Serious About Success (Part 2 of 2)

YOUR OWN PERSONAL TIME BANK

Think of the 24 hours all of us have each day as a TIME “BANK”. And, if you “borrow” any hours from PRIME TIME for activities better suited for FLEX TIME, you need to “pay back your TIME BANK”.

In other words, if you play golf for 8 hours on Tuesday, you should “self manage” and promise yourself that you will devote 8 FLEX TIME hours to marketing, to pay back the 8 PRIME TIME hours you borrowed. Better yet, play golf after 5pm. You absolutely can get in 9 holes (or more), easily, before dark, after 5pm, in the summer time (playing 9 holes, each of 2 weekdays after 5 pm, still gives you 18 holes, right?). So, (if you owed yourself 8 Prime Time hours you “borrowed”), you could devote 1 ½ hours per night, for a week, to phoning buyers you couldn’t reach during the day (a brilliant idea, anyway, as many buyers can’t be easily reached during the day, anyway). Or, you could devote 2 Saturdays, of 4 hours each, to “blitz”...

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Serious About Success (Part 1 of 2)

The following are opinions. But, they are based on almost 30 years experience in listing and selling businesses, and, during that time, training literally hundreds of agents in offices nationwide, then being able to observe the practices of the successful, and the not so successful, agents. These are a few of the reliable “truths” I’ve observed, along with my theory about “Prime Time” and “Flex Time”.

PRIME TIME

This is Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm. These are the days and hours most buyers, sellers, bankers, lawyers, accountants and landlords are easiest to make appointments with. This represents 40 hours per week, 172 hours per month (with 5 days times 4.3 weeks average per month), and about 2,054 hours per year, of PRIME TIME, available to each of us.

FLEX TIME

Weekends anytime, and weekdays after 5pm and before 9am. Some of these hours, also, are times when you can

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Business Brokers Must Adapt to Survive the Nation’s Long-Term Small Business Credit Crisis

“For mankind and animals alike, it is not the strongest who survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one who best adapts to change." – Charles Darwin

I was honored to be one of the 200 or so people invited by the International Franchise Association (IFA) to attend their April 7, 2011 Small Business Finance Summit. This event was co-produced by Consumer Bankers Association, the National Association of Government Guaranteed Lenders, and the National Restaurant association. The purpose of this Summit – and its follow-up working group – was to start collaboration between government, bank lenders, and small business advocacy groups, searching for new and better ways to improve credit access and thereby spur business growth nationwide.

By no means was this event limited to focusing on the multi-billion dollar franchising industry, where I have served as an in house attorney (e.g., McDonald’s Corporation, UPS) for 22 years. During this event, we examined the nation’s ongoing small business credit crisis under a microscope...

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Broker Guidelines (Part 2 of 2)

The following broker guidelines come from the second half of a memo Bill Martin recently emailed to the 22 agents that work at American Business Masters, Inc (ABMI), a Kansas City business brokerage firm. Due to the length of the memo, we posted the first five yesterday and the remaining five below.


Each Main Street agent should work to make the following a reality:

(1) through (5) listed in yesterday's posting.

(6) Listing pricings/evaluations are generated by (a) your working the telemarketing seller leads ABMI provides ample quantities of (generated by ABMI’s on staff telemarketing opeators), and your contacting 100% of those, setting appointments to do pricings/evaluations, or to “get acquainted”, and/or (b) by your contacting the ample quantities of “reassigned” seller leads ABMI provides you (aged leads that are still suspects), and your contacting 100% of those, and/or (c) your developing your own seller leads through personal production, and/or (d) you canvassing business owners, either in person, or by phone, and/or (e) you sending direct mail or emails to business owners.

(7) Each Main Street agent should be spending at least

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Broker Guidelines (Part 1 of 2)

The following broker guidelines come from a memo Bill Martin recently emailed to the 22 agents that work at American Business Masters, Inc (ABMI), a Kansas City business brokerage firm. Due to the length of the memo, we are posting the first five guidelines today and the remaining five tomorrow.


 We’re doing great.

Over the last 12 months, during what was supposed to be a “recovering” economy, we have made sure ABMI is practicing, with even more energy, the “basics” we’ve learned over the last 30 years of listing and selling small businesses.

