Selling a business – Why not all cash?
I meet with prospective business sellers routinely. We get chatting about the value of the business. They give me the materials to value their business. I come back with a proposal, a likely formula might be terms of 1/3 down by the buyer and the seller finances 2/3. Two of three sellers then say, "Oh, I won't sell my business and finance the buyer. I must have all cash." The [...]
Buying & Selling Businesses – Financing gone amuck
Certainly in the art of buying and selling businesses, financing can be a key component, perhaps one of the larger features needing attention, often of both buyer and seller. This year of economic downturn, financing has become in some cases very complex and in others much more simple. The latter "simple" is reflective of the ONLY way a buyer will be financed is with a willing buyer. Typically when I [...]
Do horses like carrots & entreprenuers like businesses?
When I take a break from selling and working with businesses, my husband and I often take a walk past some horses. On each of these outings we get all the way to where the horses are and THEN remember we should have brought carrots. Now the horses will likely never forget they like carrots even if we don't bring them every time or bring too few. Likewise, entrepreneurs are [...]
Taxes can help a buyer evaluate the revenue of a business for sale.
Business sellers like most folks really don't enjoy paying taxes. Yes, really. A wise business buyer, uncertain about the true revenues of a business for sale, can get a sense of reality by examining sale tax and federal income tax filings. Usually sales tax filings include a record of revenues received and are usually filed close to the end of the reporting period. Likewise federal income tax reporting shows total [...]
What do a house for sale and a business for sale have in common?
Both a business and house for sale need cleaning. In fact the business for sale may have more cleaning to do than the house.
Selling a Business – Buyers Prepare
When is it too soon for preparing a business for sale? Is the buying stage too early? Perhaps not.
Be present to sell a business.
Business owners who want to sell a business need to be present for the years leading up to sale. How does presence influence selling a business?
Business as an antilobbyist
Businesses, however many million we have in this country are often the source of funding for the lobbyists that fuel the votes from our congress, votes we may or may not agree with. However, it is typically not the small business owners working, funding the lobby mill. In the past two days I have as a business owner been engaged in a discussion and a letter writing campaign regarding the [...]
Do we/I curate business?
Business needs caring for too. In the October 4, 2009 Style section of the New York Times, there was a cover article about how the use of curate and curator, traditionally terms exclusively related to the art industry, has been adopted by other professions such as fashion, food, music, and antiques, e.g. curating an antique collection. My argument is that business needs to be curated too. The Oxford Dictionary defines [...]
Business Smarts (ouch!)
The practice of business is not all fun and games. (Just in case you had not noticed!) The second definition of "smarts" in the Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus, online issue, is "sharp stinging pain." How this applies to doing business it is really not too difficult to conjure up. It is the trusted colleague who goes behind you, cutting you out of the deal. It is the friend who uses [...]
One way to ruin a good deal.
A number of years ago, I was in exploring buying businesses in New Mexico and beyond. My connection in most of these efforts was through business brokers. In one process the following happened: The business owner invited me, a prospective buyer, to meet with him. An offer to purchase had been signed by both parties and we were in the due diligence period. The broker was not to be at [...]
Reward of Good People and Hard Work
Non-profits are not immune from the economic challenges facing so many. In this survival mode, can organization leaders look within and find the strength to not only plan for additional disaster but make itself stronger for any economic time? I learn yesterday that indeed they can. The Espanola Valley Humane Society leadership, spent five hours with a volunteer facilitator, Tom Allin, one of the owners of Jinja in Santa Fe. [...]