SMALL BUSINESS VALUATIONS:
VENTURA, SANTA BARBARA, SAN LUIS OBISPO, MONTEREY & KERN COUNTIES
Each Report is Built, not scripted
Results that stand up where and when it counts.
Serving clients throughout California and nationwide. With deep roots in the Central Coast, we focus on areas overlooked by major metro-based firms.
SB Valuations
SB Valuations, led by founder James "Jim" Lisi, CVA, BCA-R, has produced certified business valuations and appraisals for more than twenty years. Based in Ventura through 2015 and in Santa Barbara since, we serve clients across California and the USA.
Our reports support M&A, partner exits, estate tax and gift filings, divorce, and 409A and ESOP compliance, at a fraction of what national and regional firms charge.
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Valuation work does not have to be confusing. Every engagement starts with a free, thirty-minute introductory call where we discuss the specific problem you are solving, whether it is a partner buyout, an IRS tax filing, a 409A grant, or a divorce settlement. From that conversation we build a scope of work matching the need, then you sign an engagement agreement and the work begins. The goal for the engagement is to provide you insight and understanding, not just a number, so you know what matters and why it matters.
SERVICES
Fundamentally Sound, Clearly Communicated
Prices are never fixed fee, but a base fee plus other costs. Estimates consider the 'average business'.
Each project is different. Final price will be different based upon client conditions and the work scope.
CALCULATIONS
Simple 'run the numbers' reports that get you in the neighborhood for the value of your company. Includes normalization adjustments, expert data selection and matching of the transaction data to subject
Under $3,000
MARKET VALUE
True business appraisals that analyze margins, revenue growth, opportunity size, entry barriers and working capital among other factors. These certified valuation reports also provide key definitions, appraisal principles and go well over 100 pages in order to explain value to a regulatory agency or a court
About $7,500
INVESTMENT VALUE
Business appraisals that also study ownership issues and reflect value to the current investors. This analysis is appropriate for divorce and other investor exits. Investment value analysis is part of evaluating partial interests in a company because ownership affects investor value.
About $9,000
DISCOUNTS
Under market value standards, discounts apply to minority interests in private companies and real estate. Large blocks of public stock are also discounted when a sale of the entire block would depress the price
About $11,500
WHAT WE DON'T DO
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GAAP measurements, because it clashes with intrinsic valuation
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Professional firms with more than two partners
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Banks
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Healthcare firms using RVUs
​Any other interesting project is fair game​
Our viewpoint is that of an investor, not a Fair Value accountant or a university statistician. We use the same data that corporations, private equity investors, and business brokers rely on as the basis for valuing a privately held company, M&A transaction data. Instead of applying statistics, big data, binomial lattices, and differential equations, we use scientific method to connect M&A data and company performance to value. Those alternatives can be intellectually stimulating, but they're unrelated to true value drivers, except in the rare cases that are genuinely hypothetical, where no real transaction data exists and option modeling or statistical analysis is the only real alternative.
We try to look at all the evidence of value. Where many valuers prefer one method and limit their scope to it, we apply all three valuation approaches required by professional standards: income, market, and asset. We also examine inventory, contingencies, and owner-specific issues that fall outside the formulas but shape what a business is actually worth.
Every conclusion is built to clearly communicate value and how we got there, providing a reliable, traceable report that shows its work. That clarity matters most in adversarial proceedings, where an obscured process is harder to accept and harder to trust. Results that win the argument and stand up to IRS scrutiny.
OUR DIFFERENCES
The Investor View
Most credentialed valuers derive value using the build-up method or CAPM, importing elements from public markets. Even at $5-$25 million of company revenue, thirty-five percent of valuers report being uncomfortable or worse applying that data (Pepperdine Private Capital Markets Report, 2026). For an owner, that shows up as less certainty the value is right.
Public-market methods assume a perfect market, any buyer, interchangeable, at the same price. A privately held company doesn't trade in that market. The buyer pool is smaller, the sale takes months, and what it's worth often depends on who's buying it, not just what it earns.