Breathing Properly as You Hike

New York City-based financial executive Kate Merli provides leadership to New 2nd Capital as the firm’s chief financial officer. Away from her work, Kate Merli stays active by hiking.

During any type of physical activity, your heart pumps faster to deliver the blood and oxygen your muscles need to work efficiently. Without enough oxygen, your muscles feel tired. This often occurs if you aren’t breathing properly when hiking.

To avoid this issue, decide whether breathing through your nose or your mouth works best for you. Typically, inhaling through the mouth and exhaling through the nose is the most efficient way of getting the air your body needs. However, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth filters small bugs and particles from the air.

After you choose your preferred breathing method, focus on breathing at a steady rate throughout your hike. To keep your breathing steady, time it to match your footsteps. 

Finding the right breathing speed is individual and depends on your personal fitness level. If you are running out of breath as you hike, consider slowing your pace.

Three Conventional Approaches to Company Valuations

New York-based finance professional Kate Merli serves as chief financial officer of New 2ND Capital, a private equity fund focused on investing in middle market companies. Possessing more than a decade of experience, Kate Merli has a strong understanding of valuations.

There are three conventional approaches to valuing a company: the cost approach, income approach, and market approach. To properly value a business, professionals may use any of these approaches individually or combine them. Each is briefly described below:

Income approach
Focused on a company’s future, the income approach to valuation converts predicted returns on investment to a current dollar amount, based on estimates of future cash flow. These estimates include future revenue growth, operating profitability, working capital requirements, and capital expenditure needs. To account for the risks associated with achieving the projected cash flow, the current valuation amount is often lower than the predicted income.

Cost approach
This approach determines valuation from a company’s current asset value, compared to the estimated value of liabilities. In many cases, this amount represents the floor value of the company, or the value a company can generate if its assets are entirely liquidated. Since cost approach valuations do not reflect future value, they are primarily used in the valuation of a holding company or capital-intensive business.

Market approach
Unlike income and cost approaches to valuation, a market approach focuses largely on the valuation of a business’ competing companies. The idea of this approach is that current stock market data of recently sold companies can provide an accurate idea of the value of a business with similar revenue, transactions, and growth.