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Peter C. King, CEO
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| Financing for Small Business Owners Continues to Improve
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A sign thatlending for small businesses continues to improve is the recent report that Wells Fargo approved more than $548 million in SBA 7(a) loans nationwide so far this year. As reported byMarket Watch and Business Wire, Wells Fargo has continued to issue the most SBA loan dollars tosmall business owners than any other lender in the country.
The announcement came as Wells Fargo started its annual Small Business Appreciation, which celebrates how important small businesses are to the U.S
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| Keeping Yourself Open to Buyer Inquiries for Your Business
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All businesses are inquired by a variety of different buyers - some are qualified while others are tire kickers. If you're a business owner, you may not be thinking of selling right now; however, the time will come when you hit the wall and decide right at that moment you need to find a qualified buyer to take over the reins. Therefore, if a buyer walks through the door of your establishment and give you an offer, don't turn it down first.
Suppose you’re approached by another company that
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| Remembering Assets in a Business Valuation
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Did you know that a business' assets are an important piece to a business valuation? Most people involved in selling their business underestimate the importance of the fair market value of their assets. Relying solely on book value or your best estimate will cost you a lot of money left on the table. In order to perform an accurate valuation for your business, you have to examine the value of its assets.
When discussing hard assets, there are various categories such as:
Furniture, Fix
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| The Importance of Networking
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With the arrival of 2012, it’s important to reach out to new potential buyers and sellers in the marketplace and marketspace. Regardless of whether you’re in a small and large market, being part of your local chamber of commerce is important. Many will hold community seminars and meet-and-greet events with business leaders and owners in the area. Remember, even with all the new technologies that we have at our disposal today; it’s not only what you know, but who you know that
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| Elements to Avoid When Valuating a Business
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When valuating a business, it's important to understand the common mistakes that can be made. At VR, we perform a business valuation that is not only comprehensive but avoids relying on certain elements such as the following.
Unrealistic Cash Flow Projections
The most common mistake typically made in valuation is unrealistic cash flow projections vs. the discount rate being used in the discounted future cash flow analysis.Aggressive growth projections, when not well supported by good market
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| Educating Yourself to the Workings of an M&A Transaction
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Acquisitions will always be utilized by businesses to accomplish a variety of strategic objectives with sales being the most common means to monetize an investment.
Currently, the market is ripe for M&A activity as:
Public companies with deflated stock prices become more susceptible to takeovers, and
Those seeking financing for expansion do not have the same access as they once did.
Ultimately, many business owners will be involved in some sort of M&A transaction. Although th
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| Making an Alliance Work in Business
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Forging an alliance with another companyin buying a business can be very successful, but requires that the partners are culturally compatible. This involves more than being polite to each other and throwing resources, processes, people and customers into a venture. You must put it together carefully.
Conduct an Assessment of All Sides’ Cultures and Management Styles
Examine every party’s values. Ask some simple questions, such as:
How will your partner handle a breakdown o
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| Developing a High Performance Business Web
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The first step in creating a high performance business web is to separate the value proposition that the end customer receives and experiences. Think about the genuine customer needs that your service addresses, not just what you do to get the business. Avoid preoccupation with the channels that stand between you and the real customer. Take apart the end customer’s experience in terms of your value proposition as well as the enabling services, resources, business processes and organization
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| Understanding Transaction Costs for Your Business
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To understand transaction costs for your business, you must first ask yourself why your business exists. Why doesn’t market pricing regulate all economic activity? Why isn’t each person at every step of production and delivery an independent profit center?
In 1937, Nobel laureate Ronald Coase asked these questions, in which he blamed transaction costs for the contradiction between market agility and a business’ stubborn durability. Businesses, in general, incur transaction
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| Raising the Bar: How to Set Effective Targets
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As business owners and managers, we all want more productivity from our employees and associates. Often as managers we have no choice, because in reality we need more productivity. We must continue to raise the bar under pressure from all sides; enforced cost cutting, volatile labor markets, fresh competition from developing nations, increasingly in charge customers, and we have to do it with fewer people and less leverage.
It’s a well-established fact that setting concrete objectives r
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| Determining Risk when Buying a Business
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Risk can be influenced by the stage of the venture, the competitive advantage, proprietary technology, the expertise and experience of management and many other factors that can determine whether a venture succeeds or fails.
