Establishing an accurate value for a music retail business requires a combination of in-depth, specialized knowledge and experience. Business valuation professionals, who also practice as Certified Public Accountants (CPAs), are often well prepared to meet the valuation needs of most clients, given their varied experience in litigation support, accounting, tax, auditing, finance, insurance, economics and investments. However, finding a CPA firm possessing the skillset, knowledge, experience and foresight in music retailing to perform reliable business valuations has been difficult. Until now.
OUR FIRM’S EXPERTISE
Friedman, Kannenberg & Company, P.C., is an independent Certified Public Accounting firm, that has provided accounting, tax, consulting and business valuation services to closely-held music instrument and product retailers for over 30 years. Our established base of music industry clients includes music stores, instrument and product manufacturers, professional musicians and bands, recording and editing studios, music education facilities and music support companies.
More specific to music retailing, our music dealer clients include full-line, combo, professional audio, keyboard, school music and print dealers located throughout the United States. Over the past three decades, our professional services to these clients has provided us business insights into the music retailing industry possessed by none other. That experience, coupled with our financial knowledge and professional designations, has given us the ability to perform business valuation engagements with unquestionable expertise, independence and credibility. These ingredients are essential for a business valuation report to withstand the scrutiny that generally arises from third-party reliance.
THE NACVA and CVA DESIGNATIONS
Our firm is also a member of the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts (NACVA), an association of CPAs who provide business valuation services. Its members are professionals who are committed to a standard of expertise and excellence by further developing their technical skills and knowledge of business valuation services. The Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) accreditation is NACVA’s premier designation, and provides assurance to the business and legal community that an individual has attained a level knowledge in business valuations that the NACVA considers exemplary and worthy of recognition by awarding the CVA designation.
OUR MUSIC AFFILIATIONS
Our commitment to the music retailing industry has earned us recognition from several professional trade associations, including our active participation in educational programs sponsored by The National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), The National Association of School Music Dealers (NASMD) and The Retail Print Music Dealers Association (RPMDA). We are featured writers of financial retailing topics in Music, Inc. magazine, and regularly contribute technical articles to other music trade publications. Most notably, we are moderators, presenters and faculty members of financial and management seminars sponsored by both NAMM (NAMM University) and Yamaha Music Corporation (Yamaha Financial Advantage).
OUR FIRM’S BUSINESS VALUATION ENGAGEMENTS
Although there are many circumstances requiring a comprehensive business valuation report (such as estate tax reporting, succession planning, litigation support and divorce, to name a few) our firm performs business valuation consulting engagements for music instrument retailers predominantly for (a) the anticipated purchase of another music store, (b) the anticipated sale of their own store, or (c) the anticipated admission or exit of an owner. By confining our business valuation consulting engagements to these specific circumstances we are able to achieve the following benefits:
- A qualified realistic estimate of current Fair Market Value, as book value or investment value can be vastly different from fair market value
- A valuation conducted by music industry experts will give you the confidence the valuation is thorough and complies with accepted standards of professional practice
- Our designations of CVA and NACVA provides assurance that our valuation analysts have met the highest professional standards of training, skills, expertise and ethics in business valuation
- Assurance of third-party objectivity, as most problems in business valuations arise from questions of independence and credibility. Our CPA”“CVA designations require our commitment to the highest ethical and professional standards ensuring an objective valuation