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Business Strategy Insights
Exit Planning: Meaning and purpose drives sustainable business growth
September 26, 2017 / in Business Strategy, Exit Planning / by Al Statz
Several years ago I had the opportunity to work on an acquisition assignment for Mitsubishi Electric, one of the multinational business units of the Mitsubishi group of companies. While doing research to better understand my client’s organization, I found an inspiring article that quoted Tachi Kiuchi, Mitsubishi Electric’s managing director at that time… “Are the needs of the corporation and the world in conflict? In the long run, they can’t be. Today, 600 million of the Earth’s …
Six Reasons NOT to Skim
August 9, 2017 / in Business Strategy, Exit Planning, Sell a Business / by Don Ross
Pulling unreported cash receipts out of a business is indefensible and unwise under any circumstances, but particularly if the owner expects to exit in the next 3-5 years. All of us during our childhood were offered the parental edict: “Don’t do it, you are only hurting yourself.” So “why”, you may ask . . . now that you are a grown adult, “should I not skim?” Many reasons immediately come to mind and I am certain …
Goethe on Exit Planning
June 2, 2017 / in Business Strategy, Exit Planning / by Al Statz
Early this morning at my Rotary meeting I heard a quote that struck a chord with me. Our speaker, Stephan Stubbins, recounted the story of how he co-founded a successful theater company that helped save one of our local state parks. Once Stephan and his partners quit their jobs and fully committed themselves to starting a theater company, things started to happen for them. The quote he shared is by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ( 1749 – 1832) the prolific German …
Do Your Business Emails Convey Professionalism?
March 16, 2017 / in Business Strategy / by Jim Leonhard
Normally we blog about M&A or Business Valuation issues, but this week I want to address email effectiveness, a subject important to all business people considering the tsunami of email messages most of us receive each day (an estimated 121). I recently read an article from the Harvard Business Review that succinctly focused on important do’s and don’ts regarding business emails, including: Do keep emails brief, clear and to the point to capture attention and interest …
Economic indicators help put the current U.S. economic climate in perspective.
January 25, 2017 / in Business Strategy, News / by Louis Cionci
I have four common gauges of U.S. economic activity that deserve a few moments of your attention today: stock market, interest rates, inflation and unemployment. Let’s look at graphs of each of these measures for a visual perspective on the state of our economy. Stock Market. The Wall Street Journal, Equities pg. B17, January 25, 2017 reported the DJIA rose 100 points amid expectations of increased government spending on infrastructure projects. The DJIA crossed the 20,000 mark …
Rising Interest Rates and Investment
December 21, 2016 / in Business Strategy, Business Valuation, News / by Exit Strategies
Since July, the benchmark interest rate, the US 10-year treasury bond, has risen from 1.35% to over 2.55%. That’s a very big move in a short-period. Post-election day the rising rate trend accelerated. We saw a similar spike in 2013, only to see rates retreat. Is it different this time? Valuation Building Block Markets seem to believe that current rates are sustainable and can keep rising given the lower tax and infrastructure spending pronouncements coming …
Buried in the Corporate Archives – a Valuation Case Study
August 23, 2016 / in Business Strategy, Business Valuation / by Exit Strategies
A lot of our valuation work is done for the purpose of internal share transfers of private businesses, or buy-sell transactions. In doing this work, we often see that owners have overlooked or neglected to keep important documents up to date. One such document is the buy-sell agreement, which articulates important legal, tax, valuation and financing issues that are important to ensuring smooth share transfers and business continuity. We recently evaluated a holding company with a fair …
What you don’t know about your business name can hurt you.
July 20, 2016 / in Business Strategy / by Al Statz
In my work as an M&A Broker and Business Valuation Expert, I’ve noticed that many business owners don’t understand how their trade names are protected. San Jose attorney David Burgess recently wrote an article addressing common fallacies in this area, which I felt compelled to pass along … 5 FALLACIES ABOUT PROTECTING YOUR BUSINESS NAME by David C. Burgess, Esq. You have worked hard to choose the perfect name for your business. You want to be …
5 Strategies to Preserve Core Values during a Business Sale
May 25, 2016 / in Business Strategy, Sell a Business / by Adam Wiskind
For many owners selling their business is not a simple financial transaction, it’s personal. Owners have poured blood, sweat and tears into building a business that is not only profitable but represents their values as individuals. Their businesses become not just their livelihood but their self-worth and connection to some of their most important relationships. The business values and culture are reflected in the everyday interactions with clients, vendors and employees. Often owners live in …
Good Exit Planning: First and Foremost, A Valuation of the Company
December 28, 2015 / in Business Strategy, Exit Planning, Sell a Business / by Bob Altieri
With the baby boomer generation retirement rush beginning to take hold, many business owners lack sufficient information about the value of their business for retirement planning purposes and don’t foresee the deal killers that await them. A Deal Killer is a condition that, if undetected and unresolved before the sale of a business, will kill the transaction. The purpose of pre-sale planning is to maximize sale proceeds (as well as to achieve other non-financial goals), …