Setting an Asking Price
An overpriced business does not sell slowly, it goes stale. How to set an asking price you can defend and how to tell early that it is wrong.
Using a Business Broker
A broker charges eight to twelve percent to run a process you could run yourself. When that commission is worth it, and when it isn't.
Selling a Business During Divorce
A business is often the largest asset in a divorce and the hardest to divide. What determines the outcome and where the process differs from an ordinary sale.
Selling a Failing Business
A struggling business can be sold. What determines the outcome is how much time is left and how honestly the situation is presented.
Transferring Intellectual Property
Most owners assume the business owns its brand, website and software. What to check before a buyer finds it in diligence.
Preparing an Online Business for Sale
Online businesses are diligenced differently. Traffic sources, platform dependence and account ownership decide whether an offer survives to closing.
Preparing for Sale, Two Years Out
Most owners start preparing when they decide to sell. By then, the things that move price the most are already fixed.
Selling a Business Quickly
A fast sale is achievable but rarely free. What genuinely compresses a timeline versus what only appears to.
Writing a Selling Memorandum
The memorandum decides whether a qualified buyer takes a meeting. What belongs in one that buyers actually finish.
Selling a Business Step by Step
Most sale processes fail on sequencing rather than effort. The schedule, phase by phase, with what depends on what.
Selling a Business With Debt
Debt does not stop a sale, but it changes what the offer means, who can buy, and how much of the price reaches you.
Changes Worth Making Before Selling
With ninety days you mostly cannot change what a business is worth, but a small number of changes still pay off.
What Is Enterprise Value
Enterprise value is what the business is worth; equity value is what the owner receives. Confusing the two surprises sellers at closing.
Seller's Discretionary Earnings
SDE is the earnings measure most small businesses are valued on, and the one buyers spend diligence trying to reduce.
Valuing a Business Accurately
Most bad valuations are not arithmetic failures. How to avoid the errors that come from a single method or a rule of thumb.
Financing an Acquisition
Almost nobody buys a business with cash. What the debt stack looks like, which lender funds goodwill, and whether the business can service the debt.
Writing a Financial Plan
Most financial plans are written to persuade someone. The useful ones are written to find out whether the business works.
Building a Business Model
A model is not a forecast in a spreadsheet, it is a set of relationships. The structure, formulas and checks that keep a model honest.
Risk Management for a Small Business
Risk management is not just an enterprise discipline. It decides your multiple, because a multiple is perceived risk expressed as a number.