employees

The Downside of Being Upfront with Employees

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One of the core principles of creating a more valuable business is ensuring it can run without you by getting managers to think like owners. The theory goes that empowered employees are the best positioned to solve your company’s thorniest…
Child

The Anatomy of a Successful Exit

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Stephanie Breedlove started Breedlove & Associates in 1992 as a way to pay her nanny. The big payroll processors weren’t interested in dealing with one person’s wages and doing it themselves was complicated and time-consuming, too much…
Peachs

One Way To Decide When To Sell

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How do you know the right time to sell your company? One answer to this age-old question is that the time to sell is when someone else is willing to invest more in your business than you are. When you start a business, nobody is willing…
watches

5 Reasons Why Now Might Be The Right Time To Sell

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Are you trying to time the sale of your business so that you exit when both your business and the economy are peaking? While your objective to build your company’s value is admirable, here are five reasons why you may want to sell sooner…
Blinds

5 Lessons From Home Depot’s Acquisition of Blinds.com

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Jay Steinfeld built Blinds.com into a $100 million e-tailer before selling out to Home Depot. Here are five things that made it a spectacular exit. Win The Make vs. Buy Battle Companies like Home Depot have a “make or buy” decision…
Differentiation

3 Ways To Make Your Company More Valuable Than Your Competition

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Have you ever wondered what determines the value of your business? Perhaps you’ve heard an industry rule of thumb and assumed that your company will be worth about the same as a similar size company in your industry. However, when we take…
Dog treats

3 Surprising Reasons To Offer A Subscription

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You can now buy a subscription for everything from dog treats to razor blades. Music subscription services are booming as our appetite to buy tracks is replaced by our willingness to rent access to them. Starbucks now even offers coffee on…
alarm system

Subscribers Make Your Company More Valuable

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Why are Amazon, Apple and many of the most promising Silicon Valley start-ups leveraging a subscription business model? Subscribers not only provide steady revenue; they make your company more valuable in the eyes of an acquirer. In a traditional…
goodwill

How much goodwill do you have in your business?

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The term “goodwill” is often thrown around in conversation as though it is a subjective description of how much your customers like your business. In fact, when it comes to valuing your business, there is nothing subjective about the…
LinkedIn

Did Microsoft Overpay For LinkedIn?

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Microsoft’s recent $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn provides an illustrative example of a strategic acquisition – the type of sale that usually garners the most gain for the acquired company’s shareholders. You may be wondering…