Now most of my blogs have been supportive of SBO’s and I try to be objective and sensitive to the entrepreneurial spirit, but today was one of those days that I have to vent.  Today I am wearing my Advisor hat and nothing else.  I’m not a fellow business owner, or entrepreneur, just an advisor.  Consider me a coach, telling you the way it is.  I’m not going to defend or explain away […] Continue Reading…

I had a meeting today with a client interested in selling his business and we were talking about different types of buyers along with the pros and cons of each.  Now to him, any buyer is a good buyer that can show him the money.  In reality, like customers and employees, not everyone is ideal.  There are generally two camps of buyers: The inside camp (employee/family) and the outside or 3rd party camp (Financial and Strategic).  Since […] Continue Reading…

I am currently working with both sides of a relatively small business transaction.  I call it small, $100,000 purchase price, not to minimize the transaction value but a reflection of the owner’s goal to minimize all professional fees.  What seems to be consistent with SBO’s is their undying desire to “save” a penny at the expense of a dollar.  Now I walk both sides of the fence here because as an SBO, I pay those professional fees to my advisors to help me stay out […] Continue Reading…

SBO’s, and I have to include myself as one here, have been consistently told that one of our biggest weaknesses is that we work too hard IN the day to day operations and not enough ON the operations.  In other words, we spend more time reacting to what comes to us instead of planning and directing what we want.  We don’t spend enough time planning ahead, evaluating the past, researching enough and we don’t look 1-2 years ahead.  In all honesty, I […] Continue Reading…

When speaking with a investment advisor yesterday we talked about the market and whether or not this is the time to invest more money.  The discussion surrounded risk, the higher the risk an investment the higher rate of return I should expect.   Makes sense in the investment world but, as I reflected in the world of selling a business, the opposite is true.

Think about it from a buyers perspective, they are […] Continue Reading…