Category: Selling Your Business

THE SECRETS OF BUILDING A GREAT ORGANIZATION

by YOUR BUSINESS WORTH, posted in Company Wealth, Inside Sale, Key People_Or Group, Passive Ownership, Selling Your Business, Strategies of growing business, Uncategorized, Value drivers, Working On Your Business

I recently read a book called,” The Secrets Of Building A Great Organization”, by Bruce Clinton owner of BusinessWise, L.L.C., a business consulting and coaching firm based in Connecticut.

I found the book to be very interesting because, not only does it provide a road map of management for newer managers, but it re-educates older experienced managers in the most up to date strategies.

Bruce is the first person to mention that there are no magic formulas in being a good manager, however, with the basic strategies that he covers, a good manager, through their own talents, can become a great manager using the strategies Bruce discusses.

Many of the strategies are ones that Bruce uses in his practice as a business coach, and strategies developed while he ran different businesses.

For anyone who is a business owner or running a business, I would suggest this read.  In the book it is mentioned that most business owners don’t consider themselves good managers or they feel they don’t know enough about managing.

Any business owner who does $1-$150 million in annual sales, has 8-200 employees, is family owned and may be facing growth or succession issues, should read this book.

What I really enjoyed about the book is the small details that Bruce covers which are needed to build a successful business.  These are details which are not normally discussed in detail.  The book covers the importance of them.  These are the small details that make all the difference in the world of a business’ success, and Bruce covers them extremely well.  For example:

  • Overcoming communication breakdowns
  • Dealing with levels of incompetence
  • Fitting family members into the business
  • Retaining good employees
  • Building a workable succession plan

Continue reading “THE SECRETS OF BUILDING A GREAT ORGANIZATION” →

Why Use Non-Compete Agreements!

by YOUR BUSINESS WORTH, posted in Buy and Sell Agreements, Funding your Buy and Sell, Income from your business, Inside Sale, Key People_Or Group, Selling Your Business, Uncategorized, Valuation, Value drivers, Working On Your Business

Non-compete agreements (NCA) represent a separate agreement. They could be in an employment contract, or as a separate article in a buy and sell agreement. Sometimes they are referred to as “Covenants not to complete. “

This is based on the possibility that an employee can do harm to a company upon termination.  They could know sensitive information about the company’s operation, owners and employee’s personal information, special operations, and proprietary information to a competing advantage, along with so much more.

Picture a very long-term employee working side by side with the owners, for many years, and then leaving to work for the owner’s competitor.  Certainly, there can be issues.

No compete agreements (NCA), can be used to retain employees also.   It would be very difficult to change jobs within an industry or profession when the leaving employee is limited to compete in a geographic and specific industry for a period of time.  However, non-compete agreements are hard to enforce, because in many instances the agreement has overreached and is very broad in the definition of industry and geographic coverage.

Continue reading “Why Use Non-Compete Agreements!” →

The Story! The Cost of Funding Your Buy and Sell Agreement! Options!

by YOUR BUSINESS WORTH, posted in Buy and Sell Agreements, Executive Benefits, Funding your Buy and Sell, Income from your business, Selling Your Business, Uncategorized

The Story! 

The Cost of Funding Your Buy and Sell Agreement! Options!

Over many years I have experienced many business owners in total denial about the cost of funding their buy and sell agreements, thinking they can come up with the liability when the trigger of death occurs.

The four listed ways are compared below.

  1. Cash
  2. Borrow
  3. Sinking Fund
  4. Life Insurance

Let’s take the one by one.

Cash: This is assuming the company has the cash at hand, idle. Rarely is this an option. Growing companies reinvest in their company and only keep enough cash reserve as needed.

Borrow: A company just lost a valuable member of the company. Most bankers would probably want to see how the company will fair after the death of a key person and would want to know how the liability which has just been created will affect the cash flow of the company before loaning more money. There probably is a good chance that outstanding line be pulled in by the bank (probably a covenant in the loan agreement).

Sinking Fund: Mostly just theory! In 48 years, I have never seen a company try to develop a sinking fund. If the company was putting money in the sinking fun, they are losing the opportunities this money could create by investing in the business rather than on the sidelines. Not reasonable as the actual amount of money needed is available should death occur prior to the target date of accumulation. The least appropriate method.

Life Insurance: At its simplest benefits, it is immediate, tax free and the funding level is immediately known. Also, the cost is only 17 cents on a dollar rather than the much higher costs of the other three options.

Summary: While we don’t know when a death or disabilitymay occur, the company should at least be prepared for this trigger. Today the price of life insurance is low-cost. There is no reason not to purchase at least temporary life insurance (10-30 years), such as term insurance. The cost of life insurance in the example is using cash value life insurance.  Increased Sales To Fund Cost: Another measure of effectiveness of funding the buy and sell is to measure how much more in sales the company has to do to pay for the funding method.

