1) Whether you are creating a plan to start a new business, considering selling your existing business or simply evaluating the worth of your enterprise, you will need to be able to estimate the future value of your business. 2) Operating income reveals how much profit or loss a business earns or incurs before taking interest expenses and taxes into account. 3) Estimating the future value of a company is not an exact science -- it's a prediction of the future. The risk that you assign to each contract should take into account the general economic climate and other conditions and circumstances pertaining to the industry in which the company is operating.