Suggested Readings for Business Owners

Changing Your Role in Your Business to Help It Grow

If business owners want to grow their businesses, it’s practically a given that they must change their roles within the business at some point. Peter Drucker, who is widely considered to be the founder of modern management and wrote nearly 40 books on the topic during his lifetime, believed as such when he wrote, "As a new venture develops and grows, the roles and relationships of the original entrepreneurs inevitably change. If the founders refuse to accept this, they will stunt the business and may even destroy it. But even among the founders who can accept that they themselves need to do something, few know how to tackle changing their own roles and relationships.

Leaving Your Business is Inevitable

At some point, every owner leaves his or her business, voluntarily or otherwise. What does this mean for you and your business? Learn about our process designed to achieve an owner’s financial and other goals.  This framework will help busines owners plan for their inevitable exits on their own terms.

Understanding Business Value

Knowing what a business is worth is one of the foundations of planning a successful departure. Unless business owners know what their businesses are worth, it’s difficult—if not impossible—for them to know whether they can achieve financial security following their business exit. But there are several different ways to measure business value, and each has pros and cons. Learn about different valuation methods to understand what the different kinds of valuations can (or can’t) tell you.

Headwinds

Strong businesses typically implement strong business plans. Likewise, strong business exits are typically the result of implementing strong Exit Plans. Exiting a business is only as difficult as an owner makes it, but which difficulties should owners be aware of as they leave? Learn about three major headwinds in an owner's departure and potential solutions to cutting through the headwinds on their way to a breezy business exit.

Exit Paths for Business Owners

When business owners start to think about leaving their companies, the number of possible paths can seem limitless.    Learn about several strategies and which one might be best for your unique situation.

Setting Goals

When business owners first think about their leaving their business, their minds can wander to all the things they think they must do right away. Before they jump into any planning, they need to know what they're planning for. They must first set certain kinds of goals that are realistic, ambitious, and attainable. Learn about three types of goals business owners must set and guidance for how those goals should be set. Business owners who know why they need to set certain goals and how to set those goals can have more success as they begin their planning.

Transferring Your Company to Key Employees

Owners wishing to sell their businesses to management (i.e., key employees) face two unpleasant facts: Their employees have no money, and they cannot borrow a sufficient quantity to cash out the owner. Learn about transfer methods including a long-term installment buyout of the owner or using someone else's money to affect the buyout.

Using Short-Term Key-Employee Incentives to Increase Sales Price

One of a business owner's greatest challenges is to attract, motivate, and keep key employees. Keeping key employees is absolutely critical if the business is to be sold at the highest possible price. Learn about elements of a stay-bonus plan and how to convert a long-term key-employee incentive plan into a short-term plan. 

Employee Incentive Planning

Incentivizing employees, especially management, to remain with the business after the owner leaves is a critical piece of the Exit Planning puzzle. Learn why employee incentive plans are important and can keep the most important employees with the company after the owner has left.

Top Ten Deal Pitfalls

Learn about 10 deal pitfalls (in no particular order) that each have the capability to derail a deal, some more effectively than others. All of these pitfalls are fairly common, although some owners are prone to fall into more pits than others. Avoiding these pitfalls will allow a smooth departure on your terms.

Successful Transfer of the Family Business

Succession planning for family businesses creates its own set of unique challenges and rewards.  While each family's situation differs, the transfer plans are founded on three basic principles: ensuring that the parents’ post-business life is financially secure; creating a fair way for children to receive ownership interest and other assets; and emphasizing the need to keep parents in control of the company until they have attained financial security and until the successors are fully equipped to run the company successfully.

Transferring Wealth to Children: A Primer for Business Owners

Successful business owners often wrestle with the issue of how to pass wealth to children in a way that legally minimizes their tax bills. Learn how such a transfer can be designed, why fixing their own financial objective precedes any transfer, and how to determine the amount to be transferred.

Business Continuity Planning

Learn about four primary problems sole-owned and co-owned companies face when an owner dies or becomes permanently incapacitated.

Value Drivers

Every business owner must create value in his or her business prior to any transfer or sale. Exactly how do owners do that? Learn about which Value Drivers buyers look for when deciding how much to pay for a business.

Business Growth by Acquisition

Acquiring other businesses is a tool that business owners may use to grow their own businesses. Learn about several ways that acquiring businesses can be a key cog in a successful strategy.