Costs:  Funding over 15 years. 

Cash; 1,039,464 Loan: 1,306,085. Sinking Fund: 901,613 Life Insurance:  171,512

Also, what do you need to have in sales to pay for the method: 

Example, with Life Insurance Cost, @20% profit, sales would be $857,560

With Cash: There would have to be $5,197,320

 

 

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Lifestyle and Enterprise Business

by YOUR BUSINESS WORTH, posted in Buy and Sell Agreements, Selling Your Business, Valuation, Value drivers

In John Brown’s June 2019  blog , the article discusses the difference between Lifestyle and Enterprise Business, he discusses that fact that many businesses are formed to accommodate the lifestyle of the owners without giving too much thought as to the long-term effect of the business value when it is sold.

While the business is up and running, it is doing exactly what the owner wants it to do, and that is to provide a steady and profitable income to carry the lifestyle of the owner and their family.  Again, this is  great for the business owner, their families and businesses in general.  However, the article discusses the problem when the owners are forced to sell, or just want to sell and exit the business.

Business owners may think they can run their businesses as a lifestyle business and still plan for an exit of their business for the highest potential value.  This is a myth, since the strategy of exit planning involves different philosophies and strategies used to grow the business best potential value.

Most business owners don’t really know what their businesses are worth.  Because of this, they never understand why they don’t receive the perceived value upon post exit.    Also, many business owners take for granted, the perks from the business as normal and ordinary.  These perks evaporate once they exit.  A double hit to the owner of a lifestyle business model.

The article emphasizes the fact that you can’t have it both ways if you wish to exit your company at the best possible price. Business owners who are running a lifestyle business, must turn that business into a business enterprise if they expect to exit their business at the highest possible price.

A business enterprise has transferable value.  It needs to be worth something to the purchaser, for example an equity group, as lifestyle value means nothing to a private equity group compared to the business owner of a lifestyle business as they both have different philosophies of business purpose.

Turning a business into a business enterprise is basically creating a business that is worth something to people or entities beyond the owner.  Brown suggests the transforming of a lifestyle business to an enterprise business is a challenge mostly because of the owner’s emotional attachment to the business, and limited owner resources. 

It has given him and his family a nice lifestyle, freedom and pride.   “Why should he change anything?” The owner created this baby, loved it, invested in it and build it.  Consequently, it is not only a physical transition but a psychological transition. 

When you look through the eyes of an outside investor, they are looking for other aspects about the business, mostly  flaws  of the business, inefficient  areas of the business, management, potential return on investment, cash flow, potential growth and  a host of elements needed to make a future profit from the purchase and sales of the business, not lifestyle to the owner. 

Continue reading “Lifestyle and Enterprise Business” →

Disadvantages Of The Buy And Sell Agreement! [i]

by YOUR BUSINESS WORTH, posted in Buy and Sell Agreements, Inside Sale, Selling Your Business, Working On Your Business

Certainly, having a Buy and Sell Agreement (BSA) has many advantages, many of which I have discussed in our past posts (May 2019, Advantages of Buy and Sell Agreements).  However, I would like to go over the disadvantages of a BSA.

RESTRICTIONS ON ESTATE PLANNING

BSA can restrict ownership transfers and consequently management duties. These restrictions can be applied to you also. The restrictions could limit your personal planning by limiting your options for the ownership interests during your lifetime or at death. It may prohibit you from making gifts of your ownership interest to your family. Depending on your planning, your BSA could limit your plans to leave ownership interest to your family. The BSA may require your ownership interest to be sold at your death.

RESTRICTIONS ON FINANCIAL PLANNING 

A BSA can restrict the persons to whom you could sell your ownership interest to and restrict when you can sell it.  An example would be in a situation that you need to sell your interest because you’re in a financial bind. The BSA may require you to sell to your entity or your co-owners, who may not want to buy.

Special election to the defer federal state tax of deceased owners

This could limit an estate owner from using Code Section 6166 which is a way of paying your estate tax over a period of time, giving you the option of paying over a 15-year period, five years of deferral and a ten-year payout.  A purchase from your estate could cause the loss of the right to defer the estate taxes.

A sale of Corporate interests may result in a loss of the entities corporate structure

This could limit the entities right to use its own loss carry back and carry forward losses on a significant change in ownership, which is possible without a well throughout BSA.

The cost of putting together a BSA

It takes time and money to put together a solid buy and sell agreement, Of course this is a disadvantage and it can be expensive, however, in order to have an optimal BSA, you will need to invest time and money.  You will also need a competent council to prepare the necessary documents.  This incurs costs.  Being educated in this strategy is to your advantage when designing your BSA.