It is possible for a venture to fail and lenders to get their money back. This is the strategy used by asset-based lenders. Banks want businesses to have sufficient cash flow to be able to repay their loan and interest. They also insist on a secondary source of repayment,
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| Ensuring Your Business Retains Its Value when Looking to Sell
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Owning a business takes a lot of hard work and dedication. Most of all, you need to have a passion for what you do on a daily basis – managing the business effectively, handling day-to-day operations, attending to situations when they evolve, etc. Like anything in life, your ownership days have a start and an ending point. The latter of which can happen at any time.This can lead you to decide it’s time to sell the business to someone else.
There are a variety of different factors
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| Generating a Plan for Your Business
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Deciding to buy a business is an exciting, yet scary process. Developing a business plan can help ensure that you know where you want to take your business and how to get there. As a result, you have a "roadmap" to help you achieve your goals as a business owner.
Defining Your ObjectivesBefore entering the market, you should realistically examine your objectives.
There are a number of reasons for why you should buy a business.
Your business objectives may be met faster and at lower cost
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| Seller Financing Contributes to Successful Business Sales
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As is taught in training at VR Corporate for all franchisees, seller financing can helpsell a businesses. Most sellers are entrepreneurial like your past and present clients, selling one business to invest in another.
You can bring both buyers and seller together to close a deal through seller financing. This can help you in a variety of circumstances where obtaining capital from lenders can bedifficult in this economy.
Benefits of Seller Financing
The major advantages to using sell
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| Investigate Your Financing Options When Buying a Business
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Raising capital is one of the most important requirements when you buy a business. You will be required to prepare a well-thought-out business plan. This is vital not only for when you are using capital to buy a business but also for budgeting initial operating expenses. Additionally, a business plan will help creditors to determine the maximum amount and terms of financing that will be made available to you.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT FINANCING OPTIONS
Since most financial institutions only provide 8
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| If You’re Serious about Buying a Business
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A serious buyer should have the answers to the following questions before looking into purchasing a business.
Why are you consideringbuying a business at this time?
What is your time-frame to find a suitable business?
Are you open-minded about different opportunities, or are you looking for a specific business?
Have you set aside an amount of capital that you are willing to invest?
Do you really want to be in business for yourself?
Are you currently employed or u
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| Five Pointers When Thinking of Selling a Business
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Everything always has a beginning, middle and an end. This is true when you look at business ownership. Any business owner will inevitably start thinking of selling their business somewhere down the road. The smart business owner will start planning to sell when they’ve bought it through planning their marketing and growth. Regardless of when you start thinking of selling, there are five tips you should know.
Resolve Any Current Business Problems
The last thing any buyer wants is to buy
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| Elements Needed to Become a Successful Business Owner
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With any profession, there are certain characteristics that allow some people to excel over others that do not possess such traits. The business world is no different. There are key characteristics that allow business owners to make their businesses profitable, earn the respect of their employees and maintain success over a long period to where an owner can sell a business with a high resale value.
There are some characteristics that lead to a business owner to become successful:
Advanced Pl
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| Don’t Forget to Run Your Business as You Prepare to Sell to a Buyer
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One of the worst mistakes that you can during the process of selling your business is neglectingyour every day duties of running the business. It’s easy to get caught up spending so much time and energy in regard to business sale matters that it can result in a deterioration of both revenue and the resale value of your business.
Remember that you will benefit in the end and receive better offers from prospectiveowners that are looking tobuy a business through maintaining your inventory, m
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| Mistakes to Avoid When Performing a Business Valuation
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When you are preparing a valuation for your business with a VR business intermediary, do not attempt to embellish and create false numbers. This will only hurt your chances ofselling your business to the right buyer. You want to be honest with your VR business intermediary. This means you need to avoid mistakes that over small business owners have made when trying to estimate their value.
Projecting Unrealistic Cash Flow
The most common mistake withperforming a business valuation is unrealisti
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| Benefiting from the Digital Business Explosion
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On average, the businesses that produce profit margins of more than 10 points higher and growth rates almost 20 points higher than their best competition are the ones that exemplify the digital business design. In other words, they integrate a smart business model with business-driven exploitation of digital options – e-business. These differences in results are staggering; and the gap may grow wider as the early advantages that these leading companies have gained by digital reinventors ar
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| Having Your Business Stand Above the Rest
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What gives one business an advantage of another? The ability to turn insight of a market into innovation; in other words, you have the knowledge that a competitor doesn’t have and use it to your advantage before someone else does. Just look at the leaders of such companies as Dell or EBay. These people had a pulse on the market due to being a part of it, seeing that the customer’s needs must come first. This mentality allowed all the pieces of the puzzle to fall into place as a resul
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| Striving to Make a Difference as a Business Owner
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Consider
this synopsis: You’re an owner of a $30-million-a-year fee-based professional
service business that grew 20 percent last year; but you’re frustrated with the
results. The issue isn’t a monetary or revenue issue, but a performance one,
where your staff isn’t performing at the level it could be.