ABMI has become the “New ABMI”, with dramatically increased buyer lead flow, improved listing quality, a doubled agent sales force (now totaling 22 business brokers/agents, working the 10 counties of metro Kansas City), recruiting and training of an exceptional administrative staff, the development of state of the art internet marketing and improved advertising, the writing of a new agency web site (www.abmi.net), totaling hundreds of pages of new content that’s unique to our site, the development of an in house commercial real estate agency with an ultra talented managing real estate broker, the recruiting/development of talented sales management, and lots of agent training and re-training, resulting in sales and commission income that doubled in 2010 over 2009, and, in 2011, commission income that is headed for record setting by doubling again over 2010.  

Everyone at ABMI will benefit from these improvements. At least, everyone that does their part to be involved in taking advantage of the opportunities created by ABMI’s owners. Here are the guidelines that each Main Street agent should use as your personal goals, so you can generate your share of these exciting opportunities.

Each Main Street agent should work to make the following a reality:

(1) You should have no less than 10 personal listings/seller engagements at all times. If you are a new agent, or one that’s been on staff less than 6 months, you should...

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5 Positive Signs for Restaurants

Nation's Restaurant News recently posted an article that outlines five reasons why things are looking up for restaurant operators this year.  The reasons come from a research note by Brad Ludington, a restaurant securities analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Read the article.

 

Franchised Sandwich Shops

It seems like every time we visit our son Ron in Wilmington, NC, there is a new franchised sandwich shop that has opened in the area. In gathering data for our 2012 Business Reference Guide (it is hard to believe that this will be the 22nd edition), we began playing with some of the figures. Following is an update on some of the shops. The listing of the various franchises has the rule of thumb for pricing them along with the average annual sales figures that we have so far. The rest of the data is just our rough calculations.

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Visual for Selling a Business

Contactme.com recently posted a visual summary on their blog covering some basics of selling a business. We thought it was an interesting way of presenting the information. It included the costs, benefits and steps of selling a business.

Of course, we can't help but comment on something you've heard us say over and over. While sellers are fond of the idea of receiving all the cash up front in the sale of their business (a possibility listed in the first benefit of the contactme.com visual), it is the job of business brokers to remind sellers of the benefits of offering seller financing. These benefits include increased sales price, additional funds received over time in interest, and even an increased chance of selling the business in today's climate of scarce business financing.

Business Broker vs. M&A Intermediary

The following is taken from the preface of Selling Middle Market Businesses: Guide Book for intermediaries by Russell Robb.

There is a movement afoot whereby business brokers are moving up-market from selling Main Street businesses to selling companies in the lower-end of the middle market, previously the exclusive domain of the M&A intermediary.  There is no precise definition of lower-end of the middle market as some people would clarify companies with sales between $5 to $100 million, while others would classify this category as companies with sales between $3 to $50 million.
 
There is a natural tendency for business brokers selling Main Street companies to...

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Len Krick: Some Good News

 

Below you will find Len Krick's latest update to me regarding his issue with the State of Nevada's Securities Division.  If you are not yet familiar with what is going on, you will want to read theprevious postings regarding Len Krick's case.  Certainly the information from Len concerning this issue is good news. The fact that the lawsuit goes on as does the federal inquiry, doesn’t lessen the attorney fees or the time it must take for Len to deal with this issue. If you would like to contribute to Len’s legal fees, as many already have, just email me and I will follow up with instructions on what to do.

The fact that Nevada has seen fit to issue a “no action” letter may inspire other states to follow suit.

 

COMMENT FROM TOM WEST:

And the saga continues...

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Hot Business List -- May 2011

COMMENTS FROM TOM WEST:

This is the third instance where I have seen that E-Commerce is the top business of interest on  the current “hot” business list courtesy of data from Businesses For Sale (www.businessesforsale.com). The other two instances occurred April 2011 and November 2010. Join a discussion on LinkedIn about e-commerce businesses staying on the top of the lists of searched businesses.