A poorly drafted buy sell agreement can be costly:  By failing to carefully work out the terms of buy-sell agreement or by having mismatches between triggering events and the identity of the purchaser versus the funding source, a real mess could be created.

[i] Buy -Sell Agreements for Baby Boomer Business Owners Z. Christopher Mercer, ASA, CFA, ABAR

Alternatives To Buy And Sell Agreements – Different Documents To Put Buy Sell Agreement Language In!

by YOUR BUSINESS WORTH, posted in Buy and Sell Agreements, Executive Benefits, Key People_Or Group, Selling Your Business, Working On Your Business
  1. Governance documents– Articles of incorporation, partnership, organization, bylaws or operating agreements frequently have Buy And Sell Provisions (BSP). Is critical that you change your agreement within these documents should you update to a formal BSA, so the language is consistent.
  2. Compensation based plans: Such as consulting agreements and salary continuation plans.
  3. Entity recapitalization: It is possible to recapitalize the ownership interests of the entity which could create differences and ownership interests.
  4. Gifts of ownership interest: this could change the ownership and voting rights.
  5. Charitable gift of ownership interest. Same as #5.
  6. Private annuities: You could transfer ownership of your interest to someone else in exchange for a promise to make payments for you for the rest of your life
  7. ESOP’s: EMPLOYER STOCK OPTION PLANS.
  8. Non-qualified deferred compensation plans.
  9. Qualifying for section 6166 deferral.
  10. Division of an entity.
  11. Confidentiality and non-competition agreements; In conjunction with a buy and sell buyout , the former owner could be paid to not compete with the entity and to keep secret all confidential trade secrets, customer lists, and other private proprietary information of the entity.
  12. Installment sales: The owner simply wishes to retire and sells the stock in exchange for promissory note that is payable overtime.
  13. Sale to outsiders.
  14. Public offering.
  15. New generation opening a similar type of business: This is where senior generation winds down and a new generation may open a similar business preferable to allow younger generations to open a new look but similar to the identical business of the old. The dying on the vine concept.

*A good read would be “Buy and Sell Agreements (US Legal Series); Paul L. Hood Jr.  Also, I have included a link to article from Ed Partesi, ASA,CM&AA of UHY Advisors “Covering the bases:  “The Need for Effective Buy -Sell Agreements”. Effective Buy and Sell Agreement!

Lastly,  a very good book to read about the future of the selling your business,  “Your Exit Map”   by  John Dini;  This gives you a great insight as to the next generation of buyers and the market place for selling your business.  

 

The Final Act! The Day Will Come! Part 2

by YOUR BUSINESS WORTH, posted in Company Wealth, Income from your business, Key People_Or Group, Selling Your Business, Valuation, Value drivers, Working On Your Business

In part-one of this article, I mentioned how purchasers will prefer to buy a business where everything looks good and there are no apparent problems. Smart and neat operations will attract serious buyers; however, this is only one part that is needed to achieve your selling objectives.

There should be no hidden problems or secrets which can jeopardize the purchase. Any undesirable factor not disclosed to the purchaser can lead to a non-sale, or at the very least, something they can use as a negotiating tool. The fact that a deal has fallen apart, is not only frustrating, but will cost you money, time, and distraction from your business.

An owner who unknowingly discloses secrets or situations in their business can end up becoming a deal breaker. Issues which are known need to be dealt with to have the best chance of a good sale. Since there may be issues which are unknown the best answer to this is to search for the problems in advance and take care of them. Think of this the same way you would treat the sale of your home. You would normally fix up, repaint, and clean up before you put the home on the market. You should do the same thing with your business.

Not only would you want your physical location to be clean and tidy, but this also flows over to the other parts of your business, such as accounting, financing, marketing material, department procedure manuals, and an array of other business items. Prepared written policies and procedures are a great selling point for a prospective buyer. Remember, when someone is interested in your business, it’s their team that inspects every aspect of your business in doing their due diligence. This is a micro inspection of all aspects of your business, so it will pay to make sure there isn’t a bunch of dirty secrets hanging around.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS AND PHYSICAL APPEAL
The first time a prospective buyer visits your company they make value judgements. They will observe everything from your reception area to your signage in and on the building. If the impression they get is positive, they will want to investigate your company more. You don’t want to lose their interest based on visual appeal of your business. No matter how good your business seems to do on paper, the prospective buyer may lose interest based on your first impressions.

