This post is about one of my 45-second pitches at my BNI Chapter, BNI City Business. You can read the introduction to this collection here.

7 July, 2023. This meme was in one of my feeds a few months ago. It appealed to me on so many levels. I grabbed it and stored it, but wasn’t sure I would ever use it. It was more philosophical than my recent slides, and the text quite long.

I wanted to share the message that Business Valuations are forward-looking rather than looking backward. This is a common issue in appraising a business: owners that believe the financial performance of the business over the last few years drives the value of their business in the eyes of a buyer. It doesn’t.

When a buyer acquires your business, they are buying the future cash flows the business can generate. At best, your revenues (or profits) last year or five years ago indicates what the business can do, but in no way guarantees what it will do. Your financial history grounds the future projections, but should in no way define them.