Posts in category: Business

It can be beneficial to combine your personal relationship with your career. Working with your partner has many advantages, including synchronized schedules to meet family needs, and the fulfillment of shared accomplishments. Of course, there can be challenges, too. However, in taking some initial time to prepare and plan it all out, you should be able to overcome any obstacles you may face. Here we show you how you can get the most out of working with your spouse.

Try it Out First

Don’t just jump in blind. Instead of outright quitting your current jobs, start working together slowly and find your groove before fully committing. This way you can find out if it’s the right decision for your relationship dynamic. Small issues and incompatibilities can be ironed out, but major red flags may signal that you’re not suited to be business partners in addition to life partners.

Define Roles

Make sure you take the time to work out a business plan that defines your roles and responsibilities. You should base your roles on your individual abilities that highlight strengths and complement each other’s skillsets. This will help you avoid stepping on each other’s toes, or repeating work. You should also define a common goal and check in with each other often to confirm you’re both on the same page.

Manage Risk 

Putting all your eggs in one basket can leave you susceptible to financial risk. Create a strong monetary plan that will safeguard you in case of any market fluctuations or business issues.

Work/Life Balance

 Balancing your work life and your home life can take some practice. But it’s important to find ways to separate your work from your personal life. Otherwise, you’ll never feel as if you can get a break. Try to make time for getaways or days where you can unplug and spend quality time away from the office. Avoid talking about work at home – any disputes or issues should only remain in the workspace.

Spend Time Apart

 When you work together and live together it often can feel a little overbearing. Try to plan for some time apart, perhaps one day a week where you can spend some time with friends, or out by yourself. This will help give you space and build a strong foundation for your relationship.

You can work with your spouse and have a fulfilling marriage and career. Taking the time to find what works for your relationship can save you from challenges further down the road. If you keep communication open, and your marriage first, you’ll be able to handle anything together.

When owning a business, you can be faced with many tough decisions to help better your company. One of those decisions may be whether it’s the right time to merge your company with another. Knowing if a merger or acquisition is the best move for your business can be challenging, so we’ve put together the main reasons why businesses chose to merge with one another.

Grow Market Share

You can grow your business quickly, and potentially with little effort, by merging with another company. By entering into a horizontal merger, you can easily grow your market share by purchasing a competitor’s business. This is especially useful if the competitor has other products that are doing well on the market that you would like to offer. You can obtain their loyal customers and have more production power.

Diversify

By diversifying your company through a merger, you can reduce your exposure to the risk of being invested in only one industry. The goal would be to buy another company in a complementary, but different, industry or market sector. By doing this you avoid having all your eggs in one basket, and you can widen your performance margin.

Vertical Merger

To improve your company’s profit margin, you may want to consider buying out one of your suppliers. This can help you cut the margin costs that they add to your bill. Another option would be buying out your distributor to cut down your shipment costs.

Improve Performance

If two companies can merge and create more revenue than either was able to make on their own, or streamline processes to reduce costs, it’s considered a synergic merger. This method can improve the financial performance for the company’s shareholders.

Enter Foreign Markets

It may also be beneficial to merge with firms in other countries. This can help protect you from risk in a time of recession in your country. Plus, it can reduce your foreign exchange risk if you wish to sell your products to other regions or countries.

Access to Financing

Sometimes your growth becomes stunted because you don’t have access to debt and equity financing. If you can merge with a larger business that has better access to resources, you will have more access to debt and equity than you had before.

If you’re ready to grow your company and improve the strength of your profit margin for your stakeholders, a merger may be right for you. Consider seeking professional assistance in conducting important research and underwriting. A financial advisor from The Beacon Group of Assante Financial Management Ltd. can help you make a better-informed decision that is right for your business now and in the future.

Succession planning is an important part of business strategy. It helps you make fundamental decisions about identifying and developing new leaders, maximizing company value, tax strategy, and ensuring that your business and its clients are protected. Here are the appropriate steps of succession planning to utilize when developing your business strategy.

Analysis of Future Goals and Objectives

It is crucial to develop goals and a vision for your business, such as an exit strategy that outlines post-business ownership goals and future business plans. It’s also crucial to identify the job roles and internal structures that will be critical in achieving these strategies. This will include identifying the right skill sets, competencies, and experience required for a successor.

