BUSINESS VALUATIONS
Clarity for the Climb. Confidence at the Peak.
A business valuation you can understand, trust, and actually use.
Whether you’ve spent years building a business or you’re thinking about buying one, there’s a bigger question behind the numbers: What is this business really worth and what does that mean for what I want to do next?
At Elevated, business valuations are led by Sarah Gould, CVA, a Certified Valuation Analyst through the National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts (NACVA). We dig into the financials, understand the business behind them, and help you understand not just what the business is worth, but why...and what that means for the decisions ahead. Because the number matters. But what you’re able to do with it matters even more.
When should you get a business valuation?
Going into a sale without knowing what your business is worth can mean leaving money on the table or pricing yourself out of a deal. A business valuation gives you a grounded starting point for pricing and negotiations and helps you understand what’s driving the value.
Selling Your Business
The asking price is what the seller wants, not necessarily what the business is worth. Before you buy a business, an independent valuation can help you understand what the financials support so you’re not making one of your biggest decisions based on someone else’s number.
Buying a Business
When money and ownership are changing hands, “this feels fair” isn’t much of a starting point. A business valuation gives everyone an objective view of what the business or ownership interest is worth before you negotiate a buy-in or buyout.
Business Partner Buy-In or Buyout
If your business is part of your future financial plan, you need to know whether its value lines up with the future you’re planning for. A valuation gives you a benchmark today so you have time to build value, address risks, and plan your exit or succession intentionally.
Exit & Succession Planning
Estate and gift planning, divorce, shareholder matters, and other legal or financial events can require more than an educated guess. A formal business valuation provides a documented, supportable value when the number needs to stand up to more scrutiny.
Estate, Gift & Other Events
You don’t need to be selling your business to want to know what it’s worth. A business valuation gives you a benchmark for where you stand today — what’s driving value, what may be holding it back, and whether you’ve built what you hoped to build or still have room to grow.
Just Ready to Know
Revenue, profitability, margins, cash flow, historical trends, and normalized earnings that help show the true economics of the business.
Financial Performance & Earnings
1
What the business owns, what it owes, and how those pieces can influence overall value.
Assets & Liabilities
2
Customer concentration, owner dependence, recurring revenue, workforce, financial consistency, and other factors that can affect the predictability of the business.
Risk & Reliability
3
Industry conditions, relevant market information, historical performance, and the business's ability to generate economic benefit going forward.
Market & Future Potential
4
Beyond the Number
A valuation can tell you where you stand. We can help you decide what to do next. Whether that means strengthening the business, increasing value over time, preparing for a future sale, or making changes based on what we uncover, our advisory team can stay alongside you for what comes next.
Sarah Gould, CVA
Founder & CEO | Certified Valuation Analyst
Business Valuation Expertise You Can Understand
I’m a bit of a numbers nerd, so valuation work is genuinely fun for me. I love the methodology, the theory, and figuring out how all the pieces of a business fit together to tell the bigger story. But what I love most is that there’s always a real person and a real decision behind the number.
Maybe you’ve spent years building a business and want to know what it’s worth. Maybe you’re preparing to sell, thinking about succession, bringing on a partner, or considering buying a business yourself. Those are big decisions, and the context around them matters just as much as the calculation.
As a Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA), I have specialized training in the methodologies and analysis behind determining business value. And because I’ve spent years working alongside business owners as a fractional CFO and advisor, I’m also looking at the business through a practical lens: profitability, cash flow, growth, risk, and what’s actually happening behind the financials.
I love digging into the complexity. I don’t expect you to.
My job is to take all of that analysis and turn it into something you can actually understand and use. I don’t want to hand you a detailed valuation report, wish you luck, and send you on your way. I want to sit down with you, walk through what we found, answer your questions, and help you understand what’s driving the value and what it means for the decision in front of you.
And if that decision leads to a next chapter—selling, strengthening the business, buying a company, or stepping into ownership—we already understand the numbers and the business behind them. We can keep walking alongside you from there.
Knowing the value, changes the conversation
Replace assumptions with a defensible number
Know what's actually driving your business's value
Know whether you're truly prepared for an exit
Enter negotiations with more context and confidence
See which levers could build more value over time
Make your next move with the bigger picture in view