Food type businesses take up 8 spots on the top 10. Nothing has changed. It’s reassuring to an old industry veteran that some things do stay the same. Food and Drink related businesses are still the main staple of businesses that buyers are looking for.

The below lists are a monthly ranking of business types based on the number of “hits” on the BusinessesForSale.com site. This ranking is not based on the actual sale of businesses.


Top Ten Main Street Businesses for May 2011:

1. E-Commerce Businesses
2. Miscellaneous Restaurants

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CONTRIBUTORS

Tom West
BBP Co-Founder  ~  Massachusetts

Tom is a founder and past president of several large business brokerage firms and is also a founder, past president, and former Executive Director of the International Business Brokers Association (IBBA).  He has authored and co-authored several books, is editor of all 21 editions of The Business Reference Guide, and is often quoted in a variety of national newspapers and periodicals.

Email 


Loren Marc Schmerler
Bottom Line Management, Inc.  ~  Georgia

Loren CPC, APC is President and Founder of Bottom Line Management, Inc. He has been a business broker since 1986 and a business consultant since 1970. Loren represents sellers and buyers and has qualified for the 2012 Georgia Association of Business Broker’s Million Dollar Club.

Email  |  Web



Robert Flynn
Managing Partner of United Brokers Group, LLC ~ Rhode Island
Robert has been a business brokerage firm owner for nine years. Prior to that period he was a Senior Executive in two public and privately held technology and manufacturing businesses for twenty-eight years. From 1982 to 1996 Robert was a Senior Executive at the publicly traded +$3 billion (USD) London-based Cookson Group. He managed technology and manufacturing companies in England and the United States with a particular emphasis on startup and turnaround situations. Robert is also a licensed Rhode Island real estate salesperson and has owned five businesses.

 

Email  |  Website 1  |  Website 2 


Bob Sweeney
President of Innovative Travel Acquisitions, Inc. (ITA) ~ Georgia
Bob founded the Atlanta-based travel and tour business brokerage firm in 1991 after a successful 9-year career on Wall Street. Known as the "Matchmakers for the Travel and Tour Industries", ITA is a member in good standing with the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), the National Tour Association (NTA) and the International Business Brokers Association (IBBA). ITA operates a confidential platform LINKING buyers and sellers of travel and tour related companies throughout North America.

Email  |  Website  


Darrell Arne
Founder of Arne & Co.  ~  New Mexico
Darrell began his professional career in public accounting in 1970. In 1983, Darrell formed his own CPA practice, with emphasis on business valuation; by 1992, he had earned the Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) designation in business valuation. He then earned the Certified Business Intermediary (CBI) designation in 1995, and Certified Merger & Acquisition Advisor (CM&AA) designation in 2008. He discontinued practicing in public accounting in 1994 when he formed Arne & Co., specializing in exit strategy planning for business owners, business valuations, business acquisitions & sales, business dispute mediation, part-time CFO services, and developer of business training seminars. 

Email  |  Website  


Jean D. Sifleet, Esq.
Business Attorney and Creator of Smart Fast®  ~  Massachusetts
Jean began her career with big law and accounting firms. She did a stint in state government, and then moved to the computer and communications industry. Frustrated with bureaucracy, Jean co-founded and sold two successful companies.  Today, Jean practices business law. She enjoys working with people who are starting a company, or who want to grow their company and stay out of trouble. Her advice is grounded in her first-hand experience as an entrepreneur as well as her knowledge of law, finance and management.  Calling herself a nontraditional lawyer, Jean uses Smart Fast®, a practical and systematic approach to evaluating options and making informed decisions. 

Email  |  Website


Ron Johnson
Chairman, ABI Business Sales, Mergers & Acquisitions  ~  California
Ron is Chairman of ABI Business Sales, Mergers & Acquisitions, which was established in San Ramon, CA, in 1984. Ron has been the intermediary in over one hundred transactions since entering the profession in 1991, and has managed, for his associates, many hundreds of additional transactions. Ron is well recognized nation-wide in his profession, having served 10 years on the Board of Directors of the California Association of Business Brokers (CABB), including two terms as President of the CABB.

