As a winner, the M3 1000 program “gives more women than ever before access to that the first step in the transformation from just being in business to taking control and charting a course for maximum success. Our ultimate goal is to get 1000 women business owners to the million $ mark.” People Biz is involved by offering the Blast! Count Me In Business Accelerator Program to the winners. We are so honored to work with these inspiring women and help them grow their business!

The Blast! Program is a dynamic group coaching program with light training around mastering the basics of business. The sense of unity and support is such an important aspect in the Blast! Program, which allows the women business owners to gain so much during their journey of taking their business to the million $ mark!  Blast! participants report having a unique growth experience for both themselves and their business.

Eva Franco Spring 2012 Behind the Scenes from Eva Franco on Vimeo.

Eva, of Hungarian heritage, was born and raised in Transylvania, Romania. She came to the United States as a young girl and discovered her “passion for designing clothing helped her express herself as she communicated with her American peers.”

She attended New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, from where she graduated from, and continued her education as a design assistant for Etienne Brunel in Paris. Eva caters to celebrating the female form and describes her designs as “feminine designs with whimsical detailing and luscious fabrics.”

She started her company, Eva Franco, in Los Angeles, California. Her clothing brand can now be found domestically and internationally at over 800 stores. For more information visit her website.

Her company, called Cemeteries Aglow, Inc., is featured in Inventors Digest for November 2011. The company is dedicated to “help ease the pain of losing a loved one by providing quality products and services to our customers in the maintenance, nationally, and internationally, with the highest commitment to excellence.”

Peace Light comes in a variety of colors, shapes and designs for customers to choose from. For more information, visit Peace Light.

“Some homeowners and agents want to feel like they’re doing everything they can to make a sale, and that can include dabbling in superstition, religious beliefs and other ancient customs.

Displaying oranges during showings, for example. Oranges are associated with good fortune in Chinese culture, says Cindy Lin, general manager of Staged4more Home Staging and Redesigns, a South San Francisco company that helps sell homes with decorating and other techniques.”

Read the full article here.

Congratulations, Cindy!

A divorce; the opportunity to offer an attractive remuneration package to a potential executive; the dissolution of a business partnership; to obtain a second opinion on a previously performed business valuation- these are all valid reasons why one might need to know the value of a business.

Brian Walters and Associates has conducted several appraisals – read about one below.

Client Specifics

“John Doe” was part owner of two companies- one an established business grossing approximately $20 million annually, the other a startup company that saw revenues of almost $18 million in its first year, and was projected to do 2 times that much the following year, with projected increases for the foreseeable future of approximately 20% annually.

Mr. Doe owned 20% of one company, and 10% of the second.

Mr. Doe had fallen out of favor with his fellow business owners, and the business relationship was ending. In order for everyone to part on good terms, the other owners agreed to give Mr. Doe a check for his share of the value of the company. So the valuation project was initiated to accomplish a few objectives:

• The overall value of each company needed to be determined (and Mr. Doe’s gross share calculated)
• The other business owners had already performed a valuation of both businesses; we were tasked with comparing the previously performed valuation with the one to be done by us, and justifying any differences
• Mr. Doe’s share eventually had to be adjusted to account for 2 common discounts applied when assessing the value of a minority share- Discount for Lack of Control (DLOC) and Discount for Lack of Marketability (DLOM). An opinion needed to be offered on what an appropriate percentage was for both these discounts.

The Project

Performing a business valuation is an intensive, exhaustive process that involves several key activities, all of which are interrelated, and each of which adds another piece of valuable information to the overall objective of providing an opinion of value to the business.

A few are highlighted here:

• Interviewed key associates in both companies to obtain a sense of how each company was operated.
• Interfaced regularly with the bookkeepers and CPAs of both companies in order to obtain all of the financial information needed to complete the valuation project.
• Recast the financials as necessary, making the adjustments needed to view each firm in an appropriate light and to make decisions regarding the valuation independent of the particular idiosyncrasies commonly seen in privately run firms.
• Performed an intense analysis of the industry in which both companies operated, taking note of all trends and including their effects in the final appraisal report.
• Conducted research on previous court cases involving DLOC and DLOM for the industries in which the subject companies operated, and determined an appropriate value for each discount.         

 *Note:  Even though this project involved scrutinizing court cases, we are NOT attorneys, nor do we claim any expertise in the legal field*

• Selected several methods of performing the appraisals for each company, then weighted each appropriately in order to determine the most appropriate method for assessing value to the projects.

• After an appropriate level of scrutiny of the previously performed valuation, offered an opinion as to why it was not appropriately performed, and why our client was entitled to a higher share of the business than first calculated.

The End Result

Due to the work performed on this project, Mr. Doe was able to receive from his former business partners a check in an amount that more accurately reflected the value of his share of the companies. He has now successfully divested himself of the untenable position represented by his former business climate, and has other business interests that he is currently pursuing.

Being able to supply such a critical piece of information for the client to assist in his long-range planning is always a great pleasure for the consultants at BWA, as we realize the importance of this function to any of the processes that involve needing to know the value of a business.

    Case Study provided by Brian Walters, CEO of
    Brian Walters & Associates.

    Click here to view the BWA website!

Kris and August Wittenberg are voracious readers of the Wall Street Journal and other business publications.  Get the full story here.