What Should Your Company Consider an Asset?
Navigating the world of tangible assets
When you step back and take a look at your company (whether for a business liquidation or simply to gain a better understanding of your company’s worth) it can be difficult to determine exactly what you should consider an asset. Depending on how long you have had some of your inventory, property, equipment and machinery it can be hard to determine how much it is still worth. We want to make sure that your company is being valued for what it is truly worth, as well as help you determine assets that you might not have considered before! Whether you’re asking yourself “what is an asset?” or “how do I know how much my depreciated assets are worth?” we hope to be able to help.
So What is an Asset?
According to Investopedia:
"An Asset is anything of value or a resource of value that can be converted into cash"
You most likely already knew that. However, there is much more to it than just that. Assets can be broken up into multiple categories in order to better determine their worth, liquidation capabilities and depreciation after initial purchase. Check out our info graphic to compare the two types of tangible assets:
How do I know what my assets are worth?
After you have determined what assets you have, you will want to know what they are worth. It may be hard for you to determine the value of one of your assets especially if it is currently in use. You may have bought it a while ago and it’s still working great but on the other hand it could have been sitting in storage for the past five years after being upgraded. Appraisers are great for helping you fully understand the value and worth behind your property – regardless if you plan on selling or not. Our sister company Miedema Appraisals provides professional appraisals in order to make sure you know the full value of your items (feel free to contact them here). You should also be able to determine the current value based off of the price you originally paid and the depreciation rate for the item. If you do not have that information available, you can shop around to see what similar pieces of used equipment are selling for and make a judgement call off of that. Having a proper estimate for what your assets are worth is extremely important when trying to expand or liquidate your business.
We want to make sure that you treat everything that your company owns as an asset so that you can profit the most from what you already have! Now that we’ve answered the question “what is an asset” and given you a few ideas in order to determine the value of your assets you should be good to go! If you need more help evaluating your assets or would like to sell through one of our auctions, please let us know! We would be more than happy to set up a time to talk with you – just contact us here!