Decision Making to Select a Successor

Part of the decision-making process will involve role analysis and people analysis. This may involve performance reviews and psychometric testing of current employees, partners, family members deemed fit, or head hunting outside the company for relevant suitors.

This step generally involves the HR and operations departments. It will also be important to have a conflict resolution process in place to ensure that any conflicts that arise can be resolved.

Training a Successor

Once you have identified the core skills required through the above processes, you can now focus on the development and training of the new owner. You will want to ensure there is a structured development program in place that can help identify any gaps in their skills and competencies, and help easily transition them into the role. This can involve shadowing, mentoring, and available learning activities or courses.

Estate Planning

It is essential to the operations to create an estate plan to outline any estate and inheritance issues that may arise. This will include tax implications and any potential probate delays.

Creating a Contingency Plan

A contingency plan should be in place, or a backup succession plan that will go into effect if the original plan fails in case of illness, accidents, and death. This should include the financial resources required that will help protect your business and clients from a failed succession plan.

Corporate Structure and Transfer Methods Available

It will be necessary to determine all options in regards to the corporate structure going forward. This will include evaluation of your current status – whether sole proprietor, partner, or owner – and what options are available to you. Here you will also outline the possibilities available for whether you will transfer or sell the business to your chosen successor.

Financial Valuation and Market Conditions

Research will be required to obtain the fair market value of your business and the current market conditions. This will include looking at comparable properties and financial valuations.

Exit Strategy and Timeline

Creating an exit strategy and timeline will be essential to determine the steps on how and when to exit your business, while providing the most financial gain.

Implementation and Follow-Up

Once a succession plan is in place, an implementation and follow-up strategy should be conducted to ensure regular review and updating is conducted.

Having a succession plan is an opportunity to identify key risks and plan ahead for your business. Use these steps to ensure that your business strategy is safe and sound.

You’ve spent years growing and positioning your business to be successful. When it comes time to sell your business, you want to make sure that you are selling when and how you want and with money in hand. Below are some helpful tips to help you get the compensation you deserve for all that you have built:

Create an Exit Strategy and Timeline

Creating an exit plan involves making a proactive series of decisions. This involves writing down how much cash you will need to walk away with, what the favourable market conditions are for selling, what the lease conditions are (if any), outlining any tax implications, and creating the timeline required for a proper transition.

Also, it’s important to define the potential purchasers. It is important to know whether you are open to selling at arm’s length, to a competitor, to an employee, or to a family member. You may also want to consider if you will want any future relationship with the business, such as working as a consultant to the new owners.

Determine Market Value

Doing research on the current market you plan to sell your business in will help you better understand appropriate transaction timing and price targets. You should understand recent comparable sales in the area. Take into account not just the value of the business (income and inventory) but also real estate and assets like furniture and electronics. A professional business valuator will be able to accurately assess the value of your business.

Deal Structure

Now that you understand market factors, you will want to create an ideal deal structure – one that will ensure you receive the best price and conditions for the sale of your business. This includes outlining all the conditions of the sale, such as price points, employee retention plans, lease conditions that may be affected upon selling, and how the operation of the building will be maintained during and after the transition.

Preparing your Business for Sale

You should know when and how to enhance your business’ valuation and saleability. This could include brand perception, fixing any eyesores, getting your balance sheets in tip-top shape, updating any contracts with customers and vendors, as well as outlining any deal killers and, of course, addressing them immediately.

The Marketing Plan

Engage in a marketing plan and research marketing companies that can aid you in attracting leads. Creating brochures, ads, and websites, will help draw in qualified purchasers. You may want to work with a business broker or use a listing service to increase your reach.

Negotiation Plan and Due Diligence

Be prepared to negotiate not only the price, but also the due diligence terms through the transaction process. Have an experienced broker or agent who can help aid this process and ensure the terms are in your favour. Know your price points and ensure you engage with a trusted purchaser with a quality covenant. In the interim it will be important to keep your sales figures up, expenses low, and your current operations adequately performing to ensure premium pricing.

