Chapter 22
Marketing, Managing, and Making Money in a Valuation Services Group
PURPOSE AND OVERVIEW1
In addition to providing intellectually challenging work projects with almost endless variety, the field of business valuation offers potential for good compensation. However, it is possible to win an engagement and provide quality client service but fail to bill and collect a fair fee and/or incur sizable cost overruns due to poor practice management. Optimizing the potential of a business valuation practice is not accidental, nor is it the natural result of merely “doing good work.” It involves developing a strong skill set in nontechnical areas such as marketing and practice management.
For the purposes of this chapter, the term “good economics” will be used to indicate a business valuation practice that has optimized its potential, given such practice characteristics as the types of clients, the geographic market served, type of services offered, staff size and quality, and age of the practice. This chapter explores the key determinants of good economics for a given business valuation practice, summarized as:
- The qualifications of the practice professionals to provide the particular services offered by the firm
- The existence of niche valuation services that the firm can serve profitably
- The temperament suitability of the practitioners, especially the leadership, for the type of engagements undertaken
- The practice’s acceptance criteria for engagements and its adherence to these ...