This observation doesn’t end with just the building. Your premises, marketing literature, dress attire of you employees, uniforms, office settings, rubbish areas and a host of other areas should be updated and tidy. Continue reading “The Final Act! The Day Will Come! Part 2” →

The Final Act! The Day Will Come – Part 1

by YOUR BUSINESS WORTH, posted in Company Wealth, Income from your business, Inside Sale, Key People_Or Group, Passive Ownership, Selling Your Business, Strategies of growing business, Uncategorized, Value drivers, Working On Your Business

Someday the day will come when you will want to exit your company, for better or worse.  Disposing of your company can be challenging! If done properly it can create great financial opportunity for you and your family, allowing for other options in life, especially during retirement.

However, if your business exit strategy is not effectively planned, the business, which has given you a comfortable living, may turn out to be worthless.  At the very least, you will be liquidating assets to take care of final debts and obligations.

Without a detailed plan you may not maximize the best potential price for your company.  Between the highest and the lowest potential value, many elements will decide which side of the ledger you will fall on.  Elements such as; a trained middle management group, systems, value drivers, culture of the company, consistent cash flow, profitability, and equity growth, are just a few elements that can  lead to an excellent or bad sale.

THE SUBJECT THAT IS RARELY MENTIONED!

Unfortunately, for most business owners, the idea of exiting their business is rarely considered until the time has come.  It most cases, the key planning elements of obtaining the best potential value of the business has been lost because there is a lack of time to implement them.    Most business owners know that in order to keep their business running profitably, like a well-oiled machine, they have to stay focused on the task at hand, always thinking the future will take care of itself as long as the business is profitable.  However, that is not necessarily the case in many situations.  Also, when owners started their business, they had a place to go, a paycheck and a position, not ever thinking about the end game until the time comes when the end game is staring them in the face. Continue reading “The Final Act! The Day Will Come – Part 1” →

Good Luck You Are Now In Business! Now What?

by YOUR BUSINESS WORTH, posted in Company Wealth, Income from your business, Inside Sale, Key People_Or Group, Selling Your Business, Strategies of growing business, Uncategorized, Value drivers, Working On Your Business

Chances are that the moment you started your company you felt the need to be in charge of everything (the control thing).  Tasks such as ordering stationary, trips to Staples, talking to the utility company, dictating messages and a sundry of other things. You did pretty much everything including the bookkeeping, sweeping the floors and taking out the garbage. 

 You were proud of your new business and wanted to make sure it did well from the very start and in in every aspect of your business. Even if it meant you had to work 80 hours a week to keep it going to be successful.   

 Then you started to make more money, enough to hire employees to help you grow the business.  As you moved forward so did your business commitments.    Your mindset however, is control, just like when you started the business.   A natural reaction since you started and created your business, the tendency is to protect it, this is your baby! 

THE NEEDED CHANGE IN MINDSET! 

The problem comes when you have to change your mindset as an entrepreneur. When you started your business, you had a talent and believed that your talent could make you profit and grow your business. However, as your business and commitment to the business grows, there needs to be a new way of thinking on how you should run the business.  

 For example; I have a brother who is a great mechanic.   If he were to open his business, he would be the best mechanic you could find.  His work would be impeccable, and everyone would enjoy working with him.  However, the minute my brother had to start thinking strategically about how to lessen his working hours, grow new markets, start a branding campaign, hire people to do some of his tasks, he would become very stressed and would definitely lose interest in running his business.  He is a great mechanic but didn’t think about the other parts of running a business.  All he ever wanted was a place to go a paycheck, and a position. Little did he realize that it would take more than being a good mechanic to run a business.   He didn’t realize that some of the things he liked to do would have to take a back seat or be delegated to someone else, so he could focus on the details that will allow him to grow his business.    

Continue reading “Good Luck You Are Now In Business! Now What?” →

Why You Must Concern Yourself With The Exit Of Your Business The Day You Start It!  

by YOUR BUSINESS WORTH, posted in Company Wealth, Income from your business, Inside Sale, Key People_Or Group, Passive Ownership, Selling Your Business, Strategies of growing business, Valuation, Value drivers, Working On Your Business

There are two areas small business owners have a concern in:  

  • When the business has no apparent successor to take over.
  • Where the business owner has young children to succeed him, but they are too young to include in the planning at this point. This is a void period should the owner want to leave, become sick or die.   

Succession and Exit planning can be the most difficult planning a business owner can accomplish. However, it is the most necessary planning a company can undertake to protect the value of its shareholders and their families over the long term.  Succession planning concerns are often what keeps them up at night, giving them an uneasy feeling of a task not completed, the loose ends!

Succession planning is the natural outgrowth of strategic planning. In reviewing operational and financial goals, the need to ask a series of hard questions such as;   Continue reading “Why You Must Concern Yourself With The Exit Of Your Business The Day You Start It!  “ →