General Business and Finance Blog

Dear aspiring entrepreneur,

Before we get started, I want to be very blunt and completely honest with you.  If you are looking for a “get rich quick” scheme or are looking to make $1000 by next week, then you need to leave this page!  The information I am about to share with you is only for people who are SERIOUS about making a living as an Internet Marketer and a Home Business Entrepreneur.  So, if that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, then good luck to you with your future endeavors and maybe I’ll see you again in the future.

On the flip side, if you ARE ready to become a SERIOUS Internet Marketer and a Home Business Entrepreneur, then please read on.  Over the next few minutes, I am going to expose to you the TRUTH behind Internet Marketing and Working from Home.  I am going to tell you what it takes to become a successful Internet Marketer and I am also going to tell you what most Internet Marketing Guru’s fail to explain to you.

Internet Marketing can be simply explained as using various websites, search engines, and Internet Marketing tools to “market” (or sell) products, services, and information to people over the Internet.  Almost everyone you and I know uses the Internet in some form or another; whether it is to check their email, log on to their favorite social networking site, or to buy and sell something on an auction website.  People from all walks of life and of all ages use the Internet on a daily basis and in today’s troubling times, millions of people are now using the Internet for a NEW purpose; to make money!

The Home Business industry is a multi-million dollar a year industry!  Thousands of people are starting their own business from home each and every day and the number keep growing month after month.  Now why do you think this is?  Well there are a few reasons for it.  Home Businesses are:

With a home business, you never have to worry about:

Wouldn’t it be nice to have the freedom to do whatever you want WHENEVER you want?  Wouldn’t it be nice to have the car or home of your dreams without having to worry about whether or not you can afford it?  And, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to provide for your family without having to run yourself into the ground to do it?  Well, ALL these things are possible when you start you own Home Business.

So how do Internet Marketing and owning a Home Business tie into each other?  Quite simply, to be a successful Home Business owner, you MUST know how to be an Internet Marketer.  This is the TRUTH that other Internet Marketing Gurus fail to mention!  You have absolutely no chance whatsoever of running a successful Home Business, if you cannot market it over the Internet; plain and simple!

The simple fact that you have stumbled upon this article means that you are either a) interested in becoming an Internet Marketer, b) interested in starting a Home Business, or c) you were just looking for something to read.  Chances are, options A and B are correct.  And if so, that means that you have most likely been searching for an opportunity for quite some time now.  You may have even tried an opportunity or two before.  Now let me ask you something; did it fail?  It probably did, right?  WHY???

Simply because, 99.9% of the opportunities found on the Internet today are SCAMS.  I’m sorry to say this but they are.  Some Internet Guru uses his masterful mind and dreams up some unbelievable opportunity and decides to market it.  It is so good and gets you so excited that you would be crazy not to become part of it!  So you get suckered in like everyone else.  And like everyone else, you successfully get scammed.  Here’s how it works:

These Internet Gurus have one sole purpose in mind and that is to make money.  Not because they want you to succeed as they have, not because they have a fool-proof system, and not because they find enjoyment in helping other!  All they care about is selling you their e-book for some astronomical amount of money!  Once they do that, their job is done.  They could care less whether or not you know how to market their opportunity.  They could care less whether or not you take the time to read their “million page” e-book.  The only thing they care about is taking your money!  Congratulations…you have just successfully been scammed.  That is the TRUE meaning behind the phrase “get rich quick.”  You don’t get rich quick, THEY DO!

Sounds familiar doesn’t it?  Of course it does.  This sort of thing happens every day to millions of unsuspecting people trying to make a living for themselves.  To be honest, it’s quite the lucrative business practice.  If I knew how to be a cold hearted, money hungry, ignorant scam artist the I’D dream up some masterful plan to scam innocent people.  But frankly, that’s just now me.  I’d rather work hard, smart, and honest.

So please, don’t get sucked in by another scam artist.  Stop wasting your time and money on e-books that are so lengthy and confusing that you have to keep reading them over and over again just to get the picture.  Stop getting left out in the cold and start a REAL Home Business!

A real Home Business requires several things:

Think of a Home Business as a fast food franchise opening up a new store.  What does that franchise need in order to accomplish this?  They need money.  They need to pay to have the new store build or they need to pay rental fees or remodeling fees.  They need to pay for equipment and supplies, and they need to pay employees to run the new store.

This same principal holds true with a Home Business.  In order for it to be successful, it will require you to invest your time and money.  Your investment will pay for products and services needed to successfully run your business.  It will also pay for advertising and marketing so other people can purchase those products and services from you.

A real Home Business also requires duplication.  Lets go back to the fast food store for a second.  So they’ve opened the new store .  It looks exactly like every other one of its kind.  They provide the same options and benefits as ever other store EXCEPT for one thing.  This particular store is only open on the weekends.  Now how successful do you think this store is going to be?  They are only open 2 days a week unlike the other stores which are open 7.  Do you think they are going to be as productive and profitable?  Probably not!  Here’s why.

Even though the new that there was already a system in place that was GUARANTEED to work, that was PR OVEN to be profitable, they decided for some reason to try something else.  They thought by doing something different and their way, it would be more productive.  Does that make any sense?

Duplication is by far the most powerful tool that make a Home Business successful.  All you have to do is follow the step by step system that other successful Home Business owners are already doing.  Their system works, they make money with it, they know what they are doing, all you have to do is copy it.  That’s it!  It can’t get any easier than that!

So what now?  How do I get started?

The answer is simple…I have a system in place that makes me a successful Home Business owner and all you have to do is “duplicate” what I am doing.  Starting you own Home Business is easy and can be very profitable if you have a system that works.  Well now you do; MINE!  That being said, let me introduce you to the “Rags 2 Riches System.”

This system was developed by Chad Rissanen, a very successful Home Business owner who discovered a way to make an incredible income from home.  His system can be accessed 100% FREE of charge by clicking the link at the bottom of this article.  Once you fill out the form on his website, you will get instant access to his incredible system for FREE.  He walks you through the system step by step, with audio commentary, how to set up and start you OWN Home Business simply by copying what he is doing.  There is a small investment involved to get everything up and running but I can tell you its far less than what those Internet Gurus are charging for their services.

So, if you’re ready to start your own business then I STRONGLY suggest you visit the link below.  You could have your new Home Business up and running in a few short hours.  DON’T DELAY…get started now and I’ll see you at the top!

Regards,

Dustin Kratochwill

A successful Internet Marketer

PS:  Did you know that almost 90% of Home Business failures are do to the fact that most people FAILED to act?!  They simply got scared and ran away because things got to hard or complicated.  Don’t be one of those people.  This system is PROVEN to work and all you have to do is copy it!  How much easier can it get?

CLICK HERE to get started on the road to success!

Imagine opening 20 new business locations without having to foot the bill for real estate, equipment and development costs or taking on any of the risk. Even more, imagine finding managers to run all those locations, who are just as committed to growing the company as you, and you don’t have to pay them a dime. Finally, imagine that these managers will hire, fire and manage all employees as well as foot the bill for all operating costs and expenses. Sound far-fetched?

Not if you’re planning to enter the franchise industry, one of the fastest ways to grow a small business without breaking the bank. For many companies, franchising a business (or licensing) is a sensible way to achieve rapid, profitable growth without giving up any control or ownership. Going from a single location to a dozen in a couple years, or a hundred in ten years is possible and well-documented because franchise owner-investors put up all investment capital, shoulder all risk and assume all day-to-day operating responsibilities.

It’s expansion, using OPM – Other People’s Money. Also, the franchise company gets paid handsomely for teaching others the secrets of how to operate its business. First, there’s the up-front “membership” or franchise fee of $20,000 to $50,000 paid for using the brand name and operating methods. In addition, there are continuing royalties of 5% to 10% of gross sales for ongoing advice and consultation. In essence, a franchise development program allows a company to get out of the trenches and become a highly-paid general overseeing its soldiers. Long-term options are also attractive. Build an empire and relax, or let the franchise company be acquired by an increasing number of large companies that look for small, but growing franchise companies. According to the International Franchise Association, 900 new companies have franchised in the last three years.

ENTERING A NEW BUSINESS A company planning to franchise must realize it is entering a new business, offering an entirely different service (training & support) to entirely new customers (business owner-operators). This new business requires different skills, abilities and expertise. In the new business of franchising, it is critical to develop effective evaluation, documentation, mentoring, training and consulting skills. Since these new skills are rarely present within existing personnel, an outside franchise expert is needed to train existing personnel and plan the transition. The first step involves determining whether or not a business can franchise, and if so, what needs to be developed. Next, strategic franchise planning is necessary to create a “blueprint” for successful expansion efforts. Experience shows that, just like a building, the foundation developed at the beginning will create lasting consequences affecting the relative success (or failure) of the entire venture. Legal (franchise disclosure document, franchise agreements) and operational documents (franchise operations manual, franchise training program) are prepared and drafted and finally a franchise registration process is required in some 14 states, depending on which state(s) the company sells franchises. These phases are discussed below.

THE FRANCHISE FEASIBILITY PHASE An indispensable step before any franchise development program gets underway is an analysis of the concept and business model. Has the concept been sufficiently proven in the marketplace? How profitable are existing prototypes or company-owned outlets? Franchising will not solve existing problems, it will only intensify them – and usually at a serious cost to franchise investors. Franchising should not be viewed as a method to raise capital, expand a business that has existing problems, or a way to get rich quickly. There must be sufficient profitability in the business model so that royalty and other payments can be made and leave the franchise investor with a sufficient profit. With a franchise feasibility analysis, a determination can be made about:

(a) whether franchising or licensing expansion ideas should be pursued, postponed or abandoned; and (b) assuming a positive result in (a), what needs to be fine-tuned or developed from scratch for the franchise program.

Besides determining if and when the business can franchise, the analysis should also include providing guidance and direction so as much of the groundwork as possible can be done by existing personnel. This has proven to be a very effective approach and significantly reduces franchise development costs. If the feasibility analysis is positive, the other phases discussed below follow. My twenty-eight years of experience in the franchise industry lets me share a valuable insight about franchise feasibility studies. Too many companies leap into franchising without doing a feasibility study, or if one is done it is performed by a franchise consultant or group that tells everyone good news – they’re all “franchise-able.” The vast majority of franchise feasibility studies I’ve done either identify areas that need attention before franchising makes any sense or tell the client to forget about it and pursue other options.

THE FRANCHISE STRATEGIC PLANNING PHASE A successful franchise development program begins with a solid plan – a foundation for franchising. The long-term goal is to establish balanced, integrated, successful business relationships with qualified individuals who support the company’s goals and image. Creating an enduring relationship requires a comprehensive strategy that addresses all aspects of the franchise endeavor.

