What do you need to Prepare before Selling Your Business

May 1, 2011


Selling a business is a lot like selling your house – only lot more difficult and time consuming. It is not uncommon to take more than year to sell the business – from the time it is put on market to the time the closing papers are signed. Anyone who has been through the selling process knows that there are number of aspects you need to take care of long before the business is put for sale. What makes it more challenging is the fact that you need to do it all while running the day-to-day operations of the business and ensuring that it does not suffer during the selling process.
There are steps you can take to make the process of selling the business easier for you. They can also help make the sale go faster; which is very important for any seller. The longer it takes to sell the business, the more chances of something going wrong and the sale falling through.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Buyers, Management, Operations Tagged With: , ,

Additional Social Media Tools Small Businesses Must Consider

April 24, 2011


In the previous post we discussed two must-have social media tools every small business needs to use to market their business. We argued that social media marketing provides perfect opportunity to get the marketing exposure without spending lot of money.
Many more social media tools beyond Facebook and Twitter have emerged recently. Some of them have the potential to become next Facebook. We want to explore those tools in this post. By jumping on some of these emerging tools small business owners can get advantage over their competitors and improve their sales and profit at a relatively low cost. They can even compete with their larger rivals by harnessing the power of these tools at an early stage.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Customers, Management, Marketing, Sales Tagged With: , ,

Social Media Tools Every Small Business Must Use

April 20, 2011


It is said that half of the money spent on marketing is wasted; you just don’t know which half! Many small business owners have misconception about marketing because of which they end up spending lot of money without getting proper return. One of the 5 fundamental rules of marketing we believe in is that good marketing techniques should not cost lot of money. Internet and social media marketing provides perfect opportunity to get the marketing exposure without spending lot of money.

The reasons for using social media marketing are numerous. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Customers, Management, Marketing, Sales Tagged With: , ,

Improve Sales of your Small Business with Free Publicity

April 17, 2011


Most small business owners do not pay sufficient attention to public and community relations. As a result they miss out on the great opportunity to improve sales and build business brand value at low cost. Instead they are focused on marketing and advertising that cost substantial amount of money. While there are number of differences between marketing and public relations, in the simplest form, marketing can be viewed as “in your face” way of putting your business in front of customers; while publicity is a more subtle approach that doesn’t cost much and can bring equally compelling results.
Why is it important to focus your efforts on publicity in addition to traditional marketing?
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Customers, Management, Marketing, Sales Tagged With: , ,

How to Combat External Forces Working against Your Business

April 13, 2011


In the previous post we highlighted external market forces that can drive you out of business if you are not careful. The changes in economy, competition and consumer habits have hurt many small business owners in the last few years and can bring down sales and profit for your small business too.
To be fair, these external forces impact both large and small business alike; however small business owners feel this impact in a more profound way. Also, the small business owners can feel the impact very quickly. After all, unlike large businesses they do not have large financial cushion to withstand the impact. They also have their personal and business lives intertwined with the business. This will make it hard not for themselves; but also for others around them, including spouse, children and friends.
How can small business owners prepare themselves to be able to withstand the impact better than their peers?
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Customers, Management, Operations Tagged With: , , ,

Why Embracing KISS Principle Leads to Happiness

April 6, 2011


KISS -Keep It Simple Stupid.
Many small business owners like to take the road less simple. If a task takes 2 steps to finish they will manage to stretch it to 10 steps. They are wired to think complex. We have pondered on the question for some time – when you are running a small business should you opt for a simple operation or a complex one?
You can see the examples of simple and complex operations in franchises as well. On one hand you have a pizza franchise such as Little Caesar’s – home of $5 Pepperoni Pizza with no delivery. On other side there is Pizza Hut with large number menu items and toppings and it not only has carry out; but also delivery and dine-in. Which one is easier operation to run?
There are number of reasons why you should try to keep things as simple as possible.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Customers, Employees, Management, Operations, Sales Tagged With: , , , , ,

Divide and Conquer – How to Complete Large Projects

March 30, 2011


Are you one of those guys who are overwhelmed by the thought of completing large projects? You know who I am talking about, right? These are the folks who look at the amount of work needed to complete the project and can’t decide how or where to begin. Their mind is occupied by the thought number of tasks that need to be finished – all interconnected and interdependent; but are unable to take any action to move them forward. Finally, they throw up their hands in frustration and end up not accomplishing anything.
There is a better way to manage these large projects. It’s called – Divide and Conquer. The way it works it you start at the top and start dividing the project in smaller chunks; further refining those chunks into even smaller, easily manageable tasks and so on. Those who are trained in formal project management techniques can relate to this. Unfortunately, not all small business owners are trained to think this way.
So, how does divide and conquer work? Here are some of the techniques.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Management, Operations Tagged With: ,

Do You have to be a Cook to Open a Restaurant?

March 23, 2011


Yesterday I came across this interesting article by Susan Reid at AmEx Open Forum about why you should stay within 2 degrees of separation when starting a business. She argues that you may end up feeling overwhelmed with everything you’ll need to learn just to get up-to-speed if you stray from 2 degrees of separation.
For the most part we agree with this. After all, there are number of benefits of staying within your comfort zone when it comes to starting a business – you have less of a learning curve; you can operate the business yourself and save on employee cost and most important you will enjoy what you are doing.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Buyers, Management, Operations Tagged With: ,

Buy or Build? Buying Existing Business vs Building New one

March 20, 2011


Many buyers of small business are dismayed by the money they have to pay to buy an existing business. They think that they can build the same business from scratch at a much lower cost. And this is true. To understand why this is the case you need to know the concept of book value of a business versus its market value. Book value refers to the money you can get if you sell all of the business assets in the market. The market value is usually higher than book value and is a result of goodwill that is associated with the existing business. It is this goodwill that the buyers of existing business are paying extra for. The goodwill is a result of all the work that existing owner has done to bring the business to its current level.
While it is true that you can build a business from scratch at a lower cost; it comes with its own set of problems. You have to understand both sides of the buy vs. build equation before making a decision. Below we have highlighted pros and cons of buying an existing business as opposed to building a new one. You can make your decision after studying this and looking at your own situation.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Buyers, Management Tagged With: ,

How to succeed in running absentee business

March 13, 2011


Small business owners run their business absentee for variety of reasons. Some owners are still holding full-time job while starting a business. Others have more locations than they can handle themselves. While still others just don’t want to spend their entire time on the business. Our estimate is that while majority of small businesses are owner operated, there are number of businesses that are run absentee for the reasons mentioned above.
While it is possible to run and succeed in absentee owner business you need to be aware of the problems that arise when you are doing so. Ignoring these problems can lead to deterioration and even disaster for your business. The most common issue in running the business absentee is that you may not be aware of what’s going on with your business or at least not to the same degree as when you are present 24×7. Even if you come to know about the issues it may be too late to act on. The issues can surface in all areas of the business ranging from operations, quality, purchasing and customer service.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Buyers, Employees, Management, Operations Tagged With: , , ,