Archive for 'Blog'

If you’ve been lucky, since 2008 your business has been relatively unscathed by the financial turmoil and resulting uncertainty.  It’s likely that most small businesses will be affectied negatively as we move ahead into 2012 and a recessionary economy with continued uncertainty.  Depending on who and what you read, this recession could last 12 – 24 months or more.  So what are you, an average business owner, to do in an environment like this?

We think a couple of things.  First, don’t ...

If your web presence includes the ability for your customers to order products and services, you should be aware of how their minds work when they are using your site.  Start by thinking about the way you shop on-line.  Have you ever heard yourself ask these questions while deciding to purchase something on-line:

1. I don’t know who you are so how can I trust you?
2. What are you going to do with my precious credit card and personal information?

So thought the New York Times until 2009 rolled around.  Then, someone did some interesting math.  According to the Silicon Valley Insider, the NY Times could buy EVERY ONE of their subscribers an Amazon Kindle for 1/2 the cost of publishing the traditional newspaper for 1 year.

And just think, once the Kindles are purchased, their purblishing costs go down by another 90% since they only have to buy Kindles for new subscribers.  That’s an amazing change in a ...

The recession has us all wondering “what do I do now?”  I’d planned on exiting my business and thought the exit was just around the corner.  Now, valuations are depressed, the banking situation isn’t allowing deals to get done, private equity firms are focusing on maintaining current portfolio holdings, and on and on.

The good news is that the lapse in activity in the M&A space allows you some time to position you company for even more value than it would ...

Okay, there’s a bit of sarcasim in that title but we needed to get your attention.  No matter how big or small your company is, always keep your eye on these 10 things:

1. Working capital – having enough working capital on hand or having easy access to working capital is critical.  The need is even greater during slow economic times.  For example, what will you do if your revenue drops by 50%?  Or what if your major competitor’s revenues ...

For some time, I’ve been looking for a reasonable explanation as to how the “finanical crisis” came about and how some firms were labeled as “to big to fail”.  Because of our orientation towards small business, we’ve simply not dealt alot in with the types of institutions these terms apply to.  That said, we’re all dealing with the fallout from this process.

This article from DealBook does a great job of explaining what went wrong and how the regulatory ...

Knowing your customers and what makes them buy from you is important.  It’s also important for you to know and understand your competition.  Remember, your customers are sometimes only one click away from being someone else’s customers so know what might make them change their buying habits.  It’s always good to know and revisit the following things about your competition:

1. Products & Market Emphasis – you certainly know the products they sell that compete with yours.  But do you understand their ...

The recession is lasting longer and is deeper than anyone expected.  When a business fails, the cause can be traced back to several fundamental reasons.  Knowing those, may arm you with the ability to track your business now to avoid a catastrophic failure in the future.  What should you be looking at early and often?

1. Sales forecasts

   Mistake – small businesses are known for not doing an adequate job in forecasting sales.  Remember, a sales forecast is NOT: “we’ll increase revenue 18% ...

Are historical financial metrics the exclusive drivers of your company’s value?

Yes, if they’re all you can prove to potential investors or buyers.  But what else can you show them that would potentially drive up your company’s valuation?
Small to medium sized businesses, while being the primary driving force behind the US economy, are difficult to value.  Investors traditionally have relied on historical financial measures such as multiples of trailing twelve months (TTM) earnings before income taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) ...

As the old saying goes, three things drive value in real estate: location, location, location.  While that saying can provide an inkling of the value of the real estate your business owns, what drives the value of the business itself?

Small Business Valuation Drivers

Regardless of who you look to for statistics, the fact of the matter is small business is the heart of the American economy.  Consider numbers like small business:

• Represents more than 99.7% of all employers
• Create about ¾ of the ...