Email  |  Website


Ralana Shelley
Certified Business Intermediary, Sunbelt  ~  Indiana
Ralana comes to the table with over eight years of experience in the Business Brokerage industry. Prior to making the transition to Business Broker, Ralana specialized in Marketing small to mid-sized businesses in the Indiana marketplace in her role as Marketing Manager for Sunbelt. 

Email  |  Website 1  |  Website 2  |  Website 3  |  Blog  |  LinkedIn  |  Twitter


Rose Stabler
Certified Business Brokers (CBB), Managing Partner ~  Texas
Rose has 25 years of business experience from serving in management and consulting positions in the Oil & Gas, Biotechnology, and Manufacturing industries to working for private equity giant Forstmann Little & Company to starting, building and selling an online promotional product firm that featured her own line of items. Rose serves as business advisor on the Houston Business Show on CNN650 and appears regularly on the Movers and Shakers panel discussion segment of Houston Manufacturers Show. Rose has published many articles about the process of buying and selling businesses and has contributed to Inc. Magazine. 

Email  |  Website 1  |  Website 2  |  Website 3  |  Blog


Wayne Quilitz
Murphy Valuations, President ~  Florida
Wayne's experience includes 28 years in electrical engineering and marketing in the electronics industry.  He served in the U.S. Navy, worked for Boeing Aerospace and Texas Instruments, and owned/operated a retail store for five years before joining Murphy Business and Financial Corporation.

Email  |  Website 


Richard L. Kolman
Franchise Note Buyers, LLC, President & Principal Owner ~  San Diego, CA

Richard has long served as trusted in-house legal counsel for some of the nation’s leading franchising companies. Rich began his franchise legal career in 1988 as a Corporate Attorney in the Legal Department of McDonald’s Corporation. He recently retired from the UPS Legal Department, following eleven years as Senior Franchise Counsel for The UPS Store and Mail Boxes Etc. (4,400+ franchises).  Despite the current adverse national economy, Franchise Note Buyers and its strategic underwriters bring unparalleled access to large sums of liquid capital needed to quickly fund numerous Franchise Notes at top-dollar prices.

Email  |  Website  |  Blog 


Bill Martin
ABMI, USBIZCORP and USFRANBIZ Founder  ~  Missouri

Since starting as an agent in 1982, Bill's career has included the building of business brokerages from scratch in over 20 cities coast to coast.  He is the founder of United States Business Brokers, Inc (USBIZCORP) and USFRANBIZ, Inc.  Bill has been involved in the sale of almost 4,000 different business acquisition transactions. He has also had articles and opinion memo’s published in trade publications, and is a nationally recognized trainer and mentor in the business brokerage industry.

Email


Russell Robb
Managing Director, Tully & Holland, Incorporated ~ Massachusetts

Russell Robb is a 20-year veteran in the mergers and acquisitions business, providing investment banking and corporate finance advisory services to a wide range of middle market companies. His transaction experience includes numerous companies in the consumer products industry, as well as a broad array of other manufacturing and distribution companies in various industry sectors. Russ is the past president and owner of two sporting goods manufacturing/retail companies. He is a published author of Selling Middle Market Businesses and the former editor of a highly regarded monthly M&A industry newsletter. 

Email


Len Krick
Sunbelt Owner, CBI, M&AMI ~  Las Vegas, NV
Len, owner of the Sunbelt Las Vegas office, is a Certified Business Intermediary ("CBI"), a Merger & Acquisition Master Intermediary ("M&AMI"), and holds a Nevada Real Estate Broker License. He has over twenty years of business and business consulting experience and is an active member, moderator and speaker for the International Business Brokers Association ("IBBA"), the Las Vegas Business Forum, and the Las Vegas CFO Group.

Email  |  Website


Ted J. Leverette
"Partner" On-Call Network, President 
Ted, The Original Business Buyer Advocate ®, has consulted with thousands of business buyers and owners on buy/sell, valuation and business improvement since 1974. Since 1993 he has taught affiliates in the USA and Canada, who independently own and operate their consulting practices, The Street-Smart Way to Become a Business Consultant™. He has been a lecturer for trade associations and author of texts, articles and the book, How to Get ALL the Money You Want For Your Business Without Stealing It™.

