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…
Slice of the Pie

4 Reasons Why It’s Better to Own a Big Chunk of a Small Company

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Is it better to own a big chunk of a small business or a minority stake in a big company?  It’s one of the fundamental questions all owners must wrestle with. Owning a relatively small slice of a big pie has worked out well for both…
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Being Stingy With Your Equity

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It can be tempting to offer shares in your company to finance its growth. These days, there are plenty of investors chasing promising new companies and, in today’s tight labour market, employees are getting more brazen in their demands for…
Only one

The Biggest Mistake Owners Make When Selling

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One of the biggest mistake owners make in selling their company is being lured into a proprietary deal. The Definition Of A Proprietary Deal Acquirers land a proprietary deal (or “prop deal”) when they convince owners to sell their…
Do the Work

Successful Entrepreneurs Can be the Doer and the Dealmaker

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Where do you sit on the doer vs. dealmaker continuum? On one hand, you have business owners who are really good operators. They have a plan, know their numbers and work that plan. They look for small improvements every day and hesitate to entertain…
Disapointed

How To Avoid Disappointment When It’s Time To Cash Out

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How do you avoid not being disappointed with the money you make from the sale of your company? Perhaps you’ve heard that companies like yours trade using an industry rule of thumb or that companies of your size sell within a specific range,…
surprise

The Surprising Secret to A Big Exit

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We get to see a lot of company founders who are contemplating an exit. Some of our customers get lucky early in life, but in the vast majority of examples where a founder is getting a seven- or eight-figure offer, it is not their first rodeo.…
spider web

4 Traps To Avoid When Selling Your Company

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Business owners have been known to refer todue diligence as "the entrepreneur's proctology exam." It's a crude analogy but a good representation of what it feels like when a stranger pokes, prods, and looks inside every inch of your business. Most…
Sunlight

Business Valuation

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Business valuation goes beyond simple mathematics, but to get some idea of what your business might be worth, consider the three methods below.  Your business is likely your largest asset so it's normal to want to know what it is worth.…
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What a Study of 14,000 Businesses Reveals About How You Should Not Be Spending Your Time

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In an analysis of more than 14,000 businesses, a new study finds the most valuable companies take a contrarian approach to the boss doing the selling. Who does the selling in your business?  My guess is that when you’re personally…