What to Do When Your Clients Want You

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Do your customers ever ask that you personally get involved in their account?   If so, one of the best things you can do to improve the value of your business (and your life) is to get your employees to treat your customers as…

Enhancing the Value of a Distribution Business

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Converting a distributor or reseller into a high-value enterprise might appear to be a formidable undertaking. Distributors typically don't command substantial valuations, as potential buyers often perceive them as susceptible to price wars…

The Recurring Revenue Bump

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Last month, Darden, the owner of the Olive Garden restaurant chain, announced it was acquiring Ruth’s Chris, the legendary American steakhouse, for $715 million, implying a valuation of around one times last year’s annual revenue, or about…

How First Impressions Can Drive the Value of Your Business

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The initial impression customers have of your business often influences how much they decide to spend with your company. This is well known, but have you ever considered how first impressions affect the way potential investors value your business? When…

How to Protect Your Equity When Your Business Is Thirsty for Cash

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In 2015 Brad Lorge founded Premonition, a technology company that provides logistics software to streamline delivery operations for large enterprise companies. While working with big businesses brought in good revenue, large enterprise customers…

One Overlooked Metric That Could Transform Your Company’s Value

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You know gross margin impacts your profit, but have you considered the impact it has on the value of your company? When assessing your company’s value, acquirers and investors will often scrutinize your gross profit margin. Gross profit…

The Purest Way to Increase the Value of Your Business

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Picture a magic slot machine. Each time you pull the arm, you make back a multiple of whatever you wagered. How much time would you devote to cranking that arm? When it comes to the value of your business, you can make many bets, but…

5 Strategies for Identifying Innovative Candidates to Replace Yourself as Founder

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In 2012, Jaclyn Johnson founded Create & Cultivate, a media company that educates and inspires women to succeed in business. By 2018, Johnson had grown Create & Cultivate to eight employees when an acquirer offered her a staggering…

3 Ways to Create a Valuable Culture Inside Your Business

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Many factors drive your company’s value, but perhaps the most important is how your business would perform without you.  To get your company to flourish when you’re not around, you need owner-like effort from your team. Inspiring…

How to Get Your Customers to Pay for New Ideas

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There is never enough money to invest in developing products when you’re running a self-funded business. When you’re running your company out of cash flow, most of your resources go into selling your existing products and services, leaving…