The starting point is a detailed analysis that covers:

(1) identifying profile characteristics of who will be the best franchise owners for the particular business;

(2) competitive positioning to make the franchise stand out from the other 3,000+ franchise companies;

(3) geographic scope – where and when will franchises be sold;

(4) analysis of the company’s organizational strengths and weaknesses relative to franchising;

(5) identifying the appropriate franchise organizational structure as well as staffing requirements and responsibilities; and

(6) structuring the franchise relationship for a balanced, win-win scenario.

What should emerge from this detailed analysis is a specific strategic plan and framework for guiding virtually all franchise efforts. Despite the long-term importance of the franchise planning step, too many emerging franchise companies enter franchising with no plan or planning – other than “let’s try and sell a lot of franchises.” They rush through (or neglect entirely) the strategic planning process, thereby creating future franchise litigation land mines that are ticking franchise lawsuits waiting to happen.

Often, this is because they only utilize the services of a franchise consulting firm or franchise attorney, where little or no attention is paid to critical strategic planning, operational and organizational issues. Normally, these firms draft “boilerplate” franchise disclosure documents, franchise agreements and franchise operations manuals based on a questionnaire completed by their client, who is presumed to have made all strategic decisions. The franchise documents are presented, along with an invoice and a handshake – hardly the ingredients for success in the new business of franchising.

THE FRANCHISE DOCUMENTATION PHASE If the company has made doing a good job at the planning stage the number one priority, franchise documentation goals will be apparent. Proprietary and intellectual property assets (like operating techniques, customer information, recipes, formulas and methods) need to be identified and protected. A trade secret protection program is developed and implemented. The name, logo and tag lines should have been previously registered as trademarks or service marks.

franchise operations manuals Franchise operations manuals and training programs are developed, often from scratch, to impart business operating skills to the franchise owner as well as ensure uniformity of products and services. The franchise operations manual and training program curriculum must be drafted with a particular focus. Certain topics, chapters and policies found in manuals for a company-owned chain, for example, are entirely inappropriate in a franchise environment, creating significant liability (lawsuit) issues for the franchise division.

I routinely find franchise operations manuals drafted by franchise consultants or do-it-yourself manual kitscontaining inappropriate chapters or topics. Not knowing where the bullets come from in franchise litigation, they proceed blindly ahead using “boilerplate” manuals where most (but not all) instances of “hamburgers” are changed to “tax returns.” The support aspect of the franchise relationship needs to be carefully considered, structured and reflected in the franchise operations manuals.

Deciding who writes the franchise operations manual is a relatively simple question to answer, yet many new franchise companies also fall into a trap here. Bewildered by the new business of franchising, with its legal requirements, franchise operations manuals, training programs, etc., they decide to “delegate responsibility,” usually to a high-priced franchise consultant who produces the operations manual and sometimes even the legal documents. Putting aside the practicing law without a license issue on the legal documents, does using someone to write your franchise operations manual who knows literally nothing about your business, ever make any sense?

The best practice approach, developed over almost three decades of my writing, editing and reviewing hundreds of franchise operations manuals is based on common sense. Let the true “expert” in your business write the operations manual. And who is that expert? It’s usually the founder of the business or a handful of your management personnel who know the business inside and out. It’s true, an outside franchise expert should be involved in the process, but this should be limited strictly to a planning and editing capacity – helping develop the overall Table of Contents, giving samples of writing styles and technicques, then reviewing each chapter after it’s drafted by you or your management team. This approach produces a professional, easy to use and update franchise operations manual. It also ensures the most efficient use of resources and talent.

franchise disclosure documents Finally, and only after all of the above are underway, a Franchise Disclosure Document, similar to a securities (stock offering) prospectus, is prepared by competent franchise counsel and registered with various regulatory agencies to comply with applicable federal and state laws. This document can contain thousands of discrete disclosures within its twenty-three chapters and attached exhibits, and obviously needs to be prepared by a franchise attorney. Doing it properly and with a balanced and fair perspective can help keep the company out of the courtroom later. In addition, a franchise registration process is required before any franchises can be advertised or sold in those 14 or so states having a franchise registration requirement. Having one firm author, edit and review all documents is not only cost-effective – it also avoids inconsistencies that can plague the franchise company as franchise legal pitfalls in the future (see discussion below).

RECOMMENDATIONS My twenty-eight years of experience has demonstrated that in order for a franchise company to get off to a good start, a heavy emphasis should be placed on strategic franchise planning to manage future franchise relationships as discussed above. Then, before the franchise program begins, management needs training in how to effectively operate a franchise organization. At a minimum, the following programs should be in place before franchise marketing efforts begin:

1. Franchise Lead Processing System (sm): Two key considerations for all franchise companies engaged in franchise marketing are the careful screening of franchise applicants and adopting the proper media plan, schedule and budget. Only the cream of the crop should be allowed to join the franchise network. Eliminating applicants at the entry stage is far easier than waiting for inevitable and costly problems later on. An examination of franchise networks plagued by troublesome franchise owners (who often ripen into future lawsuits) shows a lack of planning and attention to this relatively simple concept. Given the unlimited personal liability risk inherent in franchising, companies neglecting this important concept, or those using franchise brokers, are simply asking for trouble.

Before franchise marketing efforts start, a company should adopt a customized Franchise Lead Processing System that includes instructing key personnel in:

(1) adopting the proper organizational structure;

(2) defining the appropriate profile characteristics of prospective franchise owners;

(3) developing effective interviewing techniques, marketing materials, procedures and checklists;

(4) using a series of tests and other measures to ensure that inappropriate candidates are disqualified before joining the franchise network;

(5) detecting (and then avoiding) red flags that arise in the franchise marketing cycle; and

(6) adopting the appropriate media plan, schedule and budget.

2. Legal Compliance Program (sm): A franchise lawsuit can result if inconsistent or misleading communications occur when a franchise is first sold. Most of the legal risk is franchising centers around what happens during the marketing cycle: the twenty-three chapters of disclosures in the franchise disclosure document as well as who said what, and when. Defending any franchise lawsuit, even a frivolous one, can be enormous. Franchise companies involved in franchise litigation are shocked to discover they have fallen into a quicksand that swallows up time and money without limit. The cost of prosecuting or defending even a “small” franchise lawsuit can quickly exceed $100,000, and up. Exposure can run into the millions. Although one study of franchise disclosure documents indicated 27 percent of franchise companies have a history of franchise litigation (slightly greater than 1 in 4), the real percentage is much greater and probably north of 50 percent. This is because only pending litigation and final judgments must be disclosed in franchise disclosure documents. Most franchise litigation cases, like other litigation cases are settled, so they’re only required to be in the franchise disclosure document from the time they’re filed until settled. After that, they vanish without a trace. And whether the chances of getting sued in a franchise lawsuit and getting embroiled in franchise litigation is greater than 1 in 2 or 1 in 4, who wants to get involved in a time-consuming, stressful and expensive mess?

It is almost impossible to avoid potential franchise liability unless a genuine program of education and instruction is conducted with marketing personnel as well as middle and executive franchise management. An integrated Disclosure Compliance Program that specifies rules and expectations (including legal rules in selling a franchise), manages franchise disclosure documents and controls the dissemination of all information is absolutely essential. It is also one of the best investments a franchise company will ever make. For all of the above reasons, the use of franchise brokers is definitely NOT recommended. Their statements (or other actions) made to “close the deal” will make the franchise organization (and the personal assets of its officers) liable for violations of federal or state franchise laws. This also explains why the overwhelming majority of successful franchise organizations set up their own in-house franchise marketing department so that actions and statements made during the franchise marketing cycle can be monitored and controlled within the framework of a Franchise Sales Control System (sm).

3. Franchise Sales Control System (sm): Franchise Sales Control is the other half of the entire compliance equation. While legal compliance specifies rules and expectations, franchise sales control is the mechanism for detecting gaps and inconsistencies. When detected, their causes can be identified and corrected before injuring the franchise effort. A Franchise Sales Control System should be designed with this in mind, and should include a variety of feedback mechanisms to monitor performance and retrieve pertinent information for review by management. This not only increases the effectiveness of franchise marketing efforts – it also greatly reduces the likelihood that sales personnel will deviate from established procedures in selling franchises. Finally, a well-designed Franchise Sales Control System creates a complete back up file for every franchise sold that will qualify as business record evidence in the event of a future franchise dispute. It also satisfies the legal requirement of various states that franchise companies maintain a complete set of books, records and accounts of franchise sales. Since most of the legal risk in franchising arises during the franchise marketing cycle, a comprehensive Franchise Sales Control System is the company’s best protection against the quicksand of franchise litigation.

4. Managing Franchise Relations: As franchises are sold, the communication lines that develop between the parties will have a major impact on the success or failure of the ongoing franchise relationship. Controlling who is brought into the network through the steps outlined above is the critical first step. Once inside the franchise network, franchise owners must be taught to realize they are members of a system of mutually dependent outlets, each working for the better of the entire network. Developing an awareness of this concept early in the relationship and implementing a franchise feedback system will create a positive attitude, encourage innovative ideas from franchise owners, ensure timely royalty payments and prevent franchise relationship problems later on.

© 1982-2008, Kevin B. Murphy, B.S., M.B.A., J.D. – all rights reserved

For more information, visit the Franchise Foundations website.

