Category Archives: Selling a business

They Who Giveth Can Taketh Away

Many business owners I know are troubled by the NBA’s insistence that Donald Sterling must sell the Los Angeles Clippers, and can do it only in a manner and to whom the league approves. Mr. Sterling has personally been banned from … Continue Reading

Posted in Customer Relations, Entrepreneurship, Selling a business | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Where Will All the Small Businesses Go?

What would the small business landscape look like if over one million small businesses disappeared? Get ready, it’s about to happen. I write and speak frequently about the passing of the entrepreneurial generation. Driven by competitive pressures to succeed, the … Continue Reading

Posted in Business Perspectives, Economic Trends, Entrepreneurship, Exit Planning, Exit Strategies, Selling a business, Strategy and Planning, Top Blog Posts | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Who’s Picking Up the Tab?

When a small business is sold, the total price of the business includes not only the cash paid, but any obligations assumed by the buyer on behalf of the seller. Transfer of a loan balance, accrued vacation pay for employees or … Continue Reading

Posted in Economic Trends, Exit Planning, John's Opinions, Politics and Regulation, Selling a business, Strategy and Planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What is Your Company Worth? II

Last week we discussed how business owners frequently use hearsay or incomplete information to estimate the value of their companies. They give the number to their financial planner, or include it on a personal financial statement for their banker, neither of … Continue Reading

Posted in Building Value, Entrepreneurship, Exit Options, Exit Planning, Exit Strategies, Selling a business, Strategy and Planning, Top Blog Posts | 1 Comment

What is Your Company Worth?

A business owner hires a financial planner to help him with his retirement options. They review the owner’s current assets, his house, stock portfolio and other investments. They go over his insurance coverage. Then the planner asks, “What about your company? How … Continue Reading

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Ready…Set…Exit! Part II

Last week we discussed the tsunami of Baby Boomer retirement, and how we will reach a peak of nearly 500 unsold businesses a day within the next 5 years. The statistics are immutable. The birthrates of the last century are … Continue Reading

Posted in Economic Trends, Entrepreneurship, Exit Planning, Exit Strategies, Selling a business, Strategy and Planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ready…Set…Exit! Part I

For the last six years I’ve been writing and speaking around the country to business owners about the coming tsunami of retiring Baby Boomer business owners. My e-book “Beating the Boomer Bust” details the  statistics (For a free download, go here … Continue Reading

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Exit Planning, Exit Strategies, Managing Employees, Marketing, Selling a business, Strategy and Planning | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Can Franchising Survive The Baby Boomers?

As a consultant to business owners, this is a column I’ve hesitated to write for a long time. There are over 800,000 franchised businesses in the United States, and I’m not going out of my way to make that many owners mad … Continue Reading

Posted in Business Perspectives, Economic Trends, Exit Planning, Exit Strategies, Selling a business, Strategy and Planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Boomer Business Owners’ Retirement Accelerates

Pepperdine University, in cooperation with the International Business Brokers Association and the M&A Source, publishes a quarterly Market Pulse Survey on the sale of small businesses in the United States. The most recent report, covering the fourth quarter of 2012, … Continue Reading

Posted in Economic Trends, Exit Planning, Exit Strategies, Life After, Selling a business, Strategy and Planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Business Value: Do Your Numbers Add Up?

Most small business owners don’t understand how to value their companies. For some, misunderstanding the way that buyers look at the value of your business can be very costly in the long run. The fourth of our Rights and Obligations … Continue Reading

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Exit Planning, Selling a business, Strategy and Planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The Road Less Traveled

Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Perhaps Robert Frost’s famous poem isn’t a perfect expression of what I am … Continue Reading

Posted in Building Value, Entrepreneurship, Exit Planning, Exit Strategies, Selling a business, Strategy and Planning | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Choosing a Buyer for Your Business

You may be questioning this title. After talking in depth about the shortage of buyers over the next 10 years, the differences in values and work habits of Generation X, and the competition for ambitious people from better financed and … Continue Reading

Posted in Exit Planning, Incentives, Selling a business, Strategy and Planning | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment