Every owner eventually faces the number: buying a competitor, selling the business, buying a partner out, or funding a buy-sell agreement. We build that number the way we build everything — from books that tie, with the math shown — as calculation engagements under AICPA valuation standards, built with the same MBA-trained financial modeling that ran controllership for thirteen oilfield-service locations across multiple states — the kind of multi-entity, equipment-heavy complexity a real valuation has to account for, not simplify away.
Kevin takes every advisory call personally, which means only so many happen each week.
Buying a business, a book of business, or a competitor’s fleet: what the target is worth, which of the seller’s add-backs actually survive scrutiny, and where the price stops making sense — before earnest money moves.
What your business is worth today, which value drivers are within your control, and what two or three years of deliberate work does to the number. The exit conversation should start long before the exit.
Partner and shareholder buyouts priced on analysis instead of argument — and buy-sell agreements funded with a defensible, updatable value instead of a stale guess from the year the company formed.
An annual calculation refresh for owners managing toward an exit: same methodology year over year, so you watch the value move and know exactly why it moved.
Acquisition loans, refinances, and credit-line increases move on numbers a lender can trust. We deliver the valuation analysis under AICPA valuation standards, the lender package around it, and the debt-service math that makes the ask bankable — normalized earnings, collateral schedules, coverage ratios, all tied to books that reconcile. Where a lender program sets its own rules — an SBA acquisition loan, for example, requires an independent valuation from a source on the SBA’s qualified list — we tell you before the engagement starts and coordinate accordingly. Which program the financing runs through is the first question we ask, because it decides who can do the work.
It is a valuation analysis — what AICPA valuation standards call a calculation engagement: scope and methods agreed in writing, the result delivered with the math shown. When your matter calls for a full valuation engagement — litigation, estate and gift tax filings, certain disputes — we say so upfront, and that work goes to a credentialed appraiser. We prepare the financial foundation it stands on.
Normalized earnings first: what the business earns after owner compensation, personal expenses, and one-time items are adjusted to market reality. Then the risk story — customer concentration, key-person dependence, equipment age and condition, contract quality. We work income, market, and asset approaches as the engagement warrants, and in equipment-heavy businesses the asset floor often matters more than owners expect.
Three years of financial statements and tax returns, an equipment list with rough condition and mileage or hours, key contracts or customer terms, and an hour of honest conversation about how the business really runs.
Scoped and quoted in writing, like everything here. Where the scope can't honestly be sized until we're in the documents, we quote a diagnostic first and price the rest from what it finds. The strategy consult is the entry point: bring the question — buying, selling, or buying someone out — and leave knowing exactly what the engagement looks like.
Engagements here are designed to feed each other. These are the ones this work most often runs alongside — and published floors and scoping drivers for all of them are on the pricing page.
Normalized earnings, margin by segment, and forecasts are what a value is built from.
Analysis & Forecasting →Reconciled records are the precondition. A value built on unproven balances is a guess.
Bookkeeping →Entity form and owner compensation change both the earnings stream and what a buyer is actually acquiring.
Entity & S-Corp Analysis →Enough to start the model — anything more specific follows once the engagement is scoped.
Three years of financial statements and tax returns, an equipment list with rough condition and mileage or hours, and key contracts or customer terms.
Every tax return prepared and signed by a licensed CPA or IRS Enrolled Agent. Documents run through the secure portal; anything you sign is sent to you electronically.
Face to face by video with Kevin Hemingway, CPA. We size up what you need, whether the firm is a good fit, and what an engagement would cover — and you leave with a clear scope and next steps. This consultation is for engagement evaluation and does not include tax advice, tax planning, or detailed analysis of specific tax situations.
New Client IntroNew or current, the portal is the way in. Last year’s return, your books, a notice — encrypted, and never by email. No account needed to send us something.
Send DocumentsAlready a ClientClient LoginClient Hub