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#business-valuation

Business Valuation

Methods and best practices for determining the fair market value of a business

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20 min read

Phantom Stock Plans for Small Businesses: Reward Key Employees Without Giving Away Ownership

A phantom stock plan grants key employees hypothetical units that track company value and settle in cash — no shares issued, no dilution, no voting rights. Payouts are ordinary income subject to FICA when paid, the employer deducts them in the same year, and cash-settled awards are liability awards remeasured at fair value each reporting period. Paying within 2½ months after the year units vest satisfies Section 409A's short-term deferral exemption; a two-to-three-participant plan typically costs $4,000–$10,000 to launch.

Mike Thrift

executive-compensationemployee-benefitscompensation
17 min read

The Silver Tsunami Is Here: How to Buy or Sell a Business in the $5 Trillion Great Ownership Transfer

About 6 million U.S. small and mid-sized businesses will change hands by 2035 as baby boomer owners retire, and McKinsey estimates more than 1 million of those are sellable, representing up to $5 trillion in enterprise value — yet only about 35% of owners have a succession plan. This guide covers the three-year seller timeline, how valuation multiples of 2x to 4x SDE are earned, SBA 7(a) and seller-financing structures for buyers, due diligence, and the bookkeeping habits that separate a sellable business from one that quietly closes.

Mike Thrift

succession-planningbusiness-exitbusiness-valuation
11 min read

How Small Businesses Are Actually Priced in 2026: SDE Multiples, Explained Before You List or Buy

Main street businesses are priced as Seller's Discretionary Earnings times a multiple — an all-sector average of 2.57x, ranging from 1.39x for dollar stores to 4.99x for car washes. Here is how SDE is calculated, which add-backs survive buyer diligence, why the multiple ladder moves, and how 2026 SBA lending rules reshape deal structure.

Mike Thrift

business-valuationbuying-a-businessbusiness-exit
9 min read

Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts (SLATs): How Business Owners Move Future Growth Out of Their Estate

A Spousal Lifetime Access Trust (SLAT) lets a business owner move an appreciating asset — and all its future growth — out of the taxable estate while the beneficiary spouse retains access to distributions. With the 2026 lifetime exemption set at $15 million per individual, this guide covers the mechanics, valuation discounts, the reciprocal trust doctrine, and the divorce and death risks to plan around.

Mike Thrift

estate-planningtrusttax-planning
8 min read

The $15 Million Estate Tax Exemption: What OBBBA Means for Business Succession Planning

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act permanently raised the federal estate and gift tax exemption to $15 million per person ($30 million per couple) starting in 2026, eliminating the scheduled TCJA sunset to roughly $7 million. Here's what changed, which existing plans are now outdated, and the succession moves business owners should make — from portability filings to buy-sell agreement reviews and state estate tax exposure.

Mike Thrift

estate-planningsuccession-planningtax-planning
8 min read

Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition: How Search Funds Turn Managers into Owners

Search funds have returned a 33.9% aggregate IRR and 4.75x invested capital across 862 funds since 1984, per Stanford's 2026 study. Here's how entrepreneurship through acquisition works — traditional and self-funded search structures, SBA 7(a) financing, typical deal metrics, and why quality of earnings diligence decides the outcome.

Mike Thrift

business-acquisitionbuying-a-businessentrepreneurship
12 min read

Coworking Space Bookkeeping: ASC 606 Deferred Revenue, NOI Per Square Foot, and the Occupancy KPIs Lenders Demand

How coworking operators separate hot desk, dedicated desk, and private office revenue under ASC 606, hold refundable deposits as liabilities, allocate common-area square footage to compute NOI per foot, capitalize build-out as Qualified Improvement Property with 100% bonus depreciation in 2026, and report the occupancy, RevPOD, churn, and MRR concentration metrics that lenders and acquirers actually price on.

Mike Thrift

bookkeepingreal-estaterevenue-recognition
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