Do you know what your business is worth?
I used to collect hockey cards: Guy Lafleur, Darryl Sittler, Tony Esposito, Wayne Gretzky in his rookie year — I had all of the biggies for a kid growing up in the late 1970s.
As time went on, I kept them in perfect condition nestled under the clothes in my dresser drawer. Since then, I've lived in eight different places, travelled, married and had kids, and those hockey cards are still with me. I've always wondered what they might be worth, yet I have never had them appraised.
I did the same thing with the businesses I have owned: I kept them, nurtured them, but never had them appraised until it was time to sell. Todd Taskey, a mergers and acquisitions professional with Stonecroft Capital, thinks that's a mistake: “Business owners will meet with their financial planner once or twice a year but rarely meet with someone who can accurately assess the value of their business.”
Mr. Taskey, based in Washington, D.C., continues: “If you have $200,000 in your investment account and a business worth $3-million, why are you meeting with your investment adviser annually yet rarely meet with someone who can help you value and grow your largest asset?”
Maybe I will have those cards appraised.
Special to the Globe and Mail
John Warrillow is the author of Built To Sell: Turn Your Business Into One You Can Sell . Throughout his career as an entrepreneur, Mr. Warrillow has started and exited four companies. Most recently he transformed Warrillow & Co. from a boutique consultancy into a recurring revenue model subscription business, which he sold to The Corporate Executive Board in 2008. He is the author of Drilling for Gold and in 2008 was recognized by BtoB Magazine's “Who's Who” list as one of America's most influential business-to-business marketers.