You want
to motivate your staff who you feel are under-performing. The question is, “How
do you do that, and have them do it throughout the course of the
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| Generating Powerful Brands in Business to Sell Effectively
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Many
businesses realize that creating a successful brand franchise involves
mobilizing the entire organization. Every aspect from the premises through the
employees’ conduct (such as with customer relations) to company letterheads and
formal marketing communications should reflect the values of the brand.
A leading
supplier of accounting and payroll software, Sage has a brand identity that
communicates a feeling of confident control that leads to piece of mind; unlike
most
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| Focusing on Organic Business Growth
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Businesses
exist in a rapidly-changing environment that can and will lead to radical
responses and strategic planning. There are many challenges that one
organization can have with the daily grind of responsibilities that despite
attempts to push forward, the shareholder value drops. Therefore, the solution
lies not to focus on improving the current situation but rather in taking the
necessary steps to realize what it takes for a business to succeed in sales.
COMPREHENDING THE SITUA
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| Asking for Referrals from Prospects to Elevate Your Business
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So, you’ve
met new people, focused on their interests and how you could add value to their
lives – but not yet through buying your business products or services. The
relationship should be at the point now where they feel good about you – they
know, like and trust you; open to doing business with you directly or at least
referring you to others that could provide you with more sales.
If the
person is a direct prospect, make the appointment. Once you’ve help
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| Following Up on Your New Referrals
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Say you’ve attended a conference, event or trade show and you’ve just finished meeting some nice people that may be prime candidates for business referrals. And you did this while not hitting anybody over the head with your sales pitch regarding your products and services. Instead, you focused on them, asked questions that made them feel good about themselves and introduced them to other people that you’ve met.
Through this low-key and unassuming approach, you positioned yo
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| Building Upon Your Referral Relationships for Your Business
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So you’re at a conference,
trade show or event and have met a contact that would be a great contributor to
your business in some shape or form. You’ve established initial rapport; let
them talk about themselves and their business instead of you pitching your
intentions. By the time that you received their business card at the end, they
were impressed with you to where the follow-up meeting will make for an
excellent situation to take your new relationship to the next level.
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| Farming a Continual Network of Referrals for Your Business
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Like any farmer, as a business owner, you want to be continually planting seeds to further develop your network. If you are harvesting your latest crop of potatoes, you want to be preparing for the next sowing. You’re not going to sit and not grow anything further while other farmers are already at work for the next season. You need to be ahead of the game.
You need to have this mentality as a responsible and bona-fide business owner. Sure, you may be committed to your customers and c
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| Due Diligence in Knowing Internet Laws and Regulations for Your Business
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Regardless
of the business that you are in, you must know and understand the various laws
and regulations that apply to the Internet. Not only do you want to pay attention to any copyrighted and trademarked material that you may have on your web site without proper consent, you want to give due diligence to a variety of other factors:
The various types of web sites;
Libelous content;
Legality of selling certain types of products on a web site.
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| Having a Systematic PR Plan Will Raise Exposure for Your Business
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In order
to use public relations effectively for your business, you need to learn to
anticipate the company's future. Regardless of if you want to sell your
business or where your product or service is positioned, you need to be able to
define potential problems and adopt a strategy to evaluate customer feedback.
This will put you on the road to a more successful and profitable business in
the long term.
By itself,
a systematic approach to public relations doesn't guarantee a succe
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| The Make-up of a Successful Business Owner
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With any
profession, there are characteristics that allow certain people to excel in
their business over others who do not posses such traits. The world of
entrepreneurship is no different. There are key characteristics that allow
business owners to make their companies profitable, earn the respect of their
employees, and maintain success over a long period through selling their
products and services. It’s the reason why those owners will be able to sell
their businesses for the max
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| Dealing with the Ethical Saga in Business
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Given the
increasing social impact of business, ethics has emerged as a discrete subject
over the last 20 years. Business ethics is concerned with exploring the moral
principles by that we can evaluate business organizations in relation to their
impact on people and the environment.
There
are four types of ethical problems that are common in business organizations - human resorting, conflicts of interest, customer confidence and misuse of corporate resources.
Human-Resorting Et
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| Mistakes to Avoid When Approaching E-Commerce Law
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Many small
business owners will make some serious errors in regards to paying attention to
e-commerce law. Knowing the key legal issues such as copyright and libel to
restrictions regarding product sales is imperative for you to know that will
keep you from having to enter a courthouse. From thinking the law is too complex or that it doesn't apply to your business to procrastinating when hit with a libel suit,
owners too often make the mistake of ignoring the issues that fall on their doo
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| Avoiding the Top Five Most Common Business Scams
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Scam
artists have become more adept at exploiting the weaknesses of small
businesses. While some of these business scams are golden oldies, they’re still
putting money into the scammer’s pocket – effectively taking it out of the pockets of
many small business owners. The best
defense against these is awareness and vigilance.
Here are
five of the most common small business scams and how to avoid them:
1. Advance Fee Loan Scams
Whether
it’s offered
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| Franchising Your Business
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Franchising is the technique for any business regardless of its size to expand its operation into other branches. This process is regarded as one of the safest means of accomplishing growth. However, it requires careful planning to be successful. If you can set up your course of action appropriately, there are many advantages to going this route that includes:
Providing an affordable means of increasing the scope of your business;
Dispersing the financial risk of expansion to a large
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| Obtaining a Great Return from a Venture Capital Investment
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Any private equity or venture capital investor will seek a high return on its capital. They don’t purchase debt instruments simply to obtain a yield on interest. On the contrary, the main goal of PE/VC transaction is to obtain geometric returns when success has happened for the portfolio business that results in dramatic rise in their common stock value.
Therefore, a PE/VC transaction generally involves buying of one or more of the following:
Common stock;
Conve
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| VR Welcomes New Owners
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It is an exciting
time for our company as we welcome several new owners that have joined VR
domestically and internationally. These new additions to VR will help
elevate us to the next level of business sales.
Jay Cremer - North Fort Lauderdale, FL;
Brad Elliott - New Jersey;
Omar Garcia - San Antonio, TX;
Larry Lane - McKinney, TX;
Joe Perlman - St. Petersburg, FL;
Joel Soorenko - Naples, FL;
Angel Redondo Vega, Ju
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| Distinguishing Private Equity/Venture Capital Investing from Others
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There are
a few features that distinguish PE/VC investing from other types when buying a business. It’s important to pay attention to these differences. Knowing
these facts will save you from a lot of wasted time and frustration and avoid
going down the wrong path.
Active Involvement in Overall
Investment Process
The PE/VC
professional will be actively involved in identifying the investment,
negotiating and structuring the sale and monitoring the portfolio business
after
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| What Makes Up the Private Equity and Venture Capital Investment Community
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The
community that composes private equity and venture capital investing is
composed of merchant banking subsidiaries or divisions of large institutions.
These
include:
Bank Holding Companies;
Insurance Companies;
Large Industrial Corporations;
Investment Banks.
In
addition, there are many free-standing specialized investment bodies that form
solely for PE/VC investments. Some of these include publicly or privately-hel
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| Avoiding Common Mistakes When Valuating Your Business
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As important as valuating your business is before you decide to sell, you don’t want to run into making some common mistakes when you’re trying to estimate.
Make sure that you pay attention to the many factors that exist if you are going to be selling. Specifically, you wantto avoid doing the following:
Projecting Unrealistic Growth
This is the most common mistake that’s made when a business determinestheir business valuation. If you are projectingaggressive growth
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| Choosing the Business that’s Right for You
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When
you’ve decided to go into ownership, you need to know what type of business
that you want to pursue. You should start
by identifying the products and services that you intend to deliver. You can
easily narrow down your choices by looking at the following factors:
Researching Costs
Examine the costs of businesses in different industries and regions.
Look into Imported Goods
Identify
which goods and services that local companies and other organizations buy fro
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| Appraising Your Business’ Intellectual Property
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Intellectual property has become a hot topic. Make no
mistake that patents, trademarks and copyrights can become a valuable asset in
the portfolio of your small business, and should be managed prudently.
It’s always an ongoing and daunting question for a business
owner to face when the time comes to sell – “What do I have to sell?” Believe
it or not, the main asset that you have to market is goodwill aside from the
phone number, address and equipment. Yet de
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| Considering Whether to Own a Business
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It’s
always a big decision when you decide to go into business ownership. There are
many variables that come into play that you need to consider before taking this
step. Not every person out there is cut out to be one. Some have the attributes
and qualities necessary to become a successful entrepreneur while others can
hit the skids within six months.
You need
to ask yourself what are you looking for by going into ownership – freedom,
fortune, a chance to leave the co
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| Enhancing Your Mailing List Increases Your Campaign Effectiveness
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Getting
the mailing list right is vital. Basic mailing lists simply include names,
addresses, job titles, and telephone numbers of customers and prospects. The
basic list can be refined by adding information about buying patterns,
lifestyle, and many other factors. This will provide a comprehensive picture of
customers and prospects.
Verify All Internal Sources of
Information
Your
customer records are probably your most valuable asset as they invariably
generate the highe
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| Buying and Selling Business in the Middle Market
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VR defines
the middle market as a realm of businesses that have grown beyond single
management entities to significant regional or national stature with revenues
between $10 million and $200 million.
However,
the majority of the middle market is made up of businesses that are built
around a single product area and its natural extensions. Normally, they are not
comprised of multi-market corporations with a group of divisions. Therefore, the
enterprise is an integral unit that does n
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| Enhancing Direct Mail Response Will Bring More Revenue
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The
simplest and most immediate measure of a direct marketing campaign for your business is the
response level that it achieves. Many different factors can affect these rates,
so it is important to test all the variables before committing all your
resources to this particular approach. Also keep in mind that you must aim for
a realistic figure that is within your budget.
Remember
that your response rates will be greater when you define your target market as
precisely as possible.
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| How to Finance Buying a Business
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In this day
and age, more people that have found themselves out of work are going into
entrepreneurship, specifically buying an already existing business. What you
may not know is that obtaining the necessary funds is easier than you think; you
just need to be aware of the options that you have available.
Stay Clear of the Bank
In most
cases, you won’t be able to find funding from traditional lenders such as banks.
They are not business or client friendly, no matter how muc
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| Offer Seller Financing when Putting a Business on the Market
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If you’re deciding to sell a business, there are a number of questions that you need to consider. Seller financing is the most important one that you should be answering “yes” to after reviewing all the advantages.
Greater Chance of Selling Your Business
When you agree to terms, a business has a greater likelihood of selling than in an all-cash scenario.
A buyer can purchase with limited funds when a business for sale is offered with terms. Although, a few buyer
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| Obtaining a Fair Market Price when Selling Your Business
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Business
owners face a myriad of challenges on a daily basis. One challenge that no
owner wants to grapple with is financial distress. If you’ve struggled with such
problems as declining profits, rising costs, fierce competition with no sign
that the situation will improve, selling may be the best solution. There are
steps that you can take to help maximize your business’ value and get a
relatively fair sale price.
Valuating Your Business
It’s never
an ea
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| Better to Sell Your Business to a Strategic instead of a Financial Buyer
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During a period of economic uncertainty, many entrepreneurs love to hear reports of businesses being sold to strategic buyers for apparently large sums. The truth is the investors that are strategically-inclined will recognize higher valuations with potential investments than those that are financially-oriented venture capitalists. Additionally, strategic investors can provide validation for financial investors, and influence them to recognize a higher valuation.
Strategic vs. Financial Bu
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| Awareness and Accolades Highlight VR's 2009 Regional Meeting in California
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VR
took over the Shoreline Yacht Club in Long Beach, California for their
Regional Meeting. Action, awareness and awards were the three keywords
for this event that saw a tremendous amount of excitement, interest and
invigorating motivation in increasing more business transactions.
I partook in the proceedings to help generate fervor
for creating and enhancing existing content for the VR office and
business-for-sale websites as well as other marketing material provided
in the VR
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| Setting the Record Straight on Business Valuation
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Many people can become incredibly confused about understanding what business valuation means. Many misnomers exist regarding the subject, which canbe a complex financial discipline that consists of unintelligiblejargon, reason and underlying mathematics to any outsider who maybe looking to buy or sell.
Therefore, let’sreveal the truth behind afew myths of business valuation.
1.) Net income and net free cash flow are identical
First of all, there is nothing remotely similar to th
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| 2008 VR Annual Awards Winners
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We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2008 Annual Awards for their great success in business sales. We take great pride and consideration in choosing these select business intermediaries that have moved ahead of the pack, and continue to have our company be the leader in business sales and mergers & acquisitions.
This year, the VR Annual Award Winners are:
2008
Top 10 VR Offices
1.) Artesia, CA
(William Park - Owner)
2.) Charlotte, NC
(Brad & Jay Offerdahl - Owners)
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| Finding the Cutting-Edge Strategy
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Every company has to have a strategy. Specifically, you need one that is effective and will create a buzz in the marketplace without the complexities and the numerous graphs. A successful strategy should create significant value and lead to sustained growth and returns, investor enthusiasm as well as customer fanaticism.
First and foremost, strategy should generate a unique value. This is especially important in crowded markets, where competition is widespread and the numerous choices can ove
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