O.C. city has most valuable businesses in U.S.

September 27th, 2008, 5:00 am · Post a Comment · posted by Jan Norman, small-business columnist

Irvine has the highest average valuation for small businesses, according to BizEquity.com, a valuation web site that calls itself the Zillow for small businesses.

The company used its proprietary database of millions of small businesses to create the “Top 10 MVB Cities” (most valuable businesses) list. Only cities with more than 100,000 residents were included.

BizEuity sample result page

BizEquity points out that U.S. small businesses are worth a combined $6 trillion.

Here are BizEquity’s “Top 10 MVB Cities”:

Irvine: $329,850
Boston, Mass.: $324,103
Sioux Falls, SD: $312,079
Santa Clara, Calif.: $310,653
New York, NY: $279,982
Tempe, Ariz.: $262,636
Wichita, KS: $259,512
Ann Arbor, Mich.: $256,894
Providence, RI: $256,741
South Bend, Ind.: $254,044

Similar to Zillow.com, BizEquity.com gives instant and free valuations for small businesses. The company says 65% of small-business owners don’t know how to quantify or calculate the financial value of their businesses.

“Accessing publicly available data for anyone who’s wondered what their own small business is worth (or what the competitor’s up the street is worth), we now provide a good ballpark estimate,” says founder Tom Taulli, formerly of Newport Beach. “From there, owners can also input detailed data about their business to get a more refined and accurate custom valuation, also free.”

Taulli points out that accurate business valuation information is increasingly important if lenders tighten their credit standards in response to the current financial crisis.

“We give small-business owners an immediate sense of the accuracy of the public data about them,” he says. “If you’re a pizza shop owner and you see that your business is valued at $35,000, you know something is wrong with the information that creditors and vendors are seeing when they research your business. Small business owners should know about this just as individuals should know if their personal FICO score information is wrong.”

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