 

 

People who own and run small businesses may have been overlooked in the past. Not attracted to the big budgets and sophisticated requirements of big business, the security industry has not focused on providing small business security. Small businesses had to settle for inappropriate and overpriced security that resembled home security systems.
But there’s good news. Leading security industry manufacturers and providers are paying attention now. They’re beginning to understand that the unique needs of small business security require tailored security measures and systems.
Small business security does have one advantage. Needing smaller staff and experiencing less turnover than large businesses, small business’s risk for in-house theft is significantly less, reducing the need for inventory tracking and video monitoring for break rooms and storage areas. But small businesses still face serious risks for theft, vandalism, and violence.
Small business security needs are in many ways like those of corporations and individual homeowners. Common-sense security measures are important. Things like removing potential hiding places for would-be thieves by eliminating blind spots on building exteriors is a basic preventive measure. Lighting the building, inside and out, makes it possible for people outside the building to observe criminal activity at night and when the business is closed. Keeping entry points clear of obstructions and shadows is important to safety and security. Installing locks with security codes for individual employees prevents entry by unauthorized people.
Exterior lighting is not only important for security. It’s an important way to prevent injuries to customers and to prevent crimes against both customers and employees outside the building. Liability insurance is a significant expense, and good exterior lighting can qualify small businesses for discounts and insurance savings. So in a way, liability insurance is a good small business security measure.
Every year, small businesses lose billions of dollars to preventable theft and vandalism. Monitored commercial alarm systems are an inexpensive and effective way to protect your small business. They’re easy to install in less than a day, and they’re easy to operate. A good small business security system will include control panels, security keypads, glass break sensors, window and door contacts, motion detectors, and sirens. Systems can be hard-wired or wireless. They can include loud immediate alarms or silent alarms that alert law enforcement without interrupting ongoing business. They can have add-ons like fire alarms and video surveillance. You can get a back-up system to assure your small business security needs are covered at all times.
If you haven’t already done it, you should ask a security professional to inspect and assess your small business for vulnerabilities and ask for a proposal that addresses them. Inherently more vulnerable to financial losses, there’s no such thing as too much security for a small business. An expert in the field can help you identify your small business security needs and create a plan that both meets your budget and makes your small business more secure.
When shopping for a small business security system provider, there are a few basic ways to select the best one for your needs. First, you should always talk to more than one company. Three or four reputable vendors is a logical choice that produces competition and gives you a variety of ideas and options. They should be willing to come to your business for face-to-face meetings. Be sure to get the proposals and price estimates in writing, and make sure the proposals are complete, including monthly charges, set-up and installation fees, and warranties. Find out if they offer training for you and your staff. Once you’ve made a commitment, review the contract very carefully to make sure it includes all the options you discussed with them.
The small business security specialist can analyze your physical layout, your internal procedures, and your vulnerabilities to help you come up with a comprehensive plan.

Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDD) under the FTC’s new Franchise Rule continue to be a good concept in theory. Unfortunately, reality plays a more important role and reveals an entirely different picture.

Here are some of my observations, based on twenty-eight plus years of experience in the franchise industry as a franchise attorney, franchise expert and former franchise owner. During this time, I’ve drafted, reviewed and negotiated over 500 Franchise Disclosure Documents.

Franchise Disclosure Goals
Franchise Disclosure Documents or FDD (formerly known as Uniform Franchise Offering Circulars) are a document containing twenty-three chapters of information. These disclosures are intended to give prospective franchise buyers enough pre-sale information so an intelligent franchise investment decision can be made before long-term contracts are signed, money changes hands and sizeable financial commitments are made. In most cases, a franchise investment has long-term financial consequences. It means putting everything on the line – savings, retirement accounts, home equity, etc. With all this at stake, it’s easy to see why the disclosures in the FDD are so important.

Aura Of Credibility
Attached as exhibits to the FDD are the franchise company’s audited financial statements, franchise agreement, and a list of operating (and departed) franchise owners. If the company elects to make a franchise “Earnings Claim,” that information will be set forth either in Item 19 or attached as another exhibit. The entire document is quite lengthy and can exceed several hundred pages. In certain states (known as franchise registration states like California, New York, Illinois, etc.) the FDD makes reference to being registered with the state. All these formalities creates an aura of credibility. Many franchise buyers assume a regulatory agency has reviewed and approved the franchise offering. Unscrupulous franchise companies engage in blatant misrepresentation, referring to their franchise registration with a state as that state’s “stamp of approval.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

Franchise Registration Realities
First of all, registration of a company’s Franchise Disclosure Document only means they’ve paid a registration fee to a governmental agency and submitted their document. There are no standards a franchise company must meet before it can sell franchises, such as business experience, financial stability, operating a successful prototype for a certain period of time before franchising, etc.

Business Experience And Financial Stability?
You and I could have no experience in a business concept, and never operated a prototype. All we have is an idea to franchise, letting other people (franchise buyers) risk their savings, homes, etc. to see if our idea pans out in the marketplace. All we need to do to franchise is put together a Franchise Disclosure Document, and capitalize our new franchise corporation or LLC. Let’s say we don’t want to risk anything ourselves, so we decide to capitalize our new franchise corporation with only $1. After producing an audited financial statement (showing $1 cash and stock issued for $1), and including this financial in our Franchise Disclosure Document, we’d be able to sell franchises with impunity and collect our $50,000 franchise fee every time we sell a franchise.

Franchise Registration States
Of course, in the U.S. there are about 14 franchise registration states where we’d have to pay a registration fee and file the document with the appropriate state agency. But that’s just a rubber stamp and no registration state will refuse to register our franchise offering. Because we’re “thinly capitalized” these states may require an escrow condition where we don’t receive the franchise fee until the franchisee opens for business. Or these registration states may just say we can’t accept payment of the franchise fee until the franchisee opens, and require a simple amendment to our franchise agreement to reflect this condition. That’s the trend here in California and the bottom line is we’d get “registered.”

Even franchise examiners (who are usually attorneys) in registration states issue registration renewal orders to franchise companies who have been operating a couple years and whose audited financial statements say (in an brief footnote): “Since its inception, the franchise company has incurred a net loss of $X million. These and other factors indicate substantial doubt the Company will be able to continue as a going concern.” Translation: the auditors are saying the company’s ready to go broke. Result: Not to worry, the franchise examiners issue renewal orders allowing them to sell franchises to unsuspecting buyers. It’s not right, in fact it’s outrageous, yet it happens.

Franchise Non-Registration States; FTC To The Rescue?
In the balance of the non-registration states (36) we’d be able to sell franchises with impunity and no regulatory oversight. Of course, there’s the Federal Trade Commission’s FTC Franchise Rule that applies in all states. But this only requires producing a franchise disclosure document – FDD. There’s no registration process with the FTC and they rarely get involved in franchise complaints. A 1993 government report found the FTC acted on less than 6% of all franchise complaints. The U.S. General Accounting Office reports that franchise complaints to the FTC from franchise owners increased ten-fold from 1997-1999. This dramatic rise is profound considering complaint data was only available through June 30, 1999. Since 1998, according to the FTC’s website, only one franchise enforcement action was taken against a franchise company. There’s just not enough money or resources available to the FTC, a situation that will only grow worse in the current economy.

My point here is registration of a Franchise Disclosure Document with a governmental agency only means the franchise company paid a filing fee and forwarded its document. There is no due diligence undertaken by examiners in a registration state. So the real guardian of the franchise investment must be you – the franchise investor. Because of the complexities of franchise agreement provisions and offering circular disclosures the need for competent, professional advice is critical. Many of the critical disclosures are required only in a table, where the relevant contract sections of “boilerplate that bites” are listed, without going into any “details.” If you’re not a franchise attorney looking for red flags, it easy to get duped.

Breakeven Point
Returning to the Franchise Disclosure Document, critical business information is NOT disclosed in the document, principally due to lobbying by the franchise industry. For example, the time it takes to reach the break even point – where revenues cover expenses – is not required disclosure in any franchise disclosure document. A bank would never loan money without this critical financial milestone, yet franchise companies let franchise buyers invest hundreds of thousands of dollars, often mortgaging their homes and tapping into savings and retirement accounts. What type of financial milestone must franchise companies disclose before franchise buyers risk what is often everything they have? The relevant disclosure, Item 7, only requires an estimate of what is called “Additional Funds,” a 90-day estimate of working capital needs. Because many new franchises can take a year, two years or more to reach the break even point, knowing only what it’s going to take to get you through the first 90 days is not helpful – in fact it may set you up for financial suicide. If you don’t have enough working capital to reach the break even point, which can be a year or more down the road, your entire franchise investment will go down the drain.

Financial Performance Of Other Franchise Owners
Another major shortcoming of disclosures in the Franchise Disclosure Document is not telling you how much money the franchises in the network are making. Instead of answering what is the most important question in a franchise investment decision, the franchise disclosure laws make this “optional” for the franchise company – they can tell you if they want to. If they decide to answer this critical question, it will be found in Item 19. But don’t hold your breath – more than 90% of franchise companies opt not to answer this question. It’s another bizarre reality in the world of franchising. Because they require complete monthly (and in many cases, weekly) financial profit and loss statements from their franchise owners, the franchise companies know exactly how much their franchises are making (or losing). But more than 90% decide not to say anything before you buy one of their franchises.

Asking Current Franchise Owners
Of course, current franchise owners are a potential source of information and a list of these are found in an exhibit to the Franchise Disclosure Document. My experience is most franchise owners exaggerate their financial performance or decline to share their finances with a stranger. Many of them I’ve spoken with over 28-plus years claimed they were making good money, when a studied examination of their financial statements revealed they were either losing money or operating at or below minimum wage performance. One couple invested $200,000 in a pizza franchise and were desperate to sell it eighteen months later. Their financial statements showed they were making about $0.50 (fifty cents) per hour. Fortunately, my client promptly lost interest in buying the franchise after listening to my analysis. The incredible thing is I discovered the franchise was subsequently sold to another person who operated the business for a year then filed for bankruptcy. There are many more examples of these franchise nightmares. Franchise “resales” where unprofitable franchises are sold over and over are another bizarre reality in the world of franchising.

Copyright 2007-2009 Kevin B. Murphy, B.S., M.B.A., J.D. – all rights reserved

For more informatiion, visit the Franchise Foundations website.

 

Why Will the Government Offer Grants for Small Business?

Are you an entrepreneur that needs a business or small business grant? Are you motivated and skilled enough to begin your own small business? Do you need free money to start a small business but haven’t got a clue as to where to start? Look no further; there’s hope for your small business. As an enticement to small business owners, the government earmarks several million dollars in government grant money to assist small and personal businesses to flourish. There are millions that are unclaimed each year resulting from the lack of knowledge in regard to government grants. Thanks to Matthew Lesko, more knowledge has gotten out about how to get free government grants for small businesses, paying bills, college, etc. Matthew Lesko has written several books that educate individuals exactly like you on the way to receive a small business grant from the U.S. government. An average person may feel a little skeptical of any opportunity to get free money and may ask at least some of these questions: Is there really a catch to getting a small business grant? What exactly does the government get out of making an investment in small businesses? What can I do in order to obtain more general information and tips about small business grants?

It has been said that about 50% of all small businesses don’t make it beyond their first year. Why don’t small businesses succeed? Not enough funding and a lack of experience are a couple of the more customary reasons that small businesses aren’t going to make it beyond their first year. Why does the government give out small business grants to help entrepreneurs with startup costs if there is so much failure in small businesses? Why exactly does the government have such a high interest in small businesses? Small businesses likely represent ninety five percent of all employers in the United States. In addition, they contribute 50 percent of the gross domestic product of the country. Grants for small businesses are offered to business owners to promote economic improvement or growth. Three of four new American jobs are offered by small businesses.

