Being the Sole Business Owner

In dealing with a particular business that involves a lot of cash or your spouse is the majority or sole business owner, it is important to hire an experienced attorney who deals with cash businesses, like we do, as well as have an expert. We have many experts that we have used in the past with businesses such as a restaurant and Laundromat and other types of businesses where there’s a significant amount of cash generated in that business. This is so that you don’t lose out on a realistic evaluation. Sometimes an expert will look at the liquor purchases and do an extrapolation or an analysis as to the amount of liquor being purchased and the average amount of drinks per bottle to get an idea of what the cash sales should be. Another tool that a business evaluator may use to assess the value of that business is by getting studies for comparable businesses in comparable markets and similar demographics to do a comparison to see what similar businesses should be generating in income to make a realistic assessment so that you’re protected. Even though you may have access to the books we’ve had situations where there are two sets of books. This is very important because the books that you may be provided don’t necessarily jive with what’s actually going on. In a typical divorce situation the owner spouse is not going to be very cooperative in providing the documentation – the records – that your expert will need to do a realistic assessment. So, at the end of the day, you’ll feel comfortable with whatever report that expert comes up with.]]>