When it’s time to sell, being prepared is essential. It can help you sell your property faster, at a higher price, and ensure a much smoother transition. The earlier you put your exit plan in place, the more options you will have. Meet with your financial advisor at The Beacon Group of Assante Financial Management Ltd. to customize the best tax, compensation, and succession plan for you.

There are so many moving parts to a business, and knowing the right questions to start asking when buying a business can help ease the strain of the process. Here are some important questions to consider asking to set you off on the right path.

What to ask the previous owners

Engaging with the previous owners and acquiring knowledge of the operation about the business will be key. You should ask questions that relate to how the business is currently managed, operated, and positioned. Questions should include:

• How will current clients and suppliers be managed?
• What are the opportunities going forward?
• Who are the competitors?
• What is the target audience?
• Are there are any setbacks and threats to the business?
• What’s the status of the employees/employee retention?

How much money can I add to the transaction?

The more money you can commit to the total sale price, the more you can increase the leverage you will have in negotiating the final price and the terms and conditions of the sale. It will also determine the size of the business you will be able to purchase and the type of financing that will be available to you. The more money you can put down up front, the more resources you will have available, including options from lenders.

What type of financing strategy do I require?

Once you understand how much money you can put towards the transaction, your next step is to figure out what type of financing you can obtain, along with your tolerance for debt load. This will include whether you’ll be engaging in any partnerships, have access to equity investors or angel investors, and the types of financing that will be available to you.

What is my business strategy and focus?

It will be crucial to have a detailed business strategy outlined, as this will be critical to lenders and your financing strategy. Knowing the current positioning of the business in the market and if you plan to maintain or expand the operations is important. You will want to be able to answer and include the following questions in your strategy:

• Do you understand the current revenue structure and operations of the business and how do you plan to structure this in the future?
• Will your business strategy include upgrading equipment, changing or improving inventory?
• What will your measurable targets will be?
• Will you have the resources to carry out your strategy and vision?

The first steps of purchasing a business are probably the most challenging. And being able to know what questions to ask initially will help you tackle any obstacles and set the way for a successful negotiation. Speak with your financial advisor at The Beacon Group of Assante Financial Management Ltd. for expert advice about buying or selling a business.

If you are contemplating selling your business, there are many options available to you. The decision to sell a company that you have built from the ground up may not be the easiest to come by, but people decide to sell for many different reasons. Whatever your reason for wanting to sell is, there are options for making it the “right” type of sale for you. Here are four different sale possibilities that are common in the small business world.

Sell to a Financial Buyer

 Otherwise known as a long-term investor, this type of buyer is interested in continuing the success of your company and will typically only buy companies that are already profitable and successful. A financial buyer is going to try to maximize your business and gain as high of a return as possible when they in turn sell, which is their ultimate goal. The benefit of selling to a long-term investor is you will likely get a great price for your company because they have the existing capital to make big buy-outs. A downfall with long-term investors is that you can lose the “homegrown” feel that may have made your business great in the beginning.

Sell to Existing Staff

 An individual in your management team can be an ideal candidate for purchasing the company if they are a willing party. Existing management already knows the business and have likely been around long enough to share some of the same emotional investment as you so which can be an important element when considering a sale. A possible downside to this option is that your management team may not be able to afford your target selling price.

Sell to a Strategic Buyer

 Strategic buyers differ from financial buyers in that they are more interested in making your company fit into their own business plans. They will seek out companies that fit their business model and purchase them to in order to enhance their own interests. Strategic buyers are a great option for selling because you know your company continue to build on its core strengths. You will also likely get a good purchase price as strategic buyers are known for their big payouts. A possible downside is the chance your company could be acquired and amalgamated into an existing company, eliminating your brand name.

Partial Recapitalization

 For people who wish to step aside from the daily ongoings but not be completely removed from the business, the best option is partial recapitalization. This allows for the owner to sell either a controlling or a minority number of shares to a buyer while still retaining some equity, depending on the level of involvement the owner wishes to maintain. This is a newer strategy being applied to smaller businesses and it is beneficial for owners who are not fully ready to step away.

If the time is approaching where the sale of your business is the next logical step, make an appointment with your financial advisor at The Beacon Group of Assante Financial Management Ltd. to assist you with preparing the right sale method for your business.