There are a lot of misconceptions about startup valuation. In this blog post, we’ll clear up some of the confusion by talking about how to calculate your company’s worth and why it is so important for business owners to have a good grasp on what their company is worth.
We’ll also talk about mistakes that can lead you astray when trying to figure out your valuation and how you should go about getting an accurate estimation.
What is startup valuation?
As a startup founder, you know that the amount of funding your company receives is largely dependent on how much money it can make.
In order to get this type of investment from investors, they need to be confident in your ability to turn a profit and grow at an exponential rate.
This is where valuation comes into play. Valuation refers to how much one would be willing to pay for 100% ownership of their business.
How to calculate your company’s worth
When you’re trying to figure out how much your company is worth, it can be helpful to look at what similar companies have been valued and use that as a guide.
However, if the majority of your competition is not disclosing their valuation or they are underperforming in terms of growth and revenue, this method won’t work for you.
Another common mistake many business owners make when evaluating startup valuation is basing it off of cash flow instead of earnings potential.
Make sure you keep an eye on trends so that future projections will continue to pan out the way they did historically while also looking ahead into the future and predicting possible changes down the line.
If there is one thing we know about startups (and even established businesses), it’s that nothing is guaranteed.
When you’re trying to figure out your startup valuation, it’s important not to forget about the factoring in of human capital as well.
All too often business owners fail to count their employees’ value toward company revenue and profit margin because they are taking on a certain amount of risk by hiring them before they have proven themselves over time.
This means that if an employee leaves or decides to work for another competitor down the line, this has more significant ramifications for business owners than just losing access to someone else’s services -they lose out on potential future earnings from higher productivity, improved morale/performance, etc., which all contribute towards overall company worth.
One tip we’ve seen many successful businesses implement when thinking about what their employees are worth is to create a ranking or tier system, which assigns each individual employee into one of several categories based on seniority and performance.
By doing this you will be able to better place an accurate value on who your company’s most important assets are at any given time.
While there is no perfect formula for figuring out how much your business should be valued, the good news is that it doesn’t have to be all about number crunching – many factors can contribute towards being perceived as more valuable by potential investors (i.e., having seed funding, etc.).
This means that if you are looking for outside investment down the line but don’t feel like you have enough capital internally to warrant bringing in another party just yet, there are a number of things you can do to increase the perceived value of your company and get people interested in funding it.
For example;
If you have been able to successfully raise some capital from an initial source (i.e., seed fund or angel investors) this will help convince future investors that they too should be willing to invest in your business because there’s already high demand for what you’re offering on the market.
There are many misconceptions surrounding startup valuation so make sure not only that you understand how much money is involved but also why it matters when trying to move forward with your business venture!