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Business Strategy Insights
The Exit Podcast: Tactical Acquisitions and the Importance of Scaling Fast with Tony Westfall
June 19, 2024 / in Business Strategy, News / by Exit Strategies
Exit Strategies Group M&A Advisor Tony Westfall recently was hosted on Flippa’s “The Exit Podcast” where he shared his insights on growth acquisitions and the importance of scaling quickly. Tony stated, “I started my career as a big company corporate guy and then transitioned to being an entrepreneur. I always knew that I really wanted to be involved in deal making though. Even as an entrepreneur, my favorite activities were always acquiring other businesses. When …
Exploring Donor-Advised Funds for Privately Held Business Owners’ Philanthropy
May 17, 2024 / in Business Strategy, Business Valuation / by Joe Orlando
For business owners of privately held companies seeking a seamless and impactful way to contribute to charitable causes, Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs) have emerged as a philanthropic and tax-efficient solution. These vehicles offer a flexible and tax-efficient way to manage charitable donations, allowing donors to make contributions to a fund and then recommend grants to their favorite charities over time. Many people have successfully used DAFs to support the causes they care about, and there are …
M&A Advisor Tip: Have the Discipline to Diversify
April 17, 2024 / in Business Strategy, Exit Planning, Sell a Business / by Exit Strategies
As a general rule, no single customer should account for more than 20-25% of your company’s revenue. While having major customers can be great for your bottom line, it represents substantial risk to you and the next owner. As you build your business, pay attention to what potential buyers will want. They’ll be looking for well-diversified customer base where the loss of one account won’t have a major impact on earnings. Do the hard work …
Are You an Expert at What You Do?
October 16, 2023 / in Business Strategy, Business Valuation / by Joe Orlando
So what is an expert and, more importantly, are you one? The term “expert” has many definitions. For anyone who has written a wedding toast or sat through a valedictorian’s speech you know how the next sentence starts…Webster defines an Expert as “one with a special skill or knowledge representing mastery of a particular subject.” If you click through the link you will notice an obsolete definition for the adjective: experienced. This distinction is important …
A Student of Business
July 18, 2023 / in Business Strategy, Business Valuation / by Joe Orlando
A Key Performance Indicator to Improve the Results of your Testing Lab Exit
May 22, 2023 / in Business Strategy, Sell a Business / by Adam Wiskind
When preparing to sell your Testing Laboratory using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can help to focus your efforts and resources in the right areas. While numerous KPIs exist, one metric that should be on the radar of all business owners in the testing laboratory industry is the Sales/Employee Ratio. Labor costs make up the largest single expense for Laboratory Testing businesses, accounting for an estimated 38.4% of industry revenue in 2022 (IBIS WORLD July 2022). …
Instead of selling, they’re growing
April 4, 2023 / in Business Strategy, Exit Planning / by Al Statz
If it’s a bad time to sell your business, consider growing instead. That’s the takeaway from one contractor whose plans to sell their business got squashed by inflation and supply chain issues in 2022. Pre-pandemic the business had been doing about $50 million in sales with $6 million in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, and depreciation). In most markets, that would have made this business a highly attractive acquisition target. But problems started when the …
How to Divest Part of a Company
March 7, 2023 / in Business Strategy, Exit Planning, Sell a Business / by Al Statz
Selling a division or line of business is often more complex than selling an entire company. If you’re like most private business owners, you have never sold a business, let alone carved out and divested part of one. This article shares some of what I’ve learned about planning and executing a successful divestiture during my 20+ years of investment banking. In my experience, most divestitures are intentional efforts to generate liquidity or streamline and strengthen …
Why boomer business owners should watch M&A cycles
August 18, 2022 / in Business Strategy, Exit Planning, Sell a Business / by Al Statz
Approximately 20% of private business owners are over the age of 65. Another 30% are between the ages of 55 and 64, according to estimates from the Census Bureau Annual Business Survey. If we’re going by age trends alone, that suggests roughly half of America’s businesses will transition ownership in the next five to 10 years. This will be the largest transfer of wealth the nation has ever seen in such a short period of …
M&A Advisor Tip: Niche companies can bring top dollar
August 18, 2022 / in Business Strategy, Sell a Business / by Al Statz
It’s often better to be #1 or #2 in a smaller/narrower market than a minor player in a larger/broader market. By targeting and dominating a distinct segment of a market, you help ensure that potential customers think of you first (brand recognition) and continually choose you, again and again. Dominant players usually have lower cost of customer acquisition, first call/last look with customers, and other advantages that drive profit margins up and accelerate growth. Niche …
Exit Strategies Group, Inc. is a leading provider of business sales and acquisitions, business valuations, and exit planning services for family owned and closely-held companies since 2002.
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