This week’s M&A Weekly Digest covers how a partial sale could benefit you, why succession planning is so important if you want to sell your business some day, and what you need to know about the current M&A activity. Let’s get to it!
Make Your Business Buyer Ready With These 5 New Year Resolutions
December 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment
At The Private Business Owner, we’re all about sharing information that helps companies become buyer ready. Because business owners want to get the greatest return on their investment, we’ve compiled five simple new year resolutions that will prep your company for the day you decide to exit.
M&A Weekly Digest – September 30th, 2011
September 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment
It’s time for the M&A Weekly Digest. This week: U.S. job postings were up in July, reaching the highest numbers in three years; an introduction to an under-publicized program that could result in buyers for business owners; the four key steps to selling a business; and a look at a private equity firm that focuses on the middle market in the Midwest.
M&A Weekly Digest – September 23rd, 2011
September 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The M&A Weekly Digest features the next step–finding your buyers–in positioning your company to be buyer ready in the selling process; newly released data that indicates investors are interested in private equity firms with a middle-market specialty; and a pair of recently announced acquisitions that business owners can learn from.
How To Survive (And Even Thrive) During Economic Malaise
September 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment
It seems like on a daily basis now we are hit with a barrage of bad economic news. Although most experts do not expect a true double-dip recession to hit, many sectors of the economy have certainly slowed. Given this reality, we thought it might be a good idea to share some sage advice we came across recently on how to survive an economic slowdown. Both Thor Harris, president of the PR firm Percepture, and Carol Tice of Entrepreneur.com have come up with a few great ideas on this topic.
M&A Weekly Digest – August 19th, 2011
August 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The Private Business Owner is starting a new feature that provides M&A news and tips each week. Jumping right into this week’s highlights, there is good news for all of North America, as the U.S. re-shoring initiative has gained more traction and Canadian M&A activity was up the second quarter of this year. M&A activity continues to recover nicely and the last week of July had 11 IPOs, making it one of the busiest weeks in 2011.
For those interested in learning more about the process of selling a business, you can learn about the valuation, the next step after creating a sustainable business and deciding to sell it.
Is Your Business Buyer Ready? Your Customers Have the Answer
August 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Running a successful business is the goal of every business owner. Eventually though you will need to sell the company in order to move on to your next venture or to retire and sail off into the sunset Jimmy Buffett style. In order to obtain the most money upon the sale of your company,you will need to ensure that every aspect of your company is “buyer ready.” Developing an ongoing, stable revenue stream comprised of satisfied customers is one of the most important things you can do to make your company buyer ready.
A couple of months ago, John Warrillow wrote an article for Inc.com called “One Question Can Predict the Future of Your Company.” In it, he discusses a common problem for all business: monitoring customer satisfaction levels.
How to Find & Retain People for Jobs No One Wants
August 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Let’s all be honest here. Every company has them, jobs that are so “miserable” that it is almost impossible to find anyone to do them. And if you are lucky enough to hire someone for that miserable job, you then have to work really hard to retain them.
I use the word “miserable” here as a term to describe those jobs that you probably wouldn’t want to do yourself but usually are critical and vital for the your daily operations to run smoothly. The sad reality is that these jobs are usually some of the most important you could fill because the role is critical in keeping your business functioning.
So how do you do it?
The Challenges of Growing a Business To Make It Buyer Ready
July 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Those of you that read this online publication on a regular basis know that we started a conversation several weeks ago on the topic of creating a buyer ready business. The first article looked at the emotions involved in deciding to sell and the second article examined some specific steps to create a buyer ready business.
So I was intrigued when a colleague forwarded an article delving into the challenges of growing an “entrepreneurial business.” This is a business that doesn’t just survive through the years but also thrives. This would also be, in keeping with our theme, a buyer ready business. So I thought I would share a few ideas from Ed Hess, professor of business administration and Batten Executive-in-Residence at University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.
Becoming Buyer Ready and Selling Your Company: Part II – Knowing What Buyers Value
July 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment
A few weeks ago, we discussed the first step in building a buyer ready business. In the piece, we defined the first step as the challenging decision to actually exit your company. In hindsight the title was a bit misleading because the first step in building a buyer ready business begins literally when you open the doors of your business. And it is refined as you run your business over the years by clearly understanding what buyers will find unique and attractive about your company.
Management guru Peter Drucker once said:
“The buyer rarely buys what the seller thinks he’s selling.”
This statement implies that the features you find attractive about your company may not ultimately be the same features a buyer finds important. So what are buyers looking for? What makes a company “buyer ready” from an acquirer’s point of view? In general, there are a number of common items that buyers look for when examining acquisition targets.
