Business Valuation Guide, 2019

Imagine a business where every new assignment is a unique case study in people, managment, customers, risks, and rewards. In business valuation, no two companies are alike; nor do numbers and financial statements tell the whole story. Successful business valuators have to be detectives while sifting through the details of a company, and they need a diverse knowledge of finance, economics, law, marketing, and sales to do that. They must also be able to step back and see the big picture from the viewpoint of a buyer. It is this variety, and the intellectual challenges it provides, that makes business valuation both interesting and exciting.

George B. Hawkins is President of Banister Financial, Inc. (www.businessvalue.com), a Charlotte, North Carolina, business valuation firm. He is an Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) in business valuation and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). Hawkins is a past head (two three-year terms) of the International Board of Examiners of the American Society of Appraisers in business valuation and has served two three-year terms as an elected member of the ASA’s Business Valuation Committee. He co-edited the CCH Business Valuation Alert, a quarterly newsletter and has authored over 100 articles on valuation issues. He is qualified as an expert in U.S. Tax Court, state courts, and U.S. Bankruptcy Court, and has been appointed numerous times by courts to value companies in family law, shareholder and other types of disputes. Hawkins is a nationally recognized speaker on valuation issues, having spoken to the National Business Valuation Conference of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Advanced Business Valuation Conference of the American Society of Appraisers. He also routinely speaks to a variety of national organizations on valuation issues, including the American Society of Appraisers, the American Law Institute-American Bar Association (ALI-ABA), the American Bar Association, and numerous state and local bar and other organizations. Hawkins received his B.A. degree in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1979 and his M.B.A. from Wake Forest University in 1981. He is a native of Charlotte, North Carolina. Prior to becoming a business appraiser, he was a banker, financing corporations for NCNB Corporation (now Bank of America) and First Citizens Bancshares, which included the consideration of numerous merger and acquisition transactions. Michael A. Paschall is executive vice president and a director of Banister Financial, Inc. (www.businessvalue.com), a Charlotte, North Carolina, firm specializing in business valuations. He has valued hundreds of businesses in industries from textiles to health care. His experience ranges from small companies and professional practices to large companies with multistate operations. Prior to joining Banister Financial, he held positions in credit analysis and trust investments for First Union National Bank. Paschall is certified as an Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) in business valuation and a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). He also has a J.D. from Wake Forest University. He currently serves as an Advisor to the International Board of Examiners of the American Society of Appraisers’ business valuation section. In addition, Paschall also serves as the Business Valuation representative on the Ethics Committee of the American Society of Appraisers.