Entrepreneurs and managers of startup companies and small business often under-value the "root" value of their enterprises. Similar to how a car, if it simply runs no matter how poor its condition, has a baseline value, so does a business.

 

Continue to be of the belief that the cooling of the real estate market will be a positive for the private equity/venture capital markets - see very similar market conditio

On the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, brought to the forefront of everyone's minds naturally and unfortunately comes the discussion of the terrorism threat, both in its perception and reality.

There are three traditional valuation methodologies utilized in determining the worth for a private company.

They are:

A fundamental metric in measuring the value of a business is the degree to which it can generate recurring, repeat profitable revenue from its customers. From businesses as diverse as wireless data providers to potato chip manufacturers, the ability of a business to both consistently predict its future revenue streams and retain its existing customer base on an ongoing basis have traditionally been considered "holy grail" metrics of business value.
The unique structure of business in the 21st century, however, make building recurring revenue business models uniquely challenging:

With financial headlines dominated by the recent declines in the stock and bond markets, a creeping sense of economic foreboding has entered into the thought and decision-making processes of managers across the corporate spectrum.

The recent stock market correction, mostly triggered by both the perception and reality of a burgeoning credit crunch in the real estate sector, has driven most media coverage regarding the robustness (or lack there-of) of the overall investment markets. For managers of emerging and middle market companies, the questions that naturally are a) is this credit crunch real and will it continue and b) how will it affect their access to capital -- both debt and equity?

If history is any guide, last week's stock market correction, driven by liquidity concerns in the real estate sector, may signal (counter-intuitively, perhaps) continued strong activity in the emerging and middle market company investment arenas. Here's why:

A feature story in this week's Fortune Magazine presents the case that we are right now living in the greatest global economic boom ever. A few salient statistics from the article drives the point home:

• World GDP growth averaged 4.9% from 2003 to 2007 on a total GDP of over $36 trillion (!). To put this number in perspective, right now GDP annual growth is approximately $1.8 trillion, or an amount greater than the entire annual economic output of France, the world's 8th largest economy.

Frothy private equity markets and the desperate need of financial and strategic financiers/acquirers to identify and incentive-ize quality management partners have combined to create a heightened interest in management buyouts (MBOs). An MBO is a form of leveraged buyout (LBO) used to transfer all or part of the ownership of a company to the individuals with the primary operational responsibilities for the enterprise. Both debt and equity investors are particularly interested in financing MBO because of the three "I's":