International Society of Business Appraisers

International Society of Business Appraisers Upholding best practices to educate, certify, service & support professionals in BUSINESS VALUATION. What's the business worth?

ISBA trains, certifies, and supports Business Certified Appraisers in valuing a small to main Street business. There are over 20 business strategies lenders, CPAs, attorneys, business owners and others all need to know what the business is worth!

Happy Labor Day from all of us at ISBA®Today we're taking a moment to recognize the hard work, dedication, and expertise...
09/07/2026

Happy Labor Day from all of us at ISBA®

Today we're taking a moment to recognize the hard work, dedication, and expertise professionals like you bring to your work every single day. Enjoy the day off. You've earned it.

⏳ 50% off BCA-R® ends September 11. Register this week to lock it in.Reviewing a valuation report and writing one draw o...
09/04/2026

⏳ 50% off BCA-R® ends September 11. Register this week to lock it in.

Reviewing a valuation report and writing one draw on different skill sets. The BCA-R® is where appraisers build the latter and also are able to review their own work more effectively.

To qualify:
✔ An active BCA, ASA, ABV, CBA, CVA, CFA, or MAFF credential (exceptions considered upon request)
✔ Two or more years developing and reporting on business valuations
✔ ISBA® membership in good standing
✔ Pre-reading in two supplied texts
✔ Passing the exam and demonstration review report
Already certified and eyeing review work, expert witness engagements, or litigation support? This is the credential built for exactly that stage.

✅ Live 5-day course: September 14-18, 2026, via Zoom
✅ 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM ET

🔗 Register now, save 50%: https://zurl.co/LWSx1

Dad wants to hand the business to his son. Nobody's asked what it's actually worth.Family business transitions fail more...
09/02/2026

Dad wants to hand the business to his son. Nobody's asked what it's actually worth.

Family business transitions fail more often over unclear value than almost anything else. One sibling feels shortchanged. A parent wants to be fair to the kids who aren't taking over the business. A buy-sell agreement gets triggered and nobody agrees on the number.

The businesses most at risk here aren't the complicated ones. They're the simple, closely held companies where everyone assumes they already know what it's worth, until money and family get tangled together.

A qualified appraisal takes the guesswork, and the resentment, out of the equation. It gives every party in the transition a defensible number they can actually trust, whether the plan is a gift, a partial sale, or a structured buyout over time.

If you work with families navigating succession, the Business Certified Appraiser® (BCA®) program gives you the valuation foundation to handle ownership interests, discounts, and family-owned business assignments with confidence.

👉 Explore BCA® certification: https://zurl.co/iBM8H

A commercial finance advisor just told us the BCA-R® changed how she writes every valuation report now, not just how she...
09/01/2026

A commercial finance advisor just told us the BCA-R® changed how she writes every valuation report now, not just how she Reviews them.

Autumn Perry, Commercial Finance & Valuation Advisor at Wild Elm Advisors, earned her Business Certified Appraiser® (BCA®) and didn't stop there. She calls the BCA-R® the natural next step, and says it did more than build on what she already knew. It taught her to look at valuation work with a sharper, more critical eye, and that discipline carries straight back into her own reports.

That's the shift the BCA-R® is built to create. You're not just producing reports anymore. You're reading someone else's work the way a reviewer does.

If you've already got your BCA®, this is exactly what "what's next" looks like.

🔗 BCA-R Class startes 14th of september and save 50% off on BCA-R®, regiser now: https://zurl.co/W3QYc

We've never priced this conference at $149. We won't do it again.This isn't a rate you can catch later, it's a one-time ...
08/31/2026

We've never priced this conference at $149. We won't do it again.

This isn't a rate you can catch later, it's a one-time window that will close in August - for good. AI sessions across appraisal, business development, and cybersecurity. Confirmed IRS and IVSC speakers, plus a returning fan favorite. Up to 12 NASBA CPE credits worth $1,200 for only $149!.

This offer expires tonight.

📅 October 27 and 28, 2026
💻 Live virtual

Register now: https://zurl.co/O8SgR

Aswath Damodaran, NYU Stern School of Business, widely known as Wall Street's "Dean of Valuation," in an interview with ...
08/28/2026

Aswath Damodaran, NYU Stern School of Business, widely known as Wall Street's "Dean of Valuation," in an interview with Forbes:

"You're not valuing the company, you're pricing a company."

