There is an old vaudeville joke: A man with a gun stops a businessman and his wife on the street and says to the husband, “your wallet or your wife”, the husband pauses for a long time; alarmed, his wife says “just shoot him already...
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I was speaking with a professional advisor to business owners recently about my client screening process for selling a business. I said that to deliver the best result, I ask business owners to write down three sets of goals. The reason is that many,...
Read MorePeople sometimes ask me, "Paul, how can you work for other people after owning and later selling a business? Isn't that hard?" I used to reply, "work is called that for a reason, it's not playtime, so whether you own the business, or someone...
Read Moreby Paul Cronin Have you ever started a sentence that way? Selling a business is the goal (or dream) of many business owners, but then what? In other words, what is the purpose of selling your business? I read a great article in the...
Read MoreIt happened again today - Someone asked "what's the market like for selling a business?". I get asked that question a lot. It reminds of advice from the instructor for my real estate license "people will ask you, so how is the real estate...
Read MoreI periodically reach out to business owners by asking to connect on LinkedIn; some choose to connect, and some of those might be selling a business. I recently got a message back from one owner who connected with me, saying he should be thinking about...
Read More"Business Sucks", is what a client told me in early 2008. I was perplexed since the general economy then was still good. But the client served the restaurant and banking industries and they started feeling the 2007-09 recession early. At that moment,...
Read MoreI was having coffee with a financial advisor (Jerry) recently talking about clients and their sometimes irrational decisions. Jerry's client said that he wanted to retire at age 68 (about 7 years). He and his wife make about $900,000 a year and he wanted to...
Read MoreMost books that say they will help you make your business salable, are really built for bigger firms than the average Main street business. ValuDrive System by Tom Gledhill is not one of those, instead it is a straightforward way for any business owner to...
Read MoreMy annual homage to Thanksgiving and the foibles of business succession in families, first published in 2011. You might be wondering what Thanksgiving has to do with Business Succession, but let me explain further. I was at a local networking breakfast, and an advisor was sharing...
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