Running a business is not easy. That’s perhaps one of the fundamental facts we must all accept before even starting. However, no matter the business acumen we have, or the past success we have enjoyed, it’s always worth considering what blind spots we may be ignoring. One of the most commonly missed blind spots is that of overvaluing or undervaluing our business.

This means that when another firm offers to buy our operation, or when we’re trying to sell our business to potential investors, it’s important to understand exactly what worth we’re sitting on.

Now, worth can be calculated via several difficult means. For instance, the expensive investment in training a staff member from a novice to executive position could be considered an investment in the asset of skilled labor.

However, they are likely permitted to give their one month notice whenever they would like, meaning that resting on skill sets is not always the most concrete measure to adjudicating value, and for that reason, we count those as tertiary value assessments. Yet the following can help you more reliability:

Valuing Your Patents

Patents are important to consider, because they can help you ensure the unique value of your firm.

In fact, without a patent, it’s very hard to say that you have the sole competitive edge over your innovation, because once your product hits the market another firm could achieve this perhaps even more successfully than you.

Additionally, with patent valuation services, you will be able to ensure you know exactly the worth retained with your patent holdings. To that extent, you can be more sure of your current and potential value.

Inventory & Stock

Every business will hold inventory and stock to some degree. Even online firms will hold their own IT infrastructure or even office furniture that could be worth something if needing to be sold. While this doesn’t affect the overal market capital of your firm, it does contribute to the entire value of your operation in general, and so should be distinguished as such, and noted as a worthy investment.

For instance, in wall street markets Bloomberg software is proprietary and yet still the common standard, and should be noted as such as a worthy investment. This allows you to further understand your value.

Depreciating Values

Depreciating value can also be an important measure to consider. For instance, a firm that holds many raw materials as part of its manufacturing process may hold the materials raw value on their books, but as time progresses this value will deteriorate to some degree depending on production norms.

Additionally, product offerings that we have to sell can reduce in value thanks to the time and norm established by competitors, and to that degree, you’ll be more likely to plan ahead for the future.

With this advice, you’ll be sure to avoid accidentally misvaluing your business, as you will take in to account many variables that could influence the final outcome.