The United States government doesn’t actually give out federal grant money to begin a small business. The Small Business Administration (SBA) is a Federal government agency that supports, protects the interests of, advocates, and provides resources small business concerns. The federal government has left it up to each individual state to appropriate funding by way of state grants to assist small businesses to thrive and grow. Small businesses are critical to the economic security of the U.S.. Keeping this in mind, the SBA has a mission to put money and time into helping entrepreneurs so they can start, grow, and develop their small businesses. Giving a support system to new businesses by awarding a small business grant is a small gesture when the economic development of the United States plays a role.

If you’re an entrepreneur, the U.S. government has small business grants so they can help your business to succeed. If you would like help finding more information about these small business grants, it would be a benefit to hear what Matthew Lesko has got to say about free money that might be available that could help your business to grow. His research shows that more than 1 million business owners receive small business grants each and every year. Grants like these may be available by way of the local government of your specific state. Keep in mind, that through assisting small businesses to develop and grow, the United States economy is going to grow and flourish as well. Small business grants are an incentive to business owners and to the economy of the nation as a whole. The more small businesses that are started, the more employment will also be created. In order to secure the advancement of small businesses, the government can help by providing small business grants as well as other resources that are necessary for small businesses to flourish.

About the Author: Find out about the best ways to get Small Business Grants! Matthew Lesko.com will show you ways to get available funding, regardless of your business’ income amount, credit rating or age! Look at this web site for a completely free preview: http://www.MatthewLesko.com now! For more information and tips about Small Business Grants, click here.

The successful home business owners throughout the world share in a lifestyle often unmatched by company jobs. From a survey done by Home Office Computing Magazine, 98 % are happier working from home. Here are the 5 big benefits of a home run business.1) Money: On average the earnings of a home run business in America is about $60,000/year. The amount of money that can be earned in a home run business can be staggering. There is great potential in home-run businesses to achieve high incomes and profits. The income minus the costs equals the profits, which goes directly to the home business owner. This simple math shows that it’s all about big profits provided the business provides a saleable product or service.2) Personal Satisfaction: This may be the most profound benefit to most home businesses. It is a position of great feeling to own a home business. It is a feeling of achievement, and of service rendered. It is more satisfying according to the level of good the business is doing for people. The more the home business is helping people, the more general good it is doing. This is directly related to how good it makes the owner feel. It is good to give!3) No Daily Commute: Another important factor in the lifestyle of a home business person is the convenience of simply being at home. This point can be emphasized to a low degree, or a very high degree of significance. It depends on the person’s normal daily traveling time from home to the workplace. On average it could be 30 minutes commute to work every day and an equal time on returning home. Home businesses benefit because they save on the travel expenses as well as the time it takes. Home business owners are able to simply wake at their convenient start time and set the hours themselves.4) The Boss: Home businesses have the benefit of having internal control. The home business owner is the boss. As the boss, all the decisions are made, the hours of work are chosen, the rewards are given, the punishments are devised, the business is managed, and there is total control. Calling the shots as it were is a dream for most people out there and there is a real feeling of power.5) Life Security: In today’s climate of economic uncertainty, the most secure of jobs are home based jobs. This is so because, when times get tough, home businesses can work harder and survive. However, some company paying jobs cannot be relied upon to remain secure no matter how hard the person works. There is more security in a home business, and the power is with the home business person. She/he can make it or break it. It’s in their control.To summarise, these 5 big benefits are the rewards that may be reaped from a successful home based business. In fact, the process of building the home business can be as much fun as the mentioned benefits. It is as much about the journey and the person you become, as the tangable benefits and results of working from home.

24 Key Attitudes For Success In YOUR Business

 

What to take YOUR business to a whole new level? This article is designed for business owners who want to take their business to a whole new level and realize results beyond their wildest dreams.  The first of a three part business tips series, it deals with the 24 key attitudes that are fundamental to the success of your business. 

 

The second article… The 5 Biggest Small Business Mistakes and How to Fix Them deals with the next most important area – Marketing. Without a solid foundation of who your target market is, what they want, how they want to deal with you, then you have no prospects, no customers and no basis for a company.

 

Finally, the third article in the series… The 5 Key Business Profit Factors  deals with how to make massive amounts of profit.

 

The Key to Business Success

 

What is the most important factors of a business’s success?

 

·         A Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?

 

·         Having the lowest prices?

 

·         Great sales people?

 

·         The best location?

 

·         The best products?

 

·         Good customer service?

 

·         A strong local economy?

 

While these are all factors, based on our experience working with all kinds of different businesses, the most important determinant is YOU – the business owner.  History is riddled with examples of successful businesses that have failed with a new owner and lackluster businesses that have flourished under new ownership.

 

As a result, you are your most important business project.  As such, you should be investing significantly in yourself.  This includes reading books, examining your strengths and weaknesses, setting development goals for yourself, seeking outside advice, tracking your own personal development and getting a mentor to keep you on track.  You probably spend plenty developing and maintaining your business’s physical assets.  How much time and money do you spend on developing yourself?  

 

The great motivator and speaker E. James Rohn advises: “Work harder on yourself than you do on your job”.    In my opinion, if you are serious about your business and what you want to get out of life, you simply must dedicate 5-10% of your time to self-development…   And, yes, you must set aside some money to pay for it.  Rest assured, this money will likely give you the highest ROI (return on investment) possible.  After all, you are the person that can increase your profits by 50% or more.

 

There is no better time than now to make a commitment to yourself.  Get out your calendar right now and block off 30-60 minutes every day for self development, for the next 12 months.  Next, write down specifically what you are going to do with this time for the next two weeks.  At the end of two weeks, you should be in a position to detail your development plan for the next month, then the next quarter.

 

Another great quote, also from Jim Rohn: “Never wish your job were easier, wish you were better”.    Think about it.  If you are better, you will get better results.  If you wish for it then you are more likely to find a way to make it happen.  If, on the other hand, your job were to be easier, then everyone would want to do it and you would be back to square one.

 

1.   The Winning Attitude

 

The journey towards extraordinary profits begins here. There is no greater factor responsible for success, or failure, than your own mental attitude!  As a result, it is imperative that you begin by preparing your mind with the attitudes and perspectives that will set you free to achieve your business goals.  I am not talking about psyching yourself with positive thoughts, although at times this can help.  What I am talking about is adopting ways of thinking that will free your mind to find the solutions to your business challenges.

 

How you think and what you believe to be true about how you do business is what brought you to where you are right now.  Before you can find a better way of doing business, you must learn a new way of thinking about business.

 

It is a simple truth that it does not matter if you think you can, or you think you cannot, either way you will be right!

 

Stop blaming, denying or making excuses and start taking ownership, being responsible and winning.

 

2.   In Business There Are No Mistakes

 

Did you know that Edison had tried over 500 times, unsuccessfully, to make a light bulb.  One day he got asked “you have failed 500 times, how can you go on?”  Edison quickly responded “I have not failed once!  I now know 500 ways not to make a light bulb.”  The only failure is the failure to Participate.

 

If you want to be successful in business, you must be prepared to take calculated risks.  Many things you try will not work the first, or second, time.  You learned to walk by falling down.  It is the same in business.  You probably had parents or that gave you a safe environment in which to learn.  In business, you can seek out a mentor to help give you a safer environment.

 

3.   What if Contrary Information was “Interesting”?

 

Have you ever had an argument?  You knew you were right and the other person was wrong.  However, the argument was vigorous because the other person, who was also bright and articulate, was convinced they were right.  So, there you had it, two people both right and both wrong at the same time.  You argued but the other person would not relent.  Several days later, you still were thinking about it when you realised that you were wrong after all. 

 

Brad Sugars, the remarkable entrepreneur has an approach which has enabled him to continually innovate.  When Brad hears an opinion that is contrary to his he says, “isn’t that interesting?”  This then opens his mind to the possibility that he will learn a new way.

 

You see if there is an up, then there must be a down, and a left and a right… If you have to prove yourself right, then you cut off all possibility that there may be a better way. 

 

If you truly want to change the success of your business, you must be willing to change the way you think and the way you behave.  Isn’t that interesting?  

 

4.   I Know – the 2 most dangerous impediments to Business Innovation

 

Teenagers KNOW everything. Just ask them. Now that you are a little older you realise that it is probably not polite to say, “I know” out loud to everyone.  So as an adult we listen politely, cross our arms, all the while in the back of our mind saying, “I know”.

 

Try this exercise.  Close both your fists tightly.  Now try to button your jacket or make a phone call or compose an e-mail.  Your mind is like those closed fists.  There are very few things it can do well when it is closed.

 

You need to forget the mindset that says “I know”.  It is what you learn when you think you know everything that counts 

 

Open your mind up, it is not the major realizations that will make you a fortune, it is the fine distinctions that gives you the edge over the rest of the population.  The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little bit extra.

 

5.   Business is Fun!

 

You have decided to go into business for a number of reasons; more money, more control over your time, more free time.  Unfortunately, if you are like many business owners, you let the business take control of you.  It may even suck the life out of you… but life should be fun.  Since owning a business should give you more life, it only stands to reason that business should be fun!  To have fun, I suggest you treat it like a game.  First, learn the rules.  Second, keep score.  Finally, have fun

 

6.   Time is Your Most Valuable Asset

 

If you spend every penny you have you can go out and earn more money.  In this sense the amount of money we can have access-to is infinite. Unfortunately, we all have a finite amount of time on this earth.  If we waste a minute, we have lost it forever.

 

While this may seem intuitively obvious, amongst the business owners I meet, this one simple principle is the most important yet under appreciated principle of business.  Let me describe one conversation that is representative of conversations I have had time and time again with different business owners.  We will call the business owner Mark 

 

Peter:  Tell me how your business is performing relative to your goals.

 

Mark:   Well we are doing OK but I know we can do better.

 

Peter:  If you know what to do, what is keeping you from doing it?

 

Mark:   I always get interrupted and I can never find the time to do the new things.

 

Peter:  Is your business profitable?

 

Mark:   Yes it is. But I know I could easily do better.

 

Peter:  How much would you like to make in the next twelve months?

 

Mark:   After all expenses £150,000.

 

Peter: Do you believe that this is a realistic objective

 

Mark:   Absolutely.

 

Peter:  How many hours a week would you like to work?

 

Mark:   50 hours per week and I would like to take 5 weeks vacation (including holidays).

 

Peter:  So Mark, that means you would like your business to earn about $64 for every hour that you work. (£150,000/(50 hours x 47 weeks)). 

 

After an examination of Mark’s workweek, it was obvious that he was involved in a number of activities that were not worth £64 per hour.  If Mark spends 35% of his time working on tasks that could be handled by a £15/hour employee he is either going to have to work a lot more hours than he wants to, or he is going to have to get his business earning more like £90 per hour for the balance of the time he works.

