Some business owners confine their working knowledge of finances to what’s in the bank today vs. what needs to be paid today. Others will give a quick glance at monthly financial statements their bookkeepers have given them. But the most savvy business owners take those financial statements and examine some simple financial ratios in order […]
The subtitle of Aaron Muller’s book is “How to Buy a Business, Grow Your Profits, and Make it Run Without You.” While entrepreneurship has perhaps never been more in the public consciousness, the phrase “lifestyle business” is still not commonly known in the general public, and this book goes a long way to addressing that […]
The new year is upon us, and it happens to be an election year. While the ups and downs of politics may seem to be, at first glance, unrelated to the buying and selling of businesses, the 2020 election promises two different visions for the country in relation to taxes and wealth. That said, it’s […]
A lot of business press focuses on the “next big thing,” or unicorns that roam around (or more often than not, get killed) the rarefied air of Silicon Valley. But you won’t often hear about those “boring” businesses that quietly bring in significant incomes for the owners and employees, because these businesses are in mature, […]
One of the things we strive for as advisors is for our sellers to be in conversations with multiple buyers. An exit is a significant life event, and we want there to be various options with their upsides and downsides so the seller can revisit all the points he/she said really mattered. In this article, […]
John MacInnes started Print Audit in 1999. He aimed his software at anyone who would normally charge people for printing costs, like law firms or schools. Those businesses were often very aware of photocopy costs, but not of direct printing costs, and the software Print Audit provided allowed those individual prints to be properly assigned […]
Sometimes businesses come to us that need a bit of creative spark to sell properly. This is often because the business is in a unique situation. These are often fun for us as advisors because it gives us the opportunity to deploy our creativity and find solutions that get us offers. In this article, we […]
Recurring revenue businesses, particularly those built around subscriptions, are becoming more and more popular in the internet era. Even better for those interested in selling, they often fetch a higher multiple than businesses that do not have subscription/recurring revenues. There are three numbers that anyone building such a business should spend a lot of time […]
We’ve seen the question posed so often after completing a transaction that we know the words by heart: “How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague?” Unless you had a strongly positive or strongly negative experience, you’ll usually just click past this online or walk past the various […]
As part of our job as business brokers, we cultivate long-term relationships with buyers and sellers. We do so with the latter because sometimes we plant the seed of possibly selling a company years and years before it may happen. With the former, it’s a question of earning trust by consistently bringing solid opportunities. Sometimes […]
