Insights
Straight answers, page 50
Exit planning
Day One is the Day to Prepare Your ExitWhy the best time to plan your exit is the day you start the company, and the habits that keep it sellable from the beginning.
Selling a business
What Makes the Sale of a Business Fall Through?The four sources of failed deals, seller, buyer, surprises and third parties, and what prevents each before a buyer is introduced.
Exit planning
When It’s Time to Sell, Put Your Strengths FirstWhich strengths buyers pay for, how to prove each one with records, and how to keep them intact while the company is on the market.
Selling a business
Evaluating Your Company’s WeaknessesThe weaknesses that make buyers walk away or cut price, and how to find and fix them before a buyer's due diligence team does.
Buying a business
What Should You Evaluate When Buying a Business?A buyer's evaluation checklist: fit, earnings quality, customers, owner dependence, team, operations and price, with the red flag to watch in each.
Selling a business
The Top Three Major Legal Mistakes to Avoid During a SaleThree legal mistakes that cost sellers money or sink deals, and the contract terms that follow you after closing.
Buying a business
Buying a Business: Three Commonly Overlooked Due Diligence AreasWhy legal documents, retirement plans and worker classification are easy to miss in due diligence, and how buyers protect themselves.
Exit planning
5 Key Factors in Transferring Your Business to a Family MemberThe five decisions behind passing a company to a relative: gift or sale, valuation, financing, estate tools and documentation.
Confidentiality
Maintaining Confidentiality Throughout the Sale ProcessHow the confidentiality risk changes at each stage of a sale, from preparation to the closing announcement, and the control for each.
Buying a business
Key Elements for Every Partnership AgreementWhat partners buying a business together should settle in writing before the purchase: money, control, roles and ways out.
Exit planning
Embracing Retirement and Selling: 4 Tips for a Smooth TransitionFour steps for owners who want to retire through a sale: know your number, define your role after closing, plan the handover and choose well.
Buying a business
Is It Time to Become a Business Owner? 3 Questions to Ask Yourself.Three honest questions about income, control and temperament that show whether owning a business suits you, and whether to buy or start one.