History
Gateway Valuation Consulting, LLC is a business valuation and consulting firm. The Company's Principal is a renowned author, international speaker and experienced industry professional.
Gateway's mission is to offer superior results with transparent pricing.
Unlike most firms where projects are pushed down to junior analysts, Gateway's customers are assured that their work is performed by a high-level industry professional. Most projects are reviewed for further quality control by industry thought leaders.
No red tape. No "that's how it's always been done" mentality. No opaque billable-hour billing practices (unless mandated by project/litigation).
Gateway's mission is your complete satisfaction.
Guaranteed.
About Gateway's Founder
Zach Sharkey founded Gateway Valuation Consulting, LLC, and serves as the Company's Principal. Zach is a professional business appraiser and consultant, providing valuation and consulting services to help businesses thrive. He’s an international public speaker on valuation and succession planning, and is the author of the highly-acclaimed book “Business Valuation for Business Owners,” and has been published and sought after for his expertise on valuation and corporate value enhancement.
Education
Zach is an MBA honors graduate and, as of January 2017, is one of only three CFA Charterholders in Missouri who is also a licensed CPA holding the Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV) designation conferred by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
Experience
With nearly two decades of public and private capital markets experience, Zach focuses on private company appraisal and business consulting.
Mr. Sharkey has served as a trustee and an advisor to trustees. Because of his experience in trusts, estates, and valuation, he also helps attorneys craft the valuation language for buy-sell agreements. You can read a sample of his published work on buy-sell agreement valuation here.
Zach has served on company boards as both a director and an advisor and has been appointed key interim operating roles, including an interim position as the president of a company in the automotive industry. He has reviewed hundreds of third-party appraisals for fiduciary accounts. Zach is passionate about helping business owners increase value, protect downside risk, and counsel owners as they walk through the various stages of a business life-cycle.
His passion for helping business owners led to the highly-acclaimed book Business Valuation for Business Owners, the first private-company valuation book titled and written specifically for closely-held business owners and the specific problems they face (and how to solve the problems).
The Fixed Fee Complete Value Guarantee™
Who buys a car without first knowing the price? Why would anybody wait to see how many hours it takes to make the car, and then pay for the auto manufacturer's time to make it? The accounting and valuation industries have used this practice (the billable hour) for more than a century. Instead of focusing on the outcome - customer satisfaction - the industry prices work on the labor required to construct the product and ignores the outcome.
What sense does that make?
Gateway's customers never question how much they will pay. All prices are quoted as fixed rates (except for litigation and litigation-related valuation assignments). Customers are always made aware of price changes if a change of scope occurs, and they have the option of accepting or rejecting the scope change before incurring additional fees.
Your complete satisfaction is guaranteed. If you aren't fully satisfied with the value received, Gateway will make it right until your expectations are met.
This guarantee can only be offered because Gateway provides exceptional service, focused on your needs, with prices known in advance.
* Guarantee excludes litigation services and valuation assignments that have a high probability of leading to litigation, as determined by Gateway Valuation Consulting, LLC.