Forty percent of respondents to our recent BVWire poll cite practice management as their biggest concern for 2016 (see chart below). This includes issues such as competition, fee pressures, hiring, succession planning, and the like.

Fee pressures: A number of respondents included comments, and several noted an increased level of competition and a pressure on fees. One insightful comment: “Prospects seem to increasingly focus on the lowest bids under the assumption or misunderstanding that they are buying a commodity product. This problem is compounded by competitors' apparent willingness to undercut one another to win projects. Are there too many valuation professionals chasing too few opportunities?” Another respondent mentions the same issue and offers a suggestion: “Customers will ‘shop’ us all. However, we should be alluding to the specialized nature of the work we perform and should get paid accordingly.”

As for the rest of the survey responses, the second most cited concern is keeping up with developments in the profession (such as new information, continuing education, etc.), cited by 15% of respondents. Expanding into new areas of valuation (including exit planning and litigation) is cited by 12% of respondents, with the rest saying the regulatory and standards compliance (10%) and litigation issues (5%) are their chief concerns. A good number of respondents (19%) chose the “other” category, with the most prevalent answer related to business development and growth.

Full results: Check next week’s BVWire for a link to a complimentary download of the full results and all of the respondents’ comments (which are anonym0ous). Our thanks to all of you who generously responded!

BV practitioners’ biggest concerns for 2016