 

Now, I am quick to advise owners to be careful with how they spend money.  But Mark’s penny pinching was not in his best interest.  Mark was trying to save paying more wages (about £17,000 per year).  But, by trying to save money it was costing him considerably more.  He was not having fun and he could have been implementing changes that would yield him more like £50,000 in additional profit (3 times what he thought he was saving).

 

As an owner, the most important decision you make is what you spend your time doing.  Owners that I meet who work too many hours and do not make as much as they want, often treat their time very causally.  Typically, they do not plan their day and tend to be reactive.  Often they do not even keep a calendar. Rarely can they tell you how they actually spent their time.  Conversely, successful owners plan and track their days and their week as carefully as they spend their money. 

 

I recommend that you emulate the successful owners.  Think about what will give you the best long term ROI [Return On Investment] for your time.  Do not be distracted by saving a few short-term pounds if you have an opportunity to create something that will generate returns for you year after year.

 

7.   Questions are more important than answers

 

One night at dinner, a young man asked his wife, “Why do you cut the ends off the roast?” Her reply, “I am not sure.  It is what my mother used to do”.

 

Some time went by before they visited her mother for dinner, and when they did, they had roast for dinner. So he asked, “why do you cut the ends off the roast?” Her reply, “I’m not sure, my mother always did it that way”. So he made a phone call to his wife’s grandmother and asked, “why do you cut the ends off the roast?” Her reply, “well, I’ve only got a small baking tray”.

 

So, often we do things, just because it is the way we have always done them, having absolutely no idea why it was done that way to start with.  Ever notice how new people tend to question things?  As an owner you should question why your business runs the way it does.  The only way to perform substantially better than your competitors is to be substantially different from them.  In business, following the crowd will almost certainly lead you to slaughter.  Looking at it another way, have you ever seen a flock of eagles?

 

To succeed in business, you often have to depart from conventional wisdom.  For many people this will be difficult – especially those who did well in school.  After all, we were taught in school what we had to do to be successful – quite often it involved conforming.

 

In an increasingly competitive environment, you must distinguish yourself by more than just price. You do this by being different. Think about what makes you unique and then tell the world. 

 

8.   Take a look in the Mirror

 

Ever notice that when you are having a good sales week that the next week just seems to get better and you keep closing more accounts with little or no effort.  Or maybe you have had a slow couple of weeks and all the prospects that you meet seem to have trouble deciding.  You have to make multiple sales calls, answer question, after question, after question.  The people you attract in your life are a mirror of where you are at. 

 

Most businesses are a clear reflection of its owner. Some owners want to control everything and wonder why none of their team ever takes any initiative. Some hate selling and love paperwork, so they have always got their numbers done, but never really sell much.

 

When I look back at my life I can clearly see times when my successes lead to more successes.  Success follows success. This brings me back again to the key to success in business – you.  Make sure you invest in you.

 

9.   Business is a Self-fulfilling Prophecy

 

Remember the last time you bought a car.  You chose something that you thought was distinctive.  Then after you got it you started to notice that you were seeing the same car all over the place.  Or, another example, try right now to NOT picture a purple cow in your mind.  What happened…. You are seeing a purple cow… Your brain has an amazing power to create whatever you focus on. It is called your Reticular Activating System (RAS) and it is like your personal compass.

 

Your RAS will find proof that the earth is flat if you want it to. In fact, it will find proof that November is a slow month if you want it to. In other words, attention determines direction. Just like the last time you said to yourself; “Do not forget, do not forget, do not forget… ” And, what happened, you forgot. Change your wording to “remember” get rid of the negative ‘do not’.

 

Another example, if you were to ask a person how their day has been, and they answered, “Not bad”. What is their benchmark on life? BAD, and today is not that. Your RAS is an amazing tool and it will find whatever you ask it to find, so you had better ask for very positive things. Remember to ask for the things you want, NOT to push away what you do not want.

 

Every day your business meets your true expectations. In other words, if you believe you have to work hard to make money, then that will always be your reality. If you believe you can never get good people then that will be your reality.  You generally make true that which you believe to be so.  So, choose your beliefs carefully.

 

10.        Listen to the Taps on Your Shoulder

 

Traveling down the road of life, it is easy to be distracted, get off track and lose sight of the big picture. You have heard the old saying, “can’t see the forest for the trees”.  However, every day you are getting little taps on the shoulder, an idea that you should change what you are doing, a suggestion from someone, a hint.  These taps are just like the cats eyes in the center of the road and the small slits in the shoulder that serve as warnings.  You feel little taps if you stray too far one way or the other.  Either you learn to listen to the taps and adjust your course, or eventually you will run into the sign posts at the side of the road, or worse, oncoming traffic.

 

In business, we get taps all the time.  Unfortunately, they are a lot more subtle than the taps we get on the road.  They are however, just as important for the health of your business.  If you do not want your business to be run over by the proverbial ‘hit by a bus’, it is imperative that you become adept at listening to the taps.

 

The most successful business people are very perceptive.  They have perfected the craft of surrounding themselves with other people and then listening – really listening – to what they have to say.

 

So, be sure to listen for the taps and look for the signs. Sticking your head in the sand never helped anyone.

 

11.        Build a Business do not Buy a Job

 

From what I have found, people start their own business for one thing and one thing only: FREEDOM; whether that freedom comes from working for yourself, having more time to yourself, financial freedom, or just the freedom of knowing that you are in charge of your life.

 

With a successful business, this freedom is truly liberating.  Now your friends that have never had any interest in captaining their own ship (those who work for others) may argue that you are far from “in charge” when exposed to the volatility of owning a business.   What they do not realize is that if you have 100 different customers and you lose half of your customers you still have 50 left. Your friends on the other hand have only one customer – their boss. If they lose that “customer” then they are out on the street!

 

Unfortunately, most business owners never achieve the freedom they seek.  In fact, about 80 per cent of businesses started this year will be gone in 5 years time.  Moreover, for those businesses that are still operating, most of their owners seem to work harder than any of their people and many seem to make less income than they could make elsewhere. Most end up having the business run them, instead of them running the business. In fact, they end up with the very thing they did not want, a JOB.  And that job may even come with the worst boss they ever had – themselves!  In effect, they have taken great risks and expended vast energy and all they have done is bought employment.

 

12.         A business needs to be profitable and work without YOU!

 

If you want to achieve that freedom that all business owners seek, then you should adopt this definition of a business:

 

A business is – A commercial profitable enterprise that works without YOU!

 

Why build a job for yourself when you can build an income stream that keeps on growing whether you are there or not. Remember the business exists solely to serve you – the owner; not your customers, or your employees.  Yes, customers and staff are important, but the reason you start a business has nothing to do with them.  It is essential that you adopt this attitude.

 

13. The only reason you would ever start a business is to sell it.

 

If you want to achieve true success and freedom then you need to think of your business as your product.  It is what you are building and it is where you are ultimately going to make your profit – selling the business.  That is right; you start by thinking about how you can build your business so that lots of people will be competing with each other to buy your business. 

 

Very few people ever make a fortune running their business, but many people make a fortune selling businesses.  Look at Bill Gates for instance. Yes, he has made a lot of money selling software, but he became the richest man in the world by selling his business – shares of Microsoft.

 

Are you too involved in your business? Ask yourself: could I pick up the phone in the morning and tell whoever answered, “you guys look after things, I am taking three months off”.

 

If you are like the vast majority of business owners out there, the answer is definitely NO.

 

14.         Working “ON” not “IN” the Business

 

Ultimately, you have to get yourself out of the day to day of the business. Stop working 9 till 5, doing the work of your business. Else be like most small builders…  they spend all day using a hammer and nails, working IN their business.

 

Imagine when you started your business that you built it in your mind, and then you put down that picture of what your business would be like when it was finished.  If you are going to sell a product, you must know when it is finished.  It is the same with a business.  You have to finish a business at some stage and have it ready for sale.

 

As an example, let us say you wanted to buy a new sofa.  How much would you pay a furniture shop for a partially completed sofa?  Likely, only a very small fraction of what a completed sofa would cost.  In fact, if you are like most people you would not even be interested in paying anything.  It is the same thing for a business.

 

When people try to sell a business that is not finished, at most they are really only selling a JOB.   As a result, these people only get a few people interested and they only ever get a fraction of the potential price.

 

When you have the finished picture of what your business will look like, then you go to work creating the business.  This way you are working ON the business, rather than just working IN the business.  You should be designing your business to run whether you are there or not.  If you do this then you have a choice, and choice gives you freedom.  You can work in the business or you can spend your time more creatively.  You can keep the business, or you can sell it.  I like good choices like these.

 

15.        You work hard because your business doesn’t

 

Imagine a business where you did not have to work there – would the business WORK? I mean, would it function properly?  Would all of the systems and the people integrate to get the result you wanted, the result the customer wanted?  Of course it would.

 

Almost every business owner I have ever met works so hard (too hard) for this exact reason. Their business does not work, they do. Everything about the business is in their head, and they are the only one who can do anything, so they are trapped.

 

Most are like this because the owners do not trust anyone else to do the job. For some reason they believe that no one can do it as well as they can. This need to be in control prevents them from growing their business.

 

Take the step, start to document how everything in your business gets done, put systems in place, teach other people and give them the responsibility to get the job done. (If you need more convincing, Read Michael Gerber’s book – The E-Myth Revisited. 

 

16.        Assign Tasks.  Don’t Delegate Just To Abdicate

 

All great leaders are good at delegating so you must start off-loading tasks as soon as possible.  Remember, time is your most precious commodity.  Since delegation is so important, you must prepare properly for it.  You must make sure that the person that will be doing the task knows what to do.  The worst thing you can do is to abdicate a task to someone.  By this, I mean telling them to do something when they do not have the skills or the training to handle the task.  It is essential that you carefully explain what you want done, how you want it done and what you consider a successful outcome to be. 

 

This may come as a shock, or at least seem like overkill, but you must document how you want your processes and tasks to be completed.  From my experience, most owners just give their staff a (quite often limited) set of verbal instructions.  The owner then assumes that the employee knows what to do and the employee then assumes what he thinks the owner wants done.  While well intentioned, this feeble attempt at delegation often does not produce the desired results.  You see, it is a simple but important fact about human learning that only about 20% of people are auditory learners – people that receive and easily comprehend verbal information.  The rest of us are either visual or kinaesthetic learners. That is, we need to see (a picture, diagram or read) what to do, or we need to actually do something before we fully understand.  (I have some simple, but effective tools that can help you successfully delegate.)

 

After you have properly prepared, trained and given your team member the job to do, then let them do it. Do not jump in and save them or they will never learn how to get the job done. If you do, they will “learn” that you are the only one who can fix things.  Guess what, they will be right.  You have to let them fall off the bike to learn how to stay on.

