M&A Advisor Tip: Intangibles Matter

Intangible assets can play a significant role in your business value. While these may not take physical form, they can be legally identified and transferred.

It can be a hard exercise, especially when you’re so close to the business. But here’s a list of some possibilities to consider formally documenting.

  • Contracts, licenses, distribution agreements, permits
  • Customer lists and loyalty metrics
  • Intellectual property, e.g., patents, trademarks, copyrights
  • Location-rights (e.g., land, water, mineral)
  • Marketing assets, including testimonials and portfolios
  • Supplier base
  • Trade secrets and proprietary processes
  • Web presence, internet domains
  • Workforce in place, management team

Think about the value of intangible assets as you grow your business. Conduct an inventory and document how each one contributes to your company’s success.

We will look at these things when we perform an estimate of value, an intermediary opinion of value or formal valuation. We also can help you identify the intangible assets buyers care about most.

What our clients are saying...

“Regarding our working relationship with Business Transition Strategies. After 32 years of continuous growth we hit 2009 & 2010 and like many companies we went flat and in 2010 had our first loss. At this point we knew we had to make changes if we where to succeed in this new economic environment. Business Transition Strategies (BTS), particularly John Howe and Ken Schaefer, were brought on as consultants. The BTS team came in, evaluated everything in a professional and thankfully non-threatening manner. They interacted with all employees and our professional partners. Once this was done they presented their findings to the executive group and gave very specific suggestions for improvements. This done and a plan in place, John & Ken continued to help us move forward and implement changes and make adjustments where needed. I am happy to say we are back to being a growing and profitable business and I believe BTS played a big part in making this happen. I would recommend to anyone that they include BTS as part of their business plans for the future.”

- Christina

Advisory Client