What is your business worth? What are you worth?

The best way to determine this is through a business valuation audit by Alexander, Aronson, Finning & Co., P.C. It's a process akin to estate planning for a business.

For whatever the reason, closely held companies, as well as individuals, often find they must have an official valuation of their business. For example, you may need to:

• Reduce a total estate for resulting estate taxes in the event of the death of the owner or major partner;
• Determine a value in the event the sale of the business is required;
• Split assets equitably for the purposes of settling a divorce; or
• Establish an Employee Stock Owner Plan (ESOP).

• If there is a publicly traded company that is similar to yours, both can be compared for valuation purposes;
• If yours is a capital intensive business, i.e., equipment, trucks, machinery, AAF can determine a valuation of assets; or
• Through the income approach, earnings of the past few years can be taken into consideration and projected into the future.

Consideration of other factors, such as the state of the local and national economy, potential for what the client does, competition, where the industry cycle is, and the age of the client all will come in play.