Here’s a good tip for all private middle market business owners looking to improve the value of their business: Act like a public company.

According to Robert Slee, author of Private Capital Markets: Valuation, Capitalization and Transfer of Private Business Interests, private companies that structure themselves and act like public companies reap tremendous advantages regardless of whether they ever become a public company:

Here’s why: When performing a market valuation of a private company for new financing or other reasons, analysts tend to use public “comps” of like public company transactions. In most cases this is the only available data in the market.…