new business Archives - Your ExitMap

EBITDAC : What is Your Business Worth Now?

John F. Dini — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 17:14:50 +0000

Several friends have sent me a picture of an EBITDAC coffee mug this week. As it states, EBITDAC stands for Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, Amortization and Coronavirus. Will this be the new measure of cash flow for valuing your business? A bleak joke, but one that is on the minds of many business owners, especially Baby Boomers in their late 50s and 60s. Many were postponing their exit planning because business has been so good. As one client told me, “In March we had the best year in the history of my company. It looks like April might be the worst.” Downturns aren’t new, ... Read more

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Stop Managing

John F. Dini — Sun, 29 Jan 2017 17:39:52 +0000

Why would anyone advise business owners to stop managing? Management is a proven science. From the time and motion studies of Frederick Winslow Taylor in the late 1800s, to Matthew Kelly and Patrick Lencione’s Dream Manager, we are constantly in search of ways to make employees more effective. Management trends (some say “fads”) come and go. Wikipedia lists a number of major theories since the 1950s, including Management by Objectives, Matrix Management, Theory Z, One-minute Management, Management by wandering around, Total Quality Management, Business process reengineering, Delayering, Empowerment, 360-degree feedback, Re-engineering and Teamwork. You could probably throw in a couple of offshoots like ISO 9000, Open Book ... Read more

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Business Buyers: The “Buy Now, Pay Later” Generation

John F. Dini — Sun, 16 Oct 2016 10:00:16 +0000

If you are preparing to sell your business, your buyers will likely be members of the “buy now, pay later” generation. Generation X is the first demographic group to be raised in a culture that put little emphasis on savings. Diner’s Club was introduced as the first “charge card” in 1960. By the end of that decade competition from member cards (American Express and Carte Blanche) and bank-owned revolving finance cards (MasterCard and Visa) began placing millions of cards in consumers’ hands. In a competitive credit environment, advertising for the revolving charge cards was directed to the pleasures of paying for something after you already enjoyed the ... Read more

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The Seventh Entrepreneurial Sin — Pride

John F. Dini — Sun, 06 Mar 2016 16:22:10 +0000

Every business owner should be proud of his or her business. If you are the founder, you built every system, and probably landed the biggest customers. If you bought the business, you took what was in place and made it fit your vision and style. But there is a dividing line between pride in what you’ve created and thinking that you are the business. Taking pleasure in seeing people add value and produce wealth is justifiable pride. Thinking that it exists only because of you is “sinful” pride. (This is the eighth in a series on The Seven Deadly Sins of an Entrepreneur. It starts ... Read more

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The 7 Deadly Sins of an Entrepreneur

John F. Dini — Sun, 10 Jan 2016 18:02:47 +0000

The Seven Deadly Sins are alive and well in small businesses today. Far from being a hoary religious holdover from the Dark Ages, they are practiced assiduously by entrepreneurs everywhere. There is something to be said for any concept that catches the public imagination for fifteen centuries. First postulated by Saint John Cassian around 400 AD, the sins were codified by Pope Gregory the Great in the late sixth century, and popularized by Dante Alighieri in “The Divine Comedy” in 1315. They remain present on a daily basis in many businesses through the 21st century, 700 years on. The Seven Deadly Sins are Lust, Gluttony, Sloth, ... Read more

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Ageing Boomer Entrepreneurs: Fearful or Smart?

John F. Dini — Sun, 19 Jul 2015 15:41:49 +0000

Do we become more cautious with age? Startups are usually associated with younger entrepreneurs. By the time they reach their 50s or 60s business owners tend to tackle fewer big new ideas. Those that do tend to be successful enough that they can segregate the risk in a way that won’t threaten their core livelihood. Are they smarter, or just more fearful of failure? There are any number of business axioms about the value of experience. “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.” or “Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from bad decisions.” Does the caution that accompanies age come from experience, ... Read more

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