A Conversation About the Importance of Business Valuations

Most owners only think about valuation when they’re forced to…a sale offer arrives, a partner wants out, or you’re looking to minimize the IRS’s participation in your company’s value. By then, it’s often too late to plan.
Join Jill Arena and Mike Zeleznik as they discuss valuing a business as they flip the script: why getting ahead of the valuation question…before you need the answer… is one of the smartest moves an owner can make.

• How to Sell on Your Terms: Know your number years before you put the attempt to sell the company, so you can build value strategically instead of scrambling at the last minute.
• Attract Investors & Capital: Walk into conversations with banks, partners, and investors already armed with credible numbers.
• Plan Your Legacy Early: Structure a smooth transfer to a family member or a successor, with a defensible valuation the IRS respects.
• Protect Yourself Before Disputes Arise: Divorce, partnership disagreements, and shareholder disputes are far easier to navigate when a baseline valuation already exists.
• Make Smarter Decisions Year After Year: Track your growth, benchmark against competitors, and spot the right moment for an M&A opportunity or ESOP instead of guessing.

You don’t have to be selling, splitting, or in trouble to benefit from knowing what your business is worth. In fact, that’s exactly why you shouldn’t wait.

• Owners Selling the Business (or bringing in a buyer/investor): An owner planning to sell needs a defensible, market-supported number to set an asking price, negotiate credibly, and avoid leaving money on the table or overpricing and scaring off buyers.
• Owners Raising Capital or Bringing in a Partner (or Buyer/Investor): Investors, banks, and private equity firms usually want an independent valuation before they’ll commit funds or equity stakes, both to size their investment and to confirm the terms are fair.
• Any Owner Contemplating Estate Planning, Gifting, or Succession: When transferring ownership to family members or a management team, or planning for estate taxes, a formal valuation establishes the fair market value the IRS and courts will expect, and helps structure buy-sell agreements or trusts properly.
• Owners with Legal or Dispute-Related Matters: Divorce settlements, shareholder disputes, partnership dissolutions, or litigation often require a valuation to divide assets fairly or support a legal claim. Courts typically want a valuation performed by a credentialed, independent expert.
• Owners Currently in the Throws of Strategic and/or Internal Decision-Making: Owners often want to simply know where they stand to track growth, benchmark against competitors, evaluate a merger or acquisition opportunity, set up an ESOP (employee stock ownership plan), or make informed decisions about the company’s future direction.
• Owners Curious about Tax Compliance: Gift/estate tax filings, C-corp to S-corp conversions, or 409A valuations for stock option pricing often forces the issue even when the owner isn’t otherwise thinking about value.

Jill Arena (CEPA) is an award-winning Business Development Expert and M&A Intermediary. Jill has helped executives and business owners reach organic and acquisition growth goals for over 25 years.

Michael Zeleznik boasts over over 34 years of experience as a CPA and is a licensed life insurance advisor. His expertise is broad and relates to business and estate planning, wealth transfer, business succession planning, business valuation, estate and income taxation, and litigation as a consultant/expert witness.

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