Your ExitMap Blog gathers contributions from top exit planning professionals across the country that are indexed into four categories. They include select strategies for planning your exit, ideas for building your company’s value, transfer options you can choose from, or preparing to enjoy your post-exit lifestyle. This page shows the most recent posts from Your ExitMap Blog. If you are seeking a qualified exit planning professional, you can view a map of specialists here.
All articles are copyrighted by the authors, and reprinted here with permission. Each author’s contact information is available via a link at the end of the article.
Most Recent Your ExitMap Blog Articles
Most Recent Blog Articles
Exiting a Family Business: Three Questions Transitioning a Family Business has special issues. This interview was reprinted last week in the newsletter of Steven Bankler, CPA. We asked San Antonio business consultant John F. Dini, one of the nation’s leading experts on business ownership and exit planning, for his advice on handing down the family business. As the author of Hunting in a Farmer’s World, Beating the Boomer Bust and 11 Things You Absolutely Need to Know About Selling Your Business, Dini literally “wrote the book” on succession planning. He recommends that Baby Boomers and other business owners with an eye on retirement carefully consider the following questions. What will your role in the company ... Read more Exiting a "Time and Place" Business “The purpose of middlemen in the marketplace is to provide time and place utility.” I remember the light bulb going on in Economics 101 when my professor said that. Suddenly, I understood the concept of added value. Someone had to get the product to the customer. “After all,” the professor continued, “The footwear manufacturer in Massachusetts can’t sell a pair of shoes directly to someone in California. They can’t manufacture and handle thousands of customers. It would be a nightmare, and completely unprofitable.” The fact that Massachusetts was still known for shoe manufacturing gives you some idea of how long ago this took place. So long ago, ... Read more The Unsellable Company What does an unsellable company look like? Some business brokers will assert that there is a buyer for any business. That may be true, but historically four out of every five small businesses listed for sale fail to sell. In this post I am specifically discussing profitable Main Street businesses. That is loosely defined as those valued at under $3,000,000. “Small” doesn’t necessarily refer to size. Some low margin businesses, such as those in distribution of commodity products, could have revenue well into eight figures and still be not command a $3 million valuation. Others, like those with proprietary software, might have a few million dollars in ... Read more A Transition to Exit Planning It is time for a new direction. This marks my 400th posting to this site. I’ve enjoyed writing weekly about the daily issues and opportunities of business owners for almost ten years, but it is time for a change. Awake at 2 o’clock has a new look and new navigation, although we decided to keep the title, logo and banner. More about that in a bit. First the why behind the change. Regular readers may have noticed that, over the last year, I have been turning more frequently to exit planning subjects. That reflects my own career progress. Before 2007 I sold businesses as a ... Read more Stop Managing 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 Exit Planning in a New Political Environment What does a new political environment mean for business owners who are planning to transition their businesses? Should you accelerate your plans, or slow them down? As I’ve said many times in this space and elsewhere, the biggest single factor in successfully selling a company is the current condition of the financial markets. Since the Great Recession, the Federal Reserve has poured new cash into the system at very low interest rates. This “cheap money” has trickled down to fund a wave of leveraged buyouts by financial professionals seeking a better return than that from more traditional investments. This wave of cash enables some 7,000 private equity ... Read more Exit Planning: Telling Secrets Planning your exit from a business is a process of telling secrets. For many owners, it is the most terrifying part of selling. A rancher in South Texas once said to me, “I’m going to tell you a secret, and you have to solemnly swear not to tell anyone. When you do, you have to make them swear the same thing.” Most business owners are very cautious about with whom they share their exit plans. The logic is intuitive. The more the information is shared, the bigger the chance is that someone will use the knowledge against you. Competitors will tell customers, insinuating that your company will no longer ... Read more Protecting Your Best Asset If you are planning your exit from the business, what is the best asset that you have to sell? Unless you have patented product, exclusive rights, or long-term customer contracts, you answer was likely “Our people.” Even if you have strategic differentiation like the ones above, “our people” was still likely a top-three answer. Proponents of Human Resource Accounting correctly point out that few businesses have a bigger investment. Hiring, training and developing talent is at the center of most successful organizations. But people aren’t chattels. How can someone rationally consider paying top dollar for your successful business when its best asset might disappear the ... Read more Exit Timing and the Global Economy How much will your exit timing be affected by the global economy? Most small businesses serve local markets. Their owners, if they have thought about it, plan to sell to a local individual. If the local market is healthy, why worry about the rest of the world? A few weeks ago I attended a presentation by Austan Goolsbee, former Chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors and the youngest member of his cabinet. Dr. Goolsbee was also a college champion debater (he beat Ted Cruz in the national finals) and a member of an improv troupe. That makes him an anomaly in the “dismal science;” ... Read more Business Buyers: The "Buy Now, Pay Later" Generation 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 |
|
Keystone Content:
Are you just beginning your exit planning journey? Here are two short articles from Your ExitMap Blog to help get you started. 3 Inarguable Reasons How prepared are you to Take a FREE 15-minute FIND A QUALIFIED EXIT PLANNER |
