As a business owner, do you have a succession plan?  If you answered no, please take a moment to read this fantastic article which was featured on Canada.com. 

In a nutshell, this piece emphasizes the importance of succession planning and business valuation when the unexpected illness or death of a business owner takes place.  In the example used, the owner’s wife was left to keep the business affairs in order amidst competitors trying to buy it for pennies on the dollar once the owner passed accompanied by a number of other stressful events.  A business valuation became a life saver to this company and the heirs of the previous owner’s estate. 

Starting November 12-15, 2007, a fantastic conference will take place in Cleveland, OH called “The Big Makeover”.  It is a spin off of the TV hit “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” where one lucky business owner will have their entire company reconstructed from top to bottom, bottom to top — FREE!  A select group of 250 CEO’s, Presidents and business owners will be invited to Cleveland, OH November 12^th – 15^th to watch the selected company be completely overhauled, and in so doing, will actively learn how to apply the same techniques and strategies to their own businesses.  

If you are a small business owner who’s company is primarily internet-based, especially in eCommerce, trying to determine the value of your web business can often be a daunting and very challenging task.  A fundamental question that challenges traditional thinking pertains the tangible and intangible value of a website.  For pure play web companies, the website is their building and the internet is their real estate.  When a traditional company is sold, often times the building and land go with it.  Is web real estate and property being valued in the sale of a web business?

The Center for Media Research just released a study, conducted by ThirdAge, Inc and JWT BOOM, that indicates 40+ year olds are hip to the internet as nearly 75% have Broadband internet in their homes.  The group labeled as “Third Agers” is defined as baby boomers and mid-lifers ranging in age from mid 40’s through mid 60’s.

The Internet has revolutionized the way we operate in life, work, and recreation.  Small companies can efficiently serve national or global customers real-time, meeting their needs and fulfilling their demands.  While this convenience is mostly positive in the eyes of a business owner, it can also come with some hefty negatives.  Case in point, online reputation.  A trend called “online reputation monitoring”, which began to get noticed back in 2005 is gaining steam as companies seek to manage their brand’s integrity and reputation amongst the thralls of blogs, message boards, forums and what’s known as “user generated content”.  So this begs to question, what is your reputation worth when you are planning on appraising and then selling your business?

Two new studies were just released, indicating that aging baby boomers plan on working longer and delaying retirement into their 60s & 70s.  The Charlotte Observer goes into detail about this trend and outlines several key reasons.

A significant portion of baby boomers (those born from 1946 to 1964) are business owners.  These business leaders appear to have the energy, passion and financial needs to keep running their businesses versus retiring in their 50s/60s like their parents and grandparents.

Entreprenuers must continually invest in themselves with golden nuggets of insightful information and tips.  Learning from other seasoned entrepreneurs who have been successful in their own ventures and are giving back to like-minded business owners can be invaluable!  Seeking self-improvement is a huge investment back into your business, its employees, services & products, growth and consequent value. 

We’ve all heard the famous quote: 

“Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.”

 This was made famous by the 3rd US President, Thomas Jefferson.  In all parts of life, this message can hold true………but let’s manipulate it in our favor a bit and focus on its implications in today’s business world.  More specifically, let’s get past the employees, customers and vendors and concentrate solely on the business owner.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics, a division within the Department of Labor, reported several weeks ago that less than 50% of small businesses successfully make it past 4 years of operation.  In fact, only 44% of business owners can “hack it” through 4 years of operation.  Nearly 65% of businesses successfully make it past the first two years.

A recent studyhas been released by The Social Science Research Network which examined the value corporate acquirers are putting on accounting methods and techniques.  The study found that private business buyers put much greater value in private companies when financial records were being audited by a ”Big 4″ accounting firm:

“……….we find that enterprise values of private firms who have a Big 4 auditor are 19% to 25% higher than firms without a Big 4 auditor.”