The Minnesota Business Valuation Group is proud of its ability to deliver robust / defensible valuations of businesses and intangible assets. Randy Schostag manages valuation for MBVG; he is joined by Laurel Sorensen, a Certified Public Accountant and Accredited Valuation Analyst. They are supported by additional professionals provided by Olsen Thielen & Co., Ltd. (See Staff and Other Support.) MBVG also has several Affiliates with whom it conducts joint projects, hands of specialized projects, and relies on to give peer review.
MBVG is qualified to provide valuations for most of your needs: shareholder disputes or settlements, divorce, goodwill impairment analysis, purchase price allocation, ESOP valuations, options pricing analysis, transaction analyses for buying or selling, and multiple other applications.
MBVG has professionals who are certified by all of the accrediting organizations: the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA), the Institute of Certified Business Appraisers (CBA), the American Society of Appraisers (ASA), the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts (AVA & CVA), and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
MBVG is often asked to “just give us an idea of what the value is. We’re not looking for a complete valuation.” The question arises in the context of a business value or intangible asset value assessment.
A complete, robust, and defensible business valuation is not cheap. We are not asked to do valuations because someone is curious. Usually there is a reason the valuation is needed. A simple business valuation may cost from $6,000 to $20,000. We are asked to do them mostly for compliance reasons such as litigation support, goodwill impairment analyses, purchase price allocation, commercial or business damages, and / or for ESOP implementations or annual review. They require employing three approaches: the income approach, the market approach, and the asset-based approach. They require many hours of detail work, looking at the company, its industry, its place in the economy, and its future. This all requires many hours of detail and cross-checking. There is no shortcut.
As certified appraisers, we cannot offer you an "expert" business valuation within the acceptable parameters of either the Uniform Standards of Professional Practice or our accrediting organizations without completing all the appropriate due diligence that is required to deliver a determination of value that we can defend. However, we have noted that several off-the-shelf software packages that are now advertised profess to do such a complete valuation. We are able to provide you with "consulting services", meaning we are not independent, and we are also able to provide you with "Restricted Usage" reports and "Calculations" so that you and your Company management are better able to understand value drivers and value creation within your business or one you may be considering purchasing. You simply understand that in this capacity, our work is advisory in nature instead of independent.
MBVG has reviewed many of the software packages for doing this kind of analysis, and we believe that most of them are very misleading in the valuation conclusions that they offer without providing an appropriate disclaimer about the probable limitations on the values that they produce.
MBVG and other credible valuation organizations know that there is no replacement for in-depth analysis and review by an accredited appraiser. However, we also acknowledge that at times it is useful to employ standard valuation methods for corporate planning, to evaluate company performance, to identify value drivers, to assess loan decisions, and for multiple other reasons, wherein you may not need to have a full, expensive valuation.
For these reasons MBVG has joined with a vendor of a software program that we have used and reviewed, and which we believe may help you better understand the value of your business, even though the perspective is limited. The software has been developed over a period of several years by Mr. Mike Adhikari.
Business ValueXpress Software
Adhikari’s software is called “Business ValueXpress”. It uses a modified discounted cash flow model to determine a value. To some extent it is “black box” in that not all of its methods are transparent, but it obtains a value by using your forecasts of business future economic performance and assumptions about capital structure. This kind of methodology may be difficult to fully substantiate within the valuation community, but we believe that the method offers a good first glance at potential value for the corporate user and a great tool for appraisers to use as a reasonableness check against the methods that they use and the value they obtain.
This is a great “low priced” alternative to an expensive valuation. THIS WILL NOT REPLACE A VALUATION BY AN APPRAISER, BUT IT DOES PROVIDE INSIGHT INTO YOUR COMPANY VALUE. Business ValueXpress has authorized the Minnesota Business Valuation Group to make this software available for only $500.00, that is a discount from the $600.00 list price, for introductory clients.
The fee for this license is good for a one-year term and is fully supported by Business ValueXpress. MBVG has worked with Adhikari for several years, and we are confident that he will assist you in learning how to use the system. If you need hands-on help or tutoring, MBVG will work with you to learn to use the system for $1,000 for a one-day session. As another alternative, for those "very small" businesses with $600,000 or less in revenues (and not simply in ramp up), we will use this software and provide certain clients with a consulting work product at very competitive prices. All of this work will be based on teaching you about the value drivers in the business you are buying or selling. The work product WILL NOT REPLACE a complete due diligence appraisal and will not provide sufficient detail for you to "hand to someone else". But the work product will be priced to fit your more important needs about learning how to undertand the value drivers and what information you should obtain to make certain decisions.
To obtain a 30-day evaluation copy of the software alone, we will supply it for only $15.00. Pay here and then download your copy at Business ValueXpress order.
To order the license to activate the evaluation copy and use its full features, submit payment now, and receive a special discount.
Business ValueXpress software for $500.00, a $100.00 discount for customers of the Minnesota Business Valuation Group.
If you would like MBVG to conduct a limited investigation of a business for purchase / sale or for other purposes, call us at 800.303.2889 or 612.240.0309 or email us at MBVG. MBVG has designed this service especially for small businesses and small business brokers who can't afford to pay for a full investigation and report, but who appreciate that the "canned valuations" that they are now purchasing from southern United States based "valuation factories" are very deceptive and prepared without sufficient on site due diligence or using obsolete models.
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