“Most people, advisors included, are uncomfortable reading balance sheets and cash flow statements and extrapolating a valuation,” Carter says. “We’re democratizing the process.”

Carter says his platform now helps advisors find and engage new clients and differentiate themselves by providing business valuations in fewer than 10 minutes.

Of the more than 200 million businesses in operation globally, fewer than 2 percent value themselves annually. Over the next 10 years, approximately 10 million businesses will change ownership, according to BizEquity, but 75 percent of small business owners don’t know what their business is worth.

Carter’s bet with BizEquity was that advisors were likely interested in getting a traditional business valuation but had been put off by the expense, time and invasiveness. According to Carter, traditional business valuations can cost as much as $8,000.

The company says advisors should seek out business owners as ideal clients. It presents statistics showing that the average business owner or partner has $1.2 million in investable assets. If the average client relationship were to last 8.5 years and if an average fee of 75 basis points were charged, a business owner client could bring an advisor approximately $82,500 in revenue.

Advisors also have a fiduciary duty to understand their clients’ finances in a holistic context, notes Carter, and doing so would be difficult without knowing the value of their business.

Business owners often hold mistaken assumptions about their business’s value, he says; technology companies often overvalue themselves while retailers, manufacturers and professional firms don’t value themselves highly enough.

The lack of knowledge puts small and midsize business owners at particular risk, says Carter, as they are unaware of how to create the right capital structure for their business, what amount of insurance to buy or how to plan for a business transition into retirement. According to BizEquity, 50 percent of small businesses are uninsured.

“Advisors should be able to answer whether their clients’ businesses need more insurance or to seek a different source of financing,” says Carter. “This kind of information can also help determine whether the client needs more insurance or a different portfolio allocation or a new retirement plan.”

According to BizEquity, more than three-quarters of business owners plan to fund 100 percent of their retirement through the sale of their business.