Damodaran's point cuts right to a mistake we see often: leaning on a comparable multiple and calling it a valuation. A multiple tells you what other people paid for something similar. It doesn't tell you what a specific business, with its own cash flows, risk, and growth, is actually worth.

At ISBA®, we train Business Certified Appraisers® to do the harder, more defensible work: understanding the business itself before attaching a number to it.

📎 Source: https://zurl.co/2AA2u

$1,200 worth of CPE credit. Only $149 for a limited time!The ISBA/NEBB Institute Annual Conference delivers up to 12 NAS...
08/26/2026

$1,200 worth of CPE credit. Only $149 for a limited time!

The ISBA/NEBB Institute Annual Conference delivers up to 12 NASBA CPE credits across two days. These are credit hours you can use toward your CE requirements. This is a history-making rate for this conference, the lowest it's ever been offered, and the last time it ever will be. $1,200 worth of credit for the cost of a single course elsewhere.

Register for just $149, a rate we won't offer again. Expires August 31st at midnight.

📅 October 27 and 28, 2026
💻 Live virtual

Register now: https://zurl.co/SLsQK

You passed the exam. You wrote the report. You earned your Business Certified Appraiser® (BCA®) designation. But the lea...
08/25/2026

You passed the exam. You wrote the report. You earned your Business Certified Appraiser® (BCA®) designation. But the learning shouldn’t stop there!

The BCA® trains you to build a defensible valuation from the ground up. The BCA-R® trains you for something different: carefully reviewing your own work to enhance its credibility, evaluating someone else's finished work, spotting unsupported assumptions, catching methodology gaps, and defending your conclusions.

That's the next step for appraisers who are ready to take on higher-level review work. Review your own work more effectively and be qualified to review the work of others.

✅ Live 5-day course: September 14-18, 2026
✅ 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM ET
✅ Exam and demonstration review report, all completed in one week
✅ Taught by Howard A. Lewis

If you've got two or more years developing and reporting on business valuations and hold a BCA, ASA, ABV, CBA, CVA, CFA, or MAFF credential, you already qualify. Exceptions will be considered upon request.

🔗 Register for the September class: https://zurl.co/JElwE

Business owners often come in with a number based on what they've heard secondhand. Here's what's actually happening in ...
08/24/2026

Business owners often come in with a number based on what they've heard secondhand. Here's what's actually happening in the lower middle market this year, according to CT Acquisitions' 2026 benchmark data.

Current benchmarks for businesses in the $1 to $25 million EBITDA range show real spread by industry:
✔ Home services: roughly 4x to 6x EBITDA
✔ Manufacturing: roughly 5x to 7x
✔ Healthcare services: roughly 5x to 9x
✔ Professional services: roughly 4x to 7x

But a multiple is a starting point, not an answer. Within every one of these ranges, size, growth rate, recurring revenue, customer concentration, and management depth push a specific business toward the top or bottom of its band.

That's the gap a generic multiple can't close, and it's exactly where a qualified appraiser earns their fee. Knowing the range is useful. Knowing where your client's business actually sits in that range, and why, is the real work.

If you advise business owners on what their company might be worth, understanding these dynamics protects both your credibility and their expectations.

📎 Source: https://zurl.co/3lPy8

If you're valuing a small, owner-operated business, know which earnings metric you're actually using. Seller's Discretio...
08/21/2026

If you're valuing a small, owner-operated business, know which earnings metric you're actually using.

Seller's Discretionary Earnings (SDE) adds back the owner's full compensation and benefits, on top of the usual add-backs for interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. It assumes a single owner-operator will run the business and take a full salary out of it.

EBITDA doesn't add back owner compensation the same way. It assumes a business with a management team already in place, where the owner's role is replaceable.

Use the wrong one and you'll either overstate or understate what the business can actually support. Main Street businesses under a few million in revenue are usually valued on SDE. Larger, more institutional businesses lean on EBITDA.

Before you apply a multiple to anything, make sure you know which earnings number you're standing on.

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