But how is she qualified to run my business?, the business owner asked. Good question, I thought. Most owners who are sell a business ask this question. A lot. Too few buyers ask this question of themselves. Why? Lots of reasons, but here are a few: 1. I have an MBA 2....
Read MoreIf you are a business owner, rather like card players, sometimes you need to know when to fold 'em. Susan was an owner in the 1980's who built a fabulous big box children's clothing store. Huge selection, deep discounts. She made millions of dollars and people...
Read MoreImagine you are selling your business. Imagine you have agreed to a price and terms with a buyer. Then imagine you learn that the buyer wants an escrow to cover some potential legal liabilities (this happens all the time, by the way), and your...
Read MoreThere 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 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 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 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...
Read MoreIn the book, "Sustainable: A Fable about Creating a Personally and Economically Sustainable Business", Josh Patrick winds a fine tale of a business owner who will sound remarkably familiar to a lot of business owners. Josh is fine story-teller, and I have been following his blog...
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