 

17.        Work for Yourself and go the extra mile

 

What if you do not own a business yet – that is, you work for someone else?  I suggest that you think like You Inc.  Treat your boss like he is your customer.  You want your customer to be thrilled with You Inc.  You want him to continue to buy more and higher value services from You Inc.  At a minimum, adopting this attitude will be great experience.  Think of your job as market research (for your business) that someone else is paying you to do.  But remember, what goes around comes around, so give it everything you have.  Your boss may even spot a future business partner in you.  Always go that little bit further than you are asked to, give a little extra and you will go far. If you are asked to stay until 5:00 PM, stay until 5.30 PM, just do a little more than were asked.

 

18.        The key to success is laziness

 

Which would you prefer – 1% of 100 people’s income or 100 % of your own income.  I would prefer the former, not just because I am lazy, but also because with this attitude my income can be unlimited.  On my own, I can only earn 100% of my own income.  On the other hand, there is nothing stopping me from working with 101 people or 1000 people. (why stop there?) 

 

If you have ever thought that you will succeed if you just work a little harder, put in some extra time, or just do more of what you are doing right now, then it is time you lifted your head and took a look around you.  You probably know several hundred people who work hard.  How many of them are really getting somewhere?

 

The aim of the game is not to work harder; it is to create better results with less effort – finding ways of achieving more with less. In other words, to continually leverage your time, your efforts, your money and your knowledge.

 

If you are paid an hourly wage, you will never earn more than the number of hours you work, but if you and your business are set up so that you are paid whether you work or not, then you have truly understood one of the key principles of success – Leverage.  Leverage is simply – the ability to do more with less. The aim of the game is to create an income stream that flows whether you work or not. Build assets that yield income.

 

There are numerous ways to create Leverage. You can leverage yourself through people, systems & processes, marketing and finance. 

 

19.        Your Business is Like A Tree

 

It is important to view your businesses as a living organism – like a tree.  Your business is either growing or it is dying.  When does a tree stop growing – when it is dying.  The same is true for a business.  You see the world does not stand still.  New products, services and competitors are cropping up everyday.  If your business does not evolve, then it will die.

 

20.        Change – The Only Constant

 

It is important to consider your business in the context of the wider business community and the world economy.  Consider the Agrarian, Industrial, Information ages.

 

In the Agrarian age (which lasted until early in the 20th century) 95 per cent of the population worked the land and the wealthiest people were the landowners. 

 

In the Industrial age (which lasted until about 1980) those that owned the factories created the most wealth. 

 

In the Information age those that owned the computers and software production, the telecommunications and have the information and corresponding managing tools created the great wealth.

 

By considering just the length of time that these ages have lasted we can easily see that the pace of change continues to accelerate at an increasingly rapid rate. In the information age we are living through, it only takes about 18 months for the available information on the planet to double, where it took about 50 years a century ago.

 

Some would argue that we have already left the Information age.  With constant change, occurring at an increasingly rapid rate, it has never been more important for owners to:

 

1.      Work ON their business, rather than IN their business

 

2.      Work harder on themselves than their job

 

3.      Surround themselves with experts that can give them every competitive advantage

 

21.        How Do You Compete?

 

With information moving so fast, people can copy, reproduce and have ready for sale any product or service in a matter of weeks. In today’s economy, you cannot be cheaper than your competitors can for long.  Therefore, the 21st key is that you have to know what information is important for your business success.

 

The only way you can stay ahead of the market is to out-think, out-sell, out-market and out-maneuver your competitors. Your marketing, sales and customer service is crucial. You do not have to have the world’s best hamburger to sell billions of them.

 

The next time you have a group of people in a room ask them “who thinks McDonald’s have the best hamburgers in the world?” I will bet that not one person puts up their hand. Yet, who sells more hamburgers than anyone else does?

 

Then ask the same group, who thinks they can build a better sales, marketing and distribution system for hamburgers than McDonald’s. Once again, no one will put up his or her hand.

 

22.        Ask for more

 

If you are going to build a great business, if you are going to make your fortune through business then you have got to ask for a whole lot more than you do right now.

 

If you shoot for the stars, at least you will make it to the moon.   If you do not ask, the answer is always NO. If you start to ask for more, and be grateful for it, you just might start receiving. Just remember, those who are grateful always receive more than those who just complain about life.

 

Do not be afraid of someone saying NO. They are not rejecting you, it is just that your request may have come at a bad time or their goals are not quite aligned with yours. Do not take offence … every NO gets you closer to a YES.

 

23.        Abundance vs. Scarcity

 

For most people getting more means that someone else has to go without. As intuitive as this may seem, nothing could be further from the truth!  There is literally more than enough to go around.

 

To succeed in business, you often have to depart from conventional wisdom.  Because, as I mentioned earlier, the crowd is often wrong.

 

Scarcity was first espoused by English Preacher Thomas Malthus, who concluded that England would run out of food as there were too many people for the available food production.  Yet, even to this day we still produce more than enough food to feed the entire planet.  Because we believe in scarcity; or more commonly known as supply and demand, much of it gets thrown away. 

 

In business, you have got to realize that there is always more than enough money to go around.  When will you go out and get your share?

 

Abundance is a mindset, a mindset that understands how technology has removed scarcity; how the old thoughts in economics are exactly that – old. (Read Paul Zane Pilzer’s book – Unlimited Wealth for more on this.)

 

24.        Work Smarter, not Harder

 

Just to prove that thinking differently is so important, write down how much money you earned last year. Now add a zero to the end of it. You have just increased your income tenfold.   To make that much money doing exactly what you are doing right now, how hard do you have to work? 

 

You have to stop working harder and start working smarter.  Remember, people with jobs earn money while business owners and entrepreneurs make and create money.

 

Some final words

 

We have been discussing some key attitudinal concepts that will be fundamental to the success of your business.  Yes, there are a lot of other important concepts about Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, Operations, Employee Development, Finance, Cash Management and Administration.  There is a lot that can be done to help you develop your business in all these areas.

 

However, years of experience tell us that it is the fundamental attitude that you must embrace first.  Your attitude is the essence of who you must BE as a business owner if you are to get what you truly want from your business. 

 

This experience is also consistent with the simple BE-DO-HAVE goal attainment philosophy.  This philosophy says that in order to HAVE the things you want in life you must DO the right things.  Before you can do those things, you must BE the person that is capable of doing the right things.

 

A Complete Waste of Time!

 

Now let me be brutally honest with you.  Most of the people reading this article will gain absolutely no lasting benefit from having done so. It will have been a complete waste of time!

 

Why would I say that?  Do I not believe that what we have written has benefit?  Absolutely it does…. but then again, there are many great business books.  Most of them have a lasting impact for only a few people. 

 

In order for you to get any lasting benefit from the information I have presented, you must take some action.  Otherwise, nothing will have changed for you.  If you do not change anything, you will get the same result that you are already getting.   

 

Peter Cantelo (Copyright 2008)

www.vivavi.co.uk

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BUSINESS VALUATION

Business valuation is a process and a set of procedures used to determine the economic value of an owner’s interest in a business. Business valuation is often used to estimate the selling price of a business, resolve disputes related to estate and gift taxation, divorce litigation, allocate business purchase price among the business assets, establish a formula for estimating the value of partners’ ownership interest for buy-sell agreements, and many other business and legal disputes.

Standard and Premise of Business Value

Before the value of a business can be measured, the valuation assignment must specify the reason for and circumstances surrounding the business valuation. These are formally known as the business value standard and premise of value.

Business valuation results can vary considerably depending upon the choice of both the standard and premise of value. For example, a business buyer and seller may bargain to establish the value of business assets that approaches the fair market value standard.

However, the value conclusions based on the going concern premise and that of assemblage of business assets may be quite different. One reason is that an operating business creates value by means of its ability to coordinate its capital, human and management resources to produce economic income. The same set of assets not currently used to produce income is generally worth less.

Reasons for Business Valuation

Business people may need to conduct business valuation for a number of reasons including sale, estate tax planning, estate tax valuation, divorce, business purchase price allocation, collateral documentation, litigation and documenting that a sales price is equitable.

Fair market value

“Fair market value”, a central standard of measuring business value, is defined as the price at which property would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller when the former is not under any compulsion to buy and the latter is not under any compulsion to sell, both parties having reasonable knowledge of relevant facts. See IRS Rev. Rul. 59-60, 1959-1, Cum. Bulletin 237, codified at 26 C.F.R. § 20.2031-1(b).

The fair market value standard incorporates certain assumptions, including the assumptions that the hypothetical purchaser is reasonably prudent and rational but is not motivated by any synergistic or strategic influences; that the business will continue as a going concern and not be liquidated; that the hypothetical transaction will be conducted in cash or equivalents; and that the parties are willing and able to consummate the transaction.

These assumptions might not, and probably do not, reflect the actual conditions of the market in which the subject business might be sold. However, these conditions are assumed because they yield a uniform standard of value, after applying generally-accepted valuation techniques, which allows meaningful comparison between businesses which are similarly situated.

Elements of business valuation

Economic conditions

A business valuation report generally begins with a description of national, regional and local economic conditions existing as of the valuation date, as well as the conditions of the industry in which the subject business operates. A common source of economic information for the first section of the business valuation report is the Federal Reserve Board’s Beige Book, published quarterly by the Federal Reserve Bank. State governments and industry associations often publish useful statistics describing regional and industry conditions.

Financial Analysis

The financial statement analysis generally involves common size analysis, ratio analysis (liquidity, turnover, profitability, etc.), trend analysis and industry comparative analysis. This permits the valuation analyst to compare the subject company to other businesses in the same or similar industry, and to discover trends affecting the company and/or the industry over time. By comparing a company’s financial statements in different time periods, the valuation expert can view growth or decline in revenues or expenses, changes in capital structure, or other financial trends. How the subject company compares to the industry will help with the risk assesment and ultimately help determine the discount rate and the selection of market multiples.

Normalization of financial statements

The most common normalization adjustments fall into the following four categories:

Comparability Adjustments. The valuator may adjust the subject company’s financial statements to facilitate a comparison between the subject company and other businesses in the same industry or geographic location. These adjustments are intended to eliminate differences between the way that published industry data is presented and the way that the subject company’s data is presented in its financial statements.

Non-operating Adjustments. It is reasonable to assume that if a business were sold in a hypothetical sales transaction (which is the underlying premise of the fair market value standard), the seller would retain any assets which were not related to the production of earnings or price those non-operating assets separately. For this reason, non-operating assets (such as excess cash) are usually eliminated from the balance sheet.

