The Value Protection Study is a written read of how a buyer would price your business, what could lower that price, and what can still be done about it. It takes five business days from the day we have your documents and have spoken with you once. It comes at no cost, with no engagement letter and no commitment.
Why it exists
You know the business better than anyone. You know which customers call you by name, which years were hard, and what it took to make payroll through them. A buyer knows none of that. A buyer reads three years of statements, the tax returns and a handful of agreements, and prices what those papers can prove.
The distance between those two views is where value is lost, often late in a negotiation. The study puts the buyer's reading in front of you early, in private, while every finding is still yours to act on.
It earns its place whether or not a sale is on your calendar. Most of what a buyer looks for is also what makes a company easier to run, to finance and to hand to the next generation.
Who it is for
The study answers one question for three different owners: how would a buyer read this company today, and what would change that reading?
Whether the horizon is one year or five, the study shows which items a buyer would question first, and how much time each one takes to put right.
A business you plan to hold still needs to be transferable. The study shows what your family or partners would be handing a buyer if ownership had to change on a timeline nobody chose.
Before you price someone else's company, see how a lender and a future buyer would read yours. The discipline that protects a sale also sharpens an acquisition.
What you receive
The study is built to stand on its own. You can read it alone, share it with your spouse or your accountant, and act on it without a meeting.
What it examines
Every company is different, and so is every study. These six areas account for much of what a buyer's review turns up.
Real costs that run through the company with no file behind them. A buyer adds back only what is documented, by category and by year.
Cash-basis reporting without a monthly close is common and workable. A buyer and their bank will want accrual figures and a monthly close they can test.
Where the company leases property from an entity the owner controls, a buyer will ask whether the rent matches the market and whether a signed lease exists.
A buyer prices the company as if a hired manager ran it. Pay above that level can be added back, with support a buyer's accountant will accept.
A settlement, an unusual year, a single large job. Each can be set aside from ongoing earnings, with the invoices and paperwork to show it will not recur.
How the company is organized shapes what a sale leaves in your hands. It is best examined well before any transfer, with your own accountant and attorney.
What we need from you
The study is designed to take very little of your time. Most of what it needs already sits with your accountant.
Who sees it
The study is prepared for you and delivered to you. If an accountant, attorney or wealth advisor introduced you, they receive a copy only with your permission. Many owners find it useful to read it together with them.
Nobody else is contacted. Your employees, customers, lenders and competitors hear nothing from us, and nothing in the study is used to approach anyone on your behalf.
What it is, precisely
The study is an advisory analysis of how buyers price companies like yours. It is not an appraisal, and it is not an opinion of value for a lender, a court, an estate or a gift. Where one of those is required, your own counsel retains a credentialed appraiser, and the study can sit alongside that work.
There is no engagement letter, no invoice and no obligation. The study is yours to keep and to use with any advisor, whatever you decide next.
What happens after
A good study often ends with your accountant doing the work, and that is a good outcome.
Related
Questions
Because a written study is the clearest way for an owner to judge how we think before deciding whether to work with us. Many owners act on it with their own accountant. Some later ask us for more. Both outcomes are good ones.
No. Owners who intend to hold, to pass the company to family or to grow by acquisition use it too. Nobody is contacted, and nothing is set in motion.
Five business days from the day we have your documents and have spoken with you once. The conversation is usually the longest wait, so it helps to have a time in mind when you write to us.
No. It is an advisory analysis of how a buyer would price the company. Where a lender, court, estate or gift requires an appraisal, your counsel retains a credentialed appraiser, and the study can sit alongside that work.
Yes, with your written consent. Owners are busy, and your accountant usually holds everything the study needs. We send your CPA a short questionnaire to return with the documents.
The people at Cordis preparing your study, and the service providers bound to confidentiality that support its work. No buyer or investor sees it, and the advisor who introduced you receives a copy only with your permission.
Then you know while there is still time to address it, which is the purpose of the study. Each finding comes with the document or change that answers it, and with the person best placed to make it.
Yes. The study is yours to keep and to share with anyone you choose.
Send one note. A senior member of the firm replies within one business day, and the study begins when your documents arrive.
A written read of how a buyer will see your company.