Jim Chalmers’ 2023 essay was written immediately after delivering his first Federal Budget and was presented as a new economic manifesto for Australia, a “values-based capitalism” built upon co-investment, market redesign, wellbeing frameworks and expanded public purpose. But by 2026, two projects alone stand as irrefutable evidence that this was not a durable economic framework. […]
Kevin Lovewell is an accountant specialising in Business Valuation.
AI and the Evolution of Valuation Practice Standards do not stand still. That is rather the point of them. The International Valuation Standards Council reviews and revises its standards on a three-year cycle. The current edition, effective 31 January 2025, represents the most recent iteration of that process. The next cycle is already underway. The […]
Kevin Lovewell is an accountant specialising in Business Valuation.
The Profit Paradox When the numbers look extraordinary, a good valuer asks why…. because sometimes the answer is hard to stomach. The numbers were remarkable. Revenue was strong, Gross profit seemed under control and fixed costs had fallen; business profitability had reached levels never previously achieved. The outgoing general manager, who also held a shareholding, […]
Kevin Lovewell is an accountant specialising in Business Valuation.
When staff side-hustle your intellectual property into the cloud, your competitive advantage quietly disappears. Let me describe a scene that is almost certainly happening in your business right now, today, whilst you are reading this. A member of your team has a task to complete. Perhaps they are drafting a proposal, summarising a client file, […]
Kevin Lovewell is an accountant specialising in Business Valuation.
AI has given many Australian business owners a tempting story: “We have built our own proprietary tool.” The test is whether that tool would survive due diligence, or whether part of it quietly belongs to someone else. The uncomfortable question: What do you actually own? Over the past two years, disputes over training data, open‑source […]
Kevin Lovewell is an accountant specialising in Business Valuation.
If you have already decided to sell, waiting for “better conditions” is not caution, it is value destruction in slow motion. The moment your heart leaves the business, the numbers usually follow. Why “I Will Wait for Better Conditions” Is A Dangerous Sentence In today’s environment, owners are squeezed by stubborn inflation, increasing borrowing costs […]
Kevin Lovewell is an accountant specialising in Business Valuation.
The Premise In the current scramble for “Digital Transformation”, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are integrating Artificial Intelligence at a pace that may be outstripping their limited governance. At Negotia Group, we are beginning to see a divide in how these tools can impact business value. Is AI a Strategic Asset that raises a business […]
Kevin Lovewell is an accountant specialising in Business Valuation.
Why buyers ignore your best year and focus on your trend Most business owners rely on the wrong number. They focus on the best year. Buyers do not. They look at the trend and more importantly, they ask a different question: What changed, and can it be repeated? The problem with a single result A […]
Kevin Lovewell is an accountant specialising in Business Valuation.
The Trend Is Your Friend Why patterns in your numbers matter more than the numbers themselves Most business owners look at a single year and ask,“What is my business worth?” Buyers do not. They look at the trend. And more importantly, they ask what the trend is telling them. What the trend actually reveals A […]
Kevin Lovewell is an accountant specialising in Business Valuation.
Business owners often assume buyers focus first on profit. In practice, experienced buyers rarely start there. The first question is almost always about risk. Not risk in the abstract sense.Risk in the practical sense of whether those earnings will survive once ownership changes. Two businesses can produce identical profits today and still attract very different […]
Kevin Lovewell is an accountant specialising in Business Valuation.
