a Business Valuation?

This may seem like a strange question to be posed by a valuation shop. To be sure, there are excellent reasons why a valuation is very valuable. For instance, if a business (or marital) split is imminent and assets need to be divvied-up. Or, a company may need a periodic...

How DM Buck Approaches Business Valuations

It is interesting to us how poorly understood business valuation processes are to business owners who, in turn, are the very folks who need to better understand what their businesses are worth. Knowing the value of a business is important for owners who need that information to strategize for the...

Job Loss Nightmare Points to Shutdowns

The announcement that the U.S. jobless rate surged to 14.7% in April 2020 wasn’t a big shock given COVID 19’s obvious extraordinary impact, but it was no less sad and concerning. The reverberations of an extremely cash-strapped consumer will be felt for months. The worsening economic picture has many implications...