Your business may be your most valuable asset, so it’s important to have a proper understanding of its value. When you know what your business is worth, you have a more realistic perspective from which to plan for the future direction of the business, as well as the future income needs of you and your family. Once you know the value, you can put in place more effective strategies for future business growth, succession planning, retirement planning, and estate planning. (Resources for business owners & their business - MassMutual)
Benchmarking is for planning
Our process identifies quantitative and qualitative valuation measures for your business. These are important factors that assist you in:
Credit management and gaining access to capital
Risk management to protect your financial plans
Quality of life management for the owners
Business Value in the eyes of an acquirer
What to focus on in creating and adding value to your business
Application of quantity vs quality factors: Growth vs. Value
We live in a business world where growth is worshipped. Entrepreneurs measure themselves by how many people they employ. Many founders dream about making lists whose sole criterion is revenue growth.
However, if your endgame is to sell your business to a strategic acquirer one day, indiscriminate revenue growth may not result in a commensurate spike in your company’s value; in some cases, it may even detract from it.
Strategic Buyers Value What They Cannot Replace
Strategic acquirers—the buyers that usually pay the most—are looking for something they can’t easily do themselves. They covet that unique offering that would take too long—or cost too much—for them to duplicate. But the more extraneous offerings you add, the less valuable you become in their eyes.
Take Michael Lieberman, who co-founded a software company named Datastay. It revolutionized how brake manufacturers cataloged their design drawings through its product lifecycle management software. Datastay became synonymous with the brake manufacturing industry. Lieberman was on a first-name basis with almost every brake manufacturing executive in the industry. He was the man to know, the one who hosted dinners at trade shows—he was the guy.
Then Autodesk entered the picture, seeing Datastay as their gateway to the product lifecycle management software market. Autodesk, a billion dollar serial acquirer renowned for software tools indispensable to designers and builders across various sectors, acknowledged Datastay’s dominance in the brake industry and saw the potential to market Datastay’s product lifecycle management software across the myriad industries Autodesk served.
Autodesk offered Lieberman an extraordinary ten times revenue for his nine-employee company.
Had Lieberman prioritized broad revenue growth, he might have diversified his offerings to the brake manufacturers, diluting the core value that attracted Autodesk. Brake manufacturers need all sorts of other software, but Lieberman remained disciplined and focused exclusively on product lifecycle management tools.
Lieberman could have branched out to other industries, but spreading his attention to other industries would have weakened his connection to the brake industry and invited competition.
Instead, he stuck to his knitting: Make the world’s best product lifecycle management software for the brake industry.
Private Equity and Strategic Acquirers See Things Differently
Unlike the private equity acquirer that usually bases their valuation on a multiple of your Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA), the typical strategic acquirer is trying to calculate what your product or service offering is worth in their hands.
The typical strategic acquirer is much larger and better resourced than the companies they target. They don’t need you to diversify for them. Instead, they want the company that has the one puzzle piece they want, and the less diversified that offering is, the higher the premium they’re prepared to pay.
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