Email  |  Website


Ed Teixeira
FranchiseKnowHow, LLC ~  New York
Ed is the founder and President of FranchiseKnowHow, LLC a franchise-consulting firm. Ed has worked in the franchise industry for thirty years and has served as a corporate executive for firms in the retail, manufacturing, healthcare and technology industries. He has been involved with over 1,000 franchise locations and has transacted international licensing in Europe, Asia and South America. Ed is the author of Franchising From The Inside Out.

Email  |  Website


Jeff Fabian
Fabian, LLC ~  Baltimore, MD
Jeff is founder of Fabian, LLC, a boutique law firm headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland that provides trademark and copyright protection and contract drafting and negotiation services for businesses, artists, entertainers and athletes. He has published scholarly articles on trademark use in the Internet context and state franchise relationship laws, and has co-authored numerous articles appearing in various legal, business and industry publications.

Email  |  Website 1  |  Website 2  |  Twitter 


George D. Abraham
Business Evaluation Systems, CEO 
George has been involved in the transfer of over 450 businesses and performed over 12,000 appraisals in the past 32 years. Two of the appraisals Mr. Abraham was involved in passed the scrutiny of the World Bank. His company was the first in the nation to develop and gain national attention for its unique and highly accurate business evaluation software programs.  George is a licensed Real Estate Broker, Real Estate Appraiser, Business Appraiser, Machinery and Equipment Appraiser, Board Certified Business Broker, Certified Environmental Inspector, Certified Business Intermediary, Licensed State Property Tax Consultant, Accredited Review Appraiser, and Certified Business Counselor.

Website


Clyth MacLeod
Clyth MacLeod, Ltd. Managing Director ~ New Zealand
Clyth has over 40 year's experience in business broking and business valuation. yth is also a director of Business Appraisals Ltd (business valuers), BizStats Ltd (a national database of business sales information) and Australasian Business Valuations Ltd (consultancy).As well as authoring many articles and texts Clyth has lectured nationwide and overseas on business sales and valuation for many organisations including the Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand and the International Business Brokers Association in the USA. The only business broker to be awarded a Life Membership by the Real Estate Institute of NZ and a Fellowship by the International Business Brokers Association he remains active in the industry and committed to leading a professional team.

Website


Jack R. Sanders
Spectrum Corporate Resources, LLC Managing Director
Jack has been an active full-time business intermediary since 1985. He has personally handled over 130 business transfers and has appraised over 1,450 businesses. He is also the author of the “BIZCOMPS®” studies, a leading authority on the market value of small and medium business in the United States and Canada. The studies contain actual transaction information on over 12,000 transactions and are marketed in both print and electronic form. Jack is also an instructor in educational courses leading to the Certified Business Intermediary designation.

Website


Christopher George
George & Company, President ~  Worcester, MA
Christopher is a Certified Business Opportunity Appraiser, Company President, and also a past president of the Association of New England Business Brokers. Chris has been engaged in the appraisal, sale and financing of small to mid-sized businesses since 1971. He has personally aided buyers & sellers in thousands of sales and appraisals.

Email  |  Website  |  LinkedIn  |  Facebook

 


Roger Murphy
Murphy Business & Financial Corporation, President / CEO ~  FL
Roger is a Certified Business Intermediary and Master Certified Business Counselor with over 25 years experience in executive management and financial management. He is the President / CEO of Murphy Business & Financial Corporation, one of the largest and most successful business brokerage firms in North America with business brokers located throughout the United States and Canada. Murphy Business specializes in businesses for sale, franchises, business valuations, and commercial real estate.

Email  |  Website 


Amanda Puppo
MarketReach Inc., CEO & Founder  ~  Lawrenceville, NJ

During her dealings with various companies, Ms. Puppo became aware of an apparent general aversion towards the application of the cold-call, while at the same time, realizing its importance in business. In March, 2001 at the age of 26, Ms. Puppo created MarketReach Inc. MarketReach does cold-calling/lead generation and market surveys, so clients can spend their time building their business and servicing their customers. MarketReach was named a Finalist in the Most Innovative Company category in The 2004 Stevie Awards for Women Entrepreneurs. 

Email  |  Website   |  Twitter

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