Understanding your company’s value is one of the most critical steps for business owners to consider. There are a variety of different valuation models that can be used to determine your business’s worth, but many of these methods require varying quantities of information based on the type of information you have available to use.

For instance, the market-based value method is based on looking at similar businesses to get an idea of what they’re valued at, and then using that value to estimate your own business’s worth. Although this is a straightforward basics and efficient method however, it can be challenging when there aren’t enough comparable companies in the marketplace.

Another option is to utilize a multiples valuation model, which determines the value of your company by comparing it to similar companies in the same industry that have been acquired or sold recently. While this is a good reference, it could become outdated quickly as market conditions change frequently.

Finally, the asset-based valuation method is a bottom-up analysis that analyzes your company’s physical assets like equipment, inventory, patents, property and goodwill to find the value of each asset. This is a valuable method of valuation that you can use when your company has a lot of assets but has no revenue.