Business valuation is a fundamental business process. This is a formal process, it must be done properly, and it"s also a particularly effective form of "whole business" asset valuation. This is work for experts, and it goes well beyond basic accounting practices.

A business valuation is effectively an external audit, taking into account a comprehensive evaluation of all factors affecting the business. This is a particularly useful approach to managing both purchases and the sale of a business.

For prospective business owners, a business valuation is a holistic approach to valuation. This type of valuation does more than simply compile business account and asset values. Evaluation takes into account the local market, competition, revenue, costs, overhead, and provides a particularly thorough evaluation of the real condition of the target business.

Interestingly, even business experts, purchasing businesses in their own area of expertise, opt for professional business valuations as a basic requirement for assessment, crosschecking and validating asset values. Just as importantly, business valuations carried out by expert appraisers with good local knowledge to provide a very realistic picture of the actual state of a business and the value of assets.

Things like property asset values, for example, can be thoroughly checked by appraisers with a good understanding of the local property market. This type of valuation also systematically exposes a range of other asset-related factors, like liabilities, property taxes, statutory compliance issues, and similar possible additional costs affecting purchase. You can see why professional investors use this methodology as a routine procedure.

Corporate valuations, too, require this "due diligence" approach. When conducting a valuation of a company, it"s important to ensure that corporate assets are properly assessed. This can be a little bit trickier than it looks, because specific assets assigned to companies must also be accurately valued. "Book value" really isn"t good enough. A proper business valuation will get you an accurate market valuation, which may be quite different from the figures on the books. The commercial real estate value of a property, for example, needs to be confirmed, regardless of book value.

If you"re looking for a full-service business valuation on the West Coast, there"s a company called Irish Appraisal Service, one of the leading commercial appraisal companies in the West Coast market. They"re a particularly good benchmark for top-of-the-line services in this field. This company provides a truly comprehensive range of property appraisal, business valuation, and related services, including litigation, statutory, and similar valuation-related services.

For a full overview of their services, you can visit their website at http://www.irishappraisal.com/