The good folks at the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal published my latest guest commentary this week [subscription required]. It was part of the "Northwest Arkansas' Largest Private Companies" issue. Here is the article in its entirety. Enjoy! I’m a sucker for a...
Category: Exit Planning
3 Ways to Avoid Disappointment When Selling Your Business
A New York Times blogger writes about the sale of a business that ended in disaster. Despite all of the details provided, it’s hard to know exactly what went wrong and why. Regardless, it’s a great opportunity to try and learn from someone else’s experience and avoid repeating these three mistakes.
7 things to do before signing a Letter of Intent
If you have ever promised your child a treat in return for good behavior, you know all about negotiating leverage. When selling an attractive business, you also have leverage — but only up to the point where you sign a letter of intent (LOI). Here are seven things you can do — before you even put your business up for sale, and before signing an LOI — to minimize the chances of your deal dragging on for months and becoming watered down.
Selling Your Business Is Like Thanksgiving Dinner
It’s not often that I’m able to weave grandmothers, due diligence and airborne mashed potatoes into one post, but last year I managed to do it in a New York Times piece titled 5 Reasons Selling Your Business Is Like Thanksgiving Dinner. I had a ball writing it, and I hope you’ll have fun reading it. Following is an excerpt that includes reasons number one and two.
You Sell A Business For The Same Reason You Start One: Freedom
The motivation to sell a business and start one often come from the same place: The desire for freedom. In this article we discuss the two types of freedom that come from selling a business: Financial freedom, and having complete freedom over your time.
4 Common Fears About Selling Your Business
As we get ready to welcome ghosts and goblins to our front door this Halloween, now seems like a good time to name some of the nagging fears we tend to have about selling our business. Following are four fears that can get in the way of a successful sale.
Tough Love For Family Business Transfers
While family-owned businesses can have impressive results, outperforming public companies in areas like stock price and return on equity, the statistics associated with ownership transfer are sobering. Following is my Email interview with best-selling author and third-generation business owner, Tom Deans.
3 Reasons Why We Decided To Sell Our Business
While every deal is different, the underlying reasons for selling a business tend to be quite similar. Regardless of the size of the business, its age (or that of the owner), the industry or geographic location, most of us end up reaching our limit as business owners...
The “Boots First” Exit Strategy
Exit planning is all about learning the options for your exit and finding a customized solution that works best for you, your company and your family situation. If working in your business until you cannot work anymore sounds like it is the best strategy for you, then here is how to implement your exit plan.
Exit planning and the secret powers of time
I recently ran across a YouTube video called The Secret Powers of Time. Behind the clever animation is the voice of Philip Zimbardo, a social psychology professor at Stanford who explains that how we view time — our orientation within six human time zones — affects every aspect of our lives. Our perspective on time influences who we are, how we view relationships and how we act in the world.