Independent business valuations in San Francisco
Nielsen Valuation California is your trusted appraisal partner in San Francisco and the Bay Area. Our opinions of value are evidence-driven, independent, non-speculative, and aligned with IRS guidance. We tailor every engagement so you pay only for what you actually need.
Our Services in San Francisco
We value closely held companies of many sizes and industries (we do not perform startup-only projections). Common reasons clients hire us include:
- Buying or selling a company
- Capital raises and investor communications
- Mergers & acquisitions
- Partner buyouts, buy-sell agreements & shareholder matters
- ESOP engagements
- Divorce and marital settlements
- Estate planning, gifting & succession
- Restructuring or winding down a business
- Tax planning & compliance
- Financing and bank lending support
- Litigation support
- Insurance needs
- Strategic planning & financial reporting
- And more
Why Choose Us for Your San Francisco Appraisal?
Nielsen Valuation California serves clients across San Francisco and the wider Bay Area. We’re available for face-to-face meetings and can conduct on-site reviews when a deeper understanding of operations will improve the analysis.
We are an independent voice. Our reports are concise, decision-ready, and tailored to your objective. We prioritize IRS standards and rulings over checklist credentials, and we anchor our conclusions in fair market value, not wishful thinking.
Practical valuations with full IRS alignment
Every opinion we issue is built to hold up under scrutiny from regulators, auditors, and courts.
We follow the principles in IRS Revenue Ruling 59-60. In practice, that means we don’t rely on canned formulas, off-the-shelf capitalization tables, or academic-only marketability discounts.
Applying those standards in San Francisco and across the Bay Area helps ensure your valuation is credible, non-speculative, and reflective of real-world market behavior, suitable for negotiations or litigation alike.
Beyond the numbers: normalization that matters
Taking financial statements at face value is a common mistake and a fast way to get the wrong answer.
We reconstruct the economic reality behind the figures before we calculate value.
Here’s what that looks like:
- Balance sheets are adjusted from book values to market-based measures where appropriate.
- Income statements are cleansed of one-offs, owner add-backs, and other non-recurring items.
Think of it like the prep work a typical Bay Area body shop does before spraying paint: most of the effort happens before the final coat. Quality valuations are the same—thorough preparation is everything.
Methods chosen to fit your situation
No cookie-cutter math. We select one or more approaches based on the company’s characteristics and the purpose of the engagement.
The three primary approaches are:
- Market approach – grounded in comparable Bay Area transactions when reliable data exists
- Asset approach – economic net asset value after liabilities
- Income approach – value derived from earnings or cash flow and risk
Custom scope, no wasted spend
Your goals drive the scope. We size our work to the decision at hand so you receive a defensible conclusion without paying for unnecessary extras.
How Much Is My San Francisco Business Worth?
When you plan to sell a company, the critical number is market value: what a qualified buyer will pay, rather than a theoretical figure from a calculator.
Sellers sometimes expect a premium for future potential. Buyers typically won’t pay today for growth they must create and fund themselves. A balanced, fact-based valuation bridges this gap.
Another pitfall is survivorship bias. It’s easy to point to success stories like PayPal, Spotify, Alphabet or Meta and assume a similar trajectory. Experienced buyers recognize that only a minority of ventures achieve those outcomes and they price risk accordingly.
We Can Help with Your San Francisco Business Valuation
Schedule a free 30-minute consultation. Ask us anything about our valuation process in San Francisco and the Bay Area, and we’ll prepare a customized quote for your needs.
