Do you know what your company is worth before someone else puts a price on it?

Whether you're raising capital, planning an exit, negotiating with a buyer, or evaluating a potential acquisition, understanding business value puts you in a stronger position.

But a credible valuation requires more than applying an industry multiple. It means examining financial performance, forecasting future cash flows, assessing risk, and understanding what drives value.

At ValuationLab, I provide professional valuation services tailored to your business and objectives:

- Startup and private company valuations

- Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) analysis

- Comparable company and transaction multiples

- Financial modeling and forecasting

- Valuation support for fundraising, M&A, and exits

With 15+ years of financial analysis experience and valuations since 2017, I bring a rigorous, data-driven approach to every project.

Need to establish what your business is really worth? Send me a message on Contra today. Tell me what you're valuing and why, I'll help define the right approach, scope, and deliverables for your project.

A client asked me last week: “I paid my insurance in full in October. Why is the whole amount not showing in my expenses?”

Fair question. Honestly, this is one of the most common things business owners ask me.

Here’s how I explained it. When you pay for a full year of insurance, the money leaves your bank on day one. But the insurance company protects you for 12 months, not one day. So you only use a small part of it at the start. The unused part isn’t an expense yet. It’s cover you have already paid for and still have.

Say you pay 24,000 on 1 October for a 12 month policy. Each month, 2,000 moves into expenses.

By 31 December, you have used 3 months: Expense so far: 6,000 Still unused: 18,000

That 18,000 stays on the balance sheet as prepaid.

The client still wasn’t fully sure from the numbers alone, so I showed them year by year:

Year 1 (Oct to Dec): 6,000 used, 18,000 still prepaid Year 2 (Jan to Sep): 18,000 used, 0 left

By the end of the policy, the full 24,000 has moved into expenses. Nothing is lost. It just moves a little each month, as you use the cover.

That’s when it clicked for them.

Rent paid in advance, software subscriptions, annual membership, visa fees and licence fees all work the same way. Pay now, use over time, expense a little each month.

If your bookkeeper says “prepaid” and you just nod, ask them for a schedule like this. It’s your money, you should be able to see where it is.