Non-recurring Adjustments. The subject company’s financial statements may be affected by events that are not expected to recur, such as the purchase or sale of assets, a lawsuit, or an unusually large revenue or expense. These non-recurring items are adjusted so that the financial statements will better reflect the management’s expectations of future performance.

Discretionary Adjustments. The owners of private companies may be paid at variance from the market level of compensation that similar executives in the industry might command. In order to determine fair market value, the owner’s compensation, benefits, perquisites and distributions must be adjusted to industry standards. Similarly, the rent paid by the subject business for the use of property owned by the company’s owners individually may be scrutinized.

Income, Asset and Market Approaches

Three different approaches are commonly used in business valuation: the income approach, the asset-based approach, and the market approach. Within each of these approaches, there are various techniques for determining the fair market value of a business. Generally, the income approaches determine value by calculating the net present value of the benefit stream generated by the business (discounted cash flow); the asset-based approaches determine value by adding the sum of the parts of the business (net asset value); and the market approaches determine value by comparing the subject company to other companies in the same industry, of the same size, and/or within the same region.

In determining which of these approaches to use, the valuation professional must exercise discretion. Each technique has advantages and drawbacks, which must be considered when applying those techniques to a particular subject company. Most treatises and court decisions encourage the valuator to consider more than one technique, which must be reconciled with each other to arrive at a value conclusion. A measure of common sense and a good grasp of mathematics is helpful.

INCOME APPROACHES

The income approaches determine fair market value by multiplying the benefit stream generated by the subject company times a discount or capitalization rate. The discount or capitalization rate converts the stream of benefits into present value. There are several different income approaches, including capitalization of earnings or cash flows, discounted future cash flows (“DCF”), and the excess earnings method (which is a hybrid of asset and income approaches). Most of the income approaches consider the subject company’s historical financial data; only the DCF method requires the subject company to provide projected financial data. Most of the income approaches look to the company’s adjusted historical financial data for a single period; only DCF requires data for multiple future periods. The discount or capitalization rate must be matched to the type of benefit stream to which it is applied. The result of a value calculation under the income approach is generally the fair market value of a controlling, marketable interest in the subject company, since the entire benefit stream of the subject company is most often valued, and the capitalization and discount rates are derived from statistics concerning public companies.

Discount or capitalization rates

A discount or capitalization rate is used to determine the present value of the expected returns of a business. The discount rate and capitalization rate are closely related to each other, but distinguishable. Generally speaking, the discount rate or capitalization rate may be defined as the yield necessary to attract investors to a particular investment, given the risks associated with that investment. The discount rate is applied only to discounted cash flow (DCF) valuations, which are based on projected business data over multiple periods of time. In DCF valuations, a series of projected cash flows is divided by the discount rate to derive the present value of the discounted cash flows. The sum of the discounted cash flows is added to a terminal value, which represents the present value of business cash flows into perpetuity. The sum of the discounted cash flows and the terminal value is the value of the business.

On the other hand, a capitalization rate is applied in methods of business valuation that are based on historical business data for a single period of time. The after-tax net cash flow capitalization rate is equal to the discount rate minus the long-term sustainable growth rate. The after-tax net cash flow of a business is divided by the capitalization rate to derive the present value. Capitalization rates may be modified so that they may be applied to after-tax net income or pre-tax cash flows or income. There are several different methods of determining the appropriate discount rates. The discount rate is composed of two elements: (1) the risk-free rate, which is the return that an investor would expect from a secure, practically risk-free investment, such as a government bond; plus (2) a risk premium that compensates an investor for the relative level of risk associated with a particular investment in excess of the risk-free rate. Most importantly, the selected discount or capitalization rate must be consistent with stream of benefits to which it is to be applied.

Build-Up Method

The Build-Up Method is a widely-recognized method of determining the after-tax net cash flow discount rate, which in turn yields the capitalization rate. The figures used in the Build-Up Method are derived from various sources. This method is called a “build-up” method because it is the sum of risks associated with various classes of assets. It is based on the principle that investors would require a greater return on classes of assets that are more risky. The first element of an Build-Up capitalization rate is the risk-free rate, which is the rate of return for long-term government bonds. Investors who buy large-cap equity stocks, which are inherently more risky than long-term government bonds, require a greater return, so the next element of the Build-Up method is the equity risk premium. In determining a company’s value, the long-horizon equity risk premium is used because the Company’s life is assumed to be infinite. The sum of the risk-free rate and the equity risk premium yields the long-term average market rate of return on large public company stocks.

Similarly, investors who invest in small cap stocks, which are riskier than blue-chip stocks, require a greater return, called the “size premium.” Size premium data is generally available from two sources: Morningstars’ (formerly Ibbotson & Associates’) Stocks, Bonds, Bills & Inflation and Duff & Phelps’ Risk Premium Report.

By adding the first three elements of a Build-Up discount rate, we can determine the rate of return that investors would require on their investments in small public company stocks. These three elements of the Build-Up discount rate are known collectively as the “systematic risks.”

In addition to systematic risks, the discount rate must include “unsystematic risks,” which fall into two categories. One of those categories is the “industry risk premium.” Morningstar’s yearbooks contain empirical data to quantify the risks associated with various industries, grouped by SIC industry code.

The other category of unsystematic risk is referred to as “specific company risk.” Historically, no published data has been available to quantify specific company risks. However as of late 2006, new research has been able to quantify, or isolate, this risk for publicly-traded stocks through the use of Total Beta calculations. P. Butler and K. Pinkerton have outlined a procedure using a modified Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) to calculate the company specific risk premium. The model uses an equality between the standard CAPM which relies on the total beta on one side of the equation; and the firm’s beta, size premium and company specific risk premium on the other. The equality is then solved for the company specific risk premium as the only unknown. While this is ground-breaking research, it has yet to be adopted and used by the valuation community at large.

It is important to understand why this capitalization rate for small, privately-held companies is significantly higher than the return that an investor might expect to receive from other common types of investments, such as money market accounts, mutual funds, or even real estate. Those investments involve substantially lower levels of risk than an investment in a closely-held company. Depository accounts are insured by the federal government (up to certain limits); mutual funds are composed of publicly-traded stocks, for which risk can be substantially minimized through portfolio diversification; and real estate almost invariably appreciates in value of long time horizons.

Closely-held companies, on the other hand, frequently fail for a variety of reasons too numerous to name. Examples of the risk can be witnessed in the storefronts on every Main Street in America. There are no federal guarantees. The risk of investing in a private company cannot be reduced through diversification, and most businesses do not own the type of hard assets that can ensure capital appreciation over time. This is why investors demand a much higher return on their investment in closely-held businesses; such investments are inherently much more risky.

Capital Asset Pricing Model (“CAP-M”)

The Capital Asset Pricing Model is another method of determining the appropriate discount rate in business valuations. The CAP-M method originated from the Nobel Prize winning studies of Harry Markowitz, James Tobin and William Sharpe. Like the Ibbotson Build-Up method, the CAP-M method derives the discount rate by adding a risk premium to the risk-free rate. In this instance, however, the risk premium is derived by multiplying the equity risk premium times “beta,” which is a measure of stock price volatility. Beta is published by various sources (including Ibbotson Associates, which was used in this valuation) for particular industries and companies. Beta is associated with the systematic risks of an investment.

One of the criticisms of the CAP-M method is that beta is derived from the volatility of prices of publicly-traded companies, which are likely to differ from private companies in their capital structures, diversification of products and markets, access to credit markets, size, management depth, and many other respects. Where private companies can be shown to be sufficiently similar to public companies, however, the CAP-M model may be appropriate.

Weighted Average Cost of Capital (“WACC”)

The weighted average cost of capital is the third major approach to determining a discount rate. The WACC method determines the subject company’s actual cost of capital by calculating the weighted average of the company’s cost of debt and cost of equity. The WACC capitalization rate must be applied to the subject company’s net cash flow to invested equity. One of the problems with this method is that the valuator may elect to calculate WACC according to the subject company’s existing capital structure, the average industry capital structure, or the optimal capital structure. Such discretion detracts from the objectivity of this approach, in the minds of some critics.

Once the capitalization or discount rate is determined, it must be applied to an appropriate economic income streams: pretax cash flow, aftertax cash flow, pretax net income, after tax net income, excess earnings, projected cash flow, etc. The result of this formula is the indicated value before discounts. Before moving on to calculate discounts, however, the valuation professional must consider the indicated value under the asset and market approaches.

 

Careful matching of the discount rate to the appropriate measure of economic income is critical to the accuracy of the business valuation results. Net cash flow is a frequent choice in professionally conducted business appraisals. The rationale behind this choice is that this earnings basis corresponds to the equity discount rate derived from the Build-Up or CAP-M models: the returns obtained from investments in publicly traded companies can easily be represented in terms of net cash flows. At the same time, the discount rates are generally also derived from the public capital markets data.

Asset-based approaches

The value of asset-based analysis a business is equal to the sum of its parts. That is the theory underlying the asset-based approaches to business valuation. The asset approach to business valuation is based on the principle of substitution: no rational investor will pay more for the business assets than the cost of procuring assets of similar economic utility. In contrast to the income-based approaches, which require the valuation professional to make subjective judgments about capitalization or discount rates, the adjusted net book value method is relatively objective. Pursuant to accounting convention, most assets are reported on the books of the subject company at their acquisition value, net of depreciation where applicable. These values must be adjusted to fair market value wherever possible. The value of a company’s intangible assets, such as goodwill, is generally impossible to determine apart from the company’s overall enterprise value. For this reason, the asset-based approach is not the most probative method of determining the value of going business concerns. In these cases, the asset-based approach yields a result that is probably lesser than the fair market value of the business. In considering an asset-based approach, the valuation professional must consider whether the shareholder whose interest is being valued would have any authority to access the value of the assets directly. Shareholders own shares in a corporation, but not its assets, which are owned by the corporation. A controlling shareholder may have the authority to direct the corporation to sell all or part of the assets it owns and to distribute the proceeds to the shareholder(s). The non-controlling shareholder, however, lacks this authority and cannot access the value of the assets. As a result, the value of a corporation’s assets is rarely the most relevant indicator of value to a shareholder who cannot avail himself of that value. Adjusted net book value may be the most relevant standard of value where liquidation is imminent or ongoing; where a company earnings or cash flow are nominal, negative or worth less than its assets; or where net book value is standard in the industry in which the company operates. None of these situations applies to the Company which is the subject of this valuation report. However, the adjusted net book value may be used as a “sanity check” when compared to other methods of valuation, such as the income and market approaches.

