When it comes time to sell a business, not everything goes as planned. You may be one of the lucky ones and find that selling your business is a streamlined process with only a few unexpected occurrences. But most CEO's looking to sell a business find they can expect the unexpected. Let's take a closer look at some of the top surprises CEO's experience during the sale process. Unexpected Occurrence #1 – Surprisingly Low Bids CEO's looking to sell their businesses need to be ready for almost anything. One of the larger surprises that CEO's face are surprisingly low bids. Don't let low bids shock you. Unexpected Occurrence #2 – A Huge Time Commitment CEO's have to make sure that everything from an offering memorandum to management presentation and suggestions to potential acquirers are ready to go. The offering memorandum is considered the cornerstone of the selling process and is typically at least 30 pages in length. Most business intermediaries expect the potential acquirers to … [Read more...]
Archives for July 2017
Do You Really Understand Your Customers?
The time you invest getting to know and understand your customers is time very well spent. The feedback you get is gold, pure gold. Yet, there are other reasons why this is a prudent move. Let's take a look at some of the key reasons you should learn more about your customers and their specific needs. Today's world has become increasingly impersonal. Most of us spend a shocking amount of time looking at one type of digital screen or another. Personal interaction isn't what it once was, and you can use that fact to help build your business. The Ultimate Form of Customer Service Good old fashioned human contact goes a long way when it comes to keeping customers happy, loyal and returning. The personal touch can go a long way towards building your business by improving customer service. Customer service has become, in general, a very impersonal experience for most people in the modern world. In most businesses, the owner is more of an impersonal theoretic concept that an actual … [Read more...]
The Top 3 Key Factors to Consider about Earnings
Two businesses could report the same numeric value for earnings but that doesn't always tell the whole story. As it turns out, there is far more to earnings than may initially meet the eye. While two businesses might have a similar sale price, that certainly doesn't mean that they are of equal value. In order to truly understand the value of a business, we must dig deeper and look at the three key factors of earnings. In this article, we'll explore each of these three key earning factors and explore quality of earnings, sustainability of earnings after acquisition and what is involved in the verification of information. Key Factor # 1 – Quality of Earnings Determining the quality of earnings is essential. In determining the quality of earnings, you'll want to figure out if earnings are, in fact, padded. Padded earnings come in the form of a large amount of “add backs” and one-time events. These factors can greatly change earnings. For example, a one-time event, such as a real … [Read more...]