Market approaches

The market approach to business valuation is rooted in the economic principle of competition: that in a free market the supply and demand forces will drive the price of business assets to a certain equilibrium. Buyers would not pay more for the business, and the sellers will not accept less, than the price of a comparable business enterprise. It is similar in many respects to the “comparable sales” method that is commonly used in real estate appraisal. The market price of the stocks of publicly traded companies engaged in the same or a similar line of business, whose shares are actively traded in a free and open market, can be a valid indicator of value when the transactions in which stocks are traded are sufficiently similar to permit meaningful comparison.

The difficulty lies in identifying public companies that are sufficiently comparable to the subject company for this purpose. Also, as for a private company, the equity is less liquid (in other words its stocks are less easy to buy or sell) than for a public company, its value is considered to be slightly lower than such a market-based valuation would give

Guideline Public Company method

The Guideline Public Company method entails a comparison of the subject company to publicly traded companies. The comparison is generally based on published data regarding the public companies’ stock price and earnings, sales, or revenues, which is expressed as a fraction known as a “multiple.” If the guideline public companies are sufficiently similar to each other and the subject company to permit a meaningful comparison, then their multiples should be nearly equal. The public companies identified for comparison purposes should be similar to the subject company in terms of industry, product lines, market, growth, and risk.

Transaction Method or Direct Market Data Method

Using this method, the valuation analyst may determine market multiples by reviewing published data regarding actual transactions involving either minority or controlling interests in either publicly traded or closely held companies. In judging whether a reasonable basis for comparison exists, the valuation analysis must consider: (1) the similarity of qualitative and quantitative investment and investor characteristics; (2) the extent to which reliable data is known about the transactions in which interests in the guideline companies were bought and sold; and (3) whether or not the price paid for the guideline companies was in an arms-length transaction, or a forced or distressed sale.

Discounts and premiums

The valuation approaches yield the fair market value of the Company as a whole. In valuing a minority, non-controlling interest in a business, however, the valuation professional must consider the applicability of discounts that affect such interests. Discussions of discounts and premiums frequently begin with a review of the “levels of value.” There are three common levels of value: controlling interest, marketable minority, and non-marketable minority. The intermediate level, marketable minority interest, is lesser than the controlling interest level and higher than the non-marketable minority interest level. The marketable minority interest level represents the perceived value of equity interests that are freely traded without any restrictions. These interests are generally traded on the New York Stock Exchange, AMEX, NASDAQ, and other exchanges where there is a ready market for equity securities. These values represent a minority interest in the subject companies – small blocks of stock that represent less than 50% of the company’s equity, and usually much less than 50%. Controlling interest level is the value that an investor would be willing to pay to acquire more than 50% of a company’s stock, thereby gaining the attendant prerogatives of control. Some of the prerogatives of control include: electing directors, hiring and firing the company’s management and determining their compensation; declaring dividends and distributions, determining the company’s strategy and line of business, and acquiring, selling or liquidating the business. This level of value generally contains a control premium over the intermediate level of value, which typically ranges from 25% to 50%. An additional premium may be paid by strategic investors who are motivated by synergistic motives. Non-marketable, minority level is the lowest level on the chart, representing the level at which non-controlling equity interests in private companies are generally valued or traded. This level of value is discounted because no ready market exists in which to purchase or sell interests. Private companies are less “liquid” than publicly-traded companies, and transactions in private companies take longer and are more uncertain. Between the intermediate and lowest levels of the chart, there are restricted shares of publicly-traded companies. Despite a growing inclination of the IRS and Tax Courts to challenge valuation discounts , Shannon Pratt suggested in a scholarly presentation recently that valuation discounts are actually increasing as the differences between public and private companies is widening . Publicly-traded stocks have grown more liquid in the past decade due to rapid electronic trading, reduced commissions, and governmental deregulation. These developments have not improved the liquidity of interests in private companies, however. Valuation discounts are multiplicative, so they must be considered in order. Control premiums and their inverse, minority interest discounts, are considered before marketability discounts are applied.

Discount for lack of control

The first discount that must be considered is the discount for lack of control, which in this instance is also a minority interest discount. Minority interest discounts are the inverse of control premiums, to which the following mathematical relationship exists: MID = 1 – [ 1 / (1 + CP)] The most common source of data regarding control premiums is the Control Premium Study, published annually by Mergerstat since 1972. Mergerstat compiles data regarding publicly announced mergers, acquisitions and divestitures involving 10% or more of the equity interests in public companies, where the purchase price is $1 million or more and at least one of the parties to the transaction is a U.S. entity. Mergerstat defines the “control premium” as the percentage difference between the acquisition price and the share price of the freely-traded public shares five days prior to the announcement of the M&A transaction. While it is not without valid criticism, Mergerstat control premium data (and the minority interest discount derived therefrom) is widely accepted within the valuation profession.

Discount for lack of marketability

Another factor to be considered in valuing closely held companies is the marketability of an interest in such businesses. Marketability is defined as the ability to convert the business interest into cash quickly, with minimum transaction and administrative costs, and with a high degree of certainty as to the amount of net proceeds. There is usually a cost and a time lag associated with locating interested and capable buyers of interests in privately-held companies, because there is no established market of readily-available buyers and sellers. All other factors being equal, an interest in a publicly traded company is worth more because it is readily marketable. Conversely, an interest in a private-held company is worth less because no established market exists. The IRS Valuation Guide for Income, Estate and Gift Taxes, Valuation Training for Appeals Officers acknowledges the relationship between value and marketability, stating: “Investors prefer an asset which is easy to sell, that is, liquid.” The discount for lack of control is separate and distinguishable from the discount for lack of marketability. It is the valuation professional’s task to quantify the lack of marketability of an interest in a privately-held company. Because, in this case, the subject interest is not a controlling interest in the Company, and the owner of that interest cannot compel liquidation to convert the subject interest to cash quickly, and no established market exists on which that interest could be sold, the discount for lack of marketability is appropriate. Several empirical studies have been published that attempt to quantify the discount for lack of marketability. These studies include the restricted stock studies and the pre-IPO studies. The aggregate of these studies indicate average discounts of 35% and 50%, respectively. Some experts believe the Lack of Control and Marketabilty discounts can aggregate discounts for as much as ninety percent of a Company’s fair market value, specifically with family owned companies.

Restricted stock studies

Restricted stocks are equity securities of public companies that are similar in all respects to the freely traded stocks of those companies except that they carry a restriction that prevents them from being traded on the open market for a certain period of time, which is usually one year (two years prior to 1990). This restriction from active trading, which amounts to a lack of marketability, is the only distinction between the restricted stock and its freely-traded counterpart. Restricted stock can be traded in private transactions and usually do so at a discount. The restricted stock studies attempt to verify the difference in price at which the restricted shares trade versus the price at which the same unrestricted securities trade in the open market as of the same date. The underlying data by which these studies arrived at their conclusions has not been made public. Consequently, it is not possible when valuing a particular company to compare the characteristics of that company to the study data. Still, the existence of a marketability discount has been recognized by valuation professionals and the Courts, and the restricted stock studies are frequently cited as empirical evidence. Notably, the lowest average discount reported by these studies was 26% and the highest average discount was 45%.

Option pricing

In addition to the restricted stock studies, U.S. publicly traded companies are able to sell stock to offshore investors (SEC Regulation S, enacted in 1990) without registering the shares with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The offshore buyers may resell these shares in the United States, still without having to register the shares, after holding them for just 40 days. Typically, these shares are sold for 20% to 30% below the publicly traded share price. Some of these transactions have been reported with discounts of more than 30%, resulting from the lack of marketability. These discounts are similar to the marketability discounts inferred from the restricted and pre-IPO studies, despite the holding period being just 40 days. Studies based on the prices paid for options have also confirmed similar discounts. If one holds restricted stock and purchases an option to sell that stock at the market price (a put), the holder has, in effect, purchased marketability for the shares. The price of the put is equal to the marketability discount. The range of marketability discounts derived by this study was 32% to 49%.

Pre-IPO studies

Another approach to measure the marketability discount is to compare the prices of stock offered in initial public offerings (IPOs) to transactions in the same company’s stocks prior to the IPO. Companies that are going public are required to disclose all transactions in their stocks for a period of three years prior to the IPO. The pre-IPO studies are the leading alternative to the restricted stock stocks in quantifying the marketability discount. The pre-IPO studies are sometimes criticized because the sample size is relatively small, the pre-IPO transactions may not be arm’s length, and the financial structure and product lines of the studied companies may have changed during the three year pre-IPO window.

Applying the studies

The studies confirm what the marketplace knows intuitively: Investors covet liquidity and loathe obstacles that impair liquidity. Prudent investors buy illiquid investments only when there is a sufficient discount in the price to increase the rate of return to a level which brings risk-reward back into balance. The referenced studies establish a reasonable range of valuation discounts from the mid-30%s to the low 50%s. The more recent studies appeared to yield a more conservative range of discounts than older studies, which may have suffered from smaller sample sizes. Another method of quantifying the lack of marketability discount is the Quantifying Marketability Discounts Model (QMDM).

When you work online and start your own home Internet business, you are doing a very simple yet important thing ‘ taking charge of your financial future. It takes courage to do so, for few people can tolerate the uncertainty that comes with the absence of a regular salary. However, if you are serious about fulfilling your financial goals, you definitely have to start a venture of your own. Otherwise you will be tied down to a job for the rest of your life.

One idea on how to work at home is to start a home business providing a service. If you like the Internet freelancing opportunities are everywhere. Here are a few things you could do.

Build websites. There are millions of small businesses all over the world who does not have a website and do not know who to contact to get one built. You could go to Vistaprint.com and get 250 free business cards printed. An at home business that can help others with their various jobs can be very lucrative. One nice thing about this type of work is it never ending and most small businesses will need their site updated and maintained all of the time.

Write blog posts. With a new blog being started every second the number of blogs who need someone to help keep them up to date is never ending. If you like to research and write this may be just the work at home business ideas to get you started. All you need is a computer and Internet access to get started.

Websites like TJobs.If someone’s idea of easy home business ideas means ideas that allow them to make money without a lot of effort, then for them there are no easy home business ideas. Many of these offer benefits along with top pay to telecommute and work at home business ideas. Most will require you to have a quiet place to work and maybe a separate phone line.

Hobbies offer a great way to work at home and get paid for it. Hobbies like working on cars, catering, gardening, baking, walking dogs and more could be the perfect work at home business ideas . If you are a licensed professional then you can offer your services as a doctor, designer or lawyer and work right out of your home.

As you can see the trend now is to start your home based business using the Internet. Even basic skills can be rewarded if you will show up and work. Coming up with an idea that appeals to you is the key. If you are going to work at home business ideas everyday you may as well enjoy it.