When you start your program to purchase your "ideal" company, you quickly realize that your ultimate success will depend on two primary skill sets: 1) Your ability to FIND viable companies that are for sale, and 2) Your ability to effectively qualify the potential acquisition investment once found.This article is about only step one, how to creatively find viable companies and one's that are able to be purchased.Assuming you have clearly defined your business purchase criteria and you have decided... Read More
Writing a business plan to help you direct and manage your company is a key part of starting you new company that will help lead you and your company to success. Creating a "living and breathing" business plan makes that success even easier to reach. Many people feel that the sole purpose of a business plan is to get funding, and write a plan that is targeted to that audience. This plan should be considered a piece of you Fund... Read More
Richard L. Daft one of the country's recognized academic leadership experts raises the question, "What kind of people can lead an organization through major change?" A Turn-A-Round restructuring qualifies as major change and requires transformational leadership. Daft points out that this type of leader is characterized by the ability to bring about change through innovation and creativity. This type of leader motivates people to not only follow their lead but to believe in the vision of corporate transformation, the need... Read More
When in doubt, cut that out! Yeah, yea, doubting Thomas may have had a point in his day, and life may not be what you want it to be, but if you constantly doubt yourself, how can you accomplish anything?Where is your confidence? What possible good can come from taking the negative aspect of any situation and growing it into acceptance?Purpose of achievement is to attain a goal. So, if you set your goals and strive to get there, it... Read More
What do Mark Victor Hansen, Robert Allen, Anthony Robbins, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and Ben Franklin have in common?They all leverage the power of the mastermind team.The mastermind works on the concept that two (or more) heads are better than one. When you gather a group of like-minded people and focus on one particular problem, a funny thing happens. Not only do you get intelligent feedback on blind spots you may not have noticed. But a truly phenomenal... Read More
The day you decide to take the plunge and work for yourself will be one of the most life-changing choices you ever make, whether starting a company large or small or as a freelance; from the very first moment of being self-employed, you and you alone will stand or fall by your decisions and actions. You will be responsible for steering your business through all its ups and downs, good times and bad times with no guarantee that everything will... Read More
The boom of the dot-com era in 1999 brought the emergence of corporate venture capital as a major source of funding to the private equity markets. Corporate venture investments peaked in the third quarter of 2000 with 608 deals totaling a combined $4.9 billion. A few of the top corporate venture capital investors of 2000 included Nokia Corporate ($500 million), Oracle Corporation ($400 million), Intel Corporation ($300 million), Sun Microsystems, Inc. ($300 million) and Daimler Chrysler ($100 million).But as we... Read More
There are no "rules of thumb" in the pursuit of companies to buy. Each purchase opportunity has to stand on its own merits. There are, however, attributes of acquisition candidates that need to be defined for what they really are before additional, limited resources are put at risk in a potential deal. It is absolutely critical for any proactive business buyer to understand, consider and deal with specific business characteristics that add unnecessary financial risk to the investment opportunity at... Read More
How often does your company make a quantum leap forward? My guess is that, on a scale from "frequently (10) ? to ? never (1)" the answer is much closer to "never" because few companies have a process to innovate or think creatively. Very few attempt to formally think through their business model, their relationships with staff, clients, and vendors, and their product / service offerings.Most companies just follow the leaders in their industry. They continue to exist because they... Read More
I've either been involved with or held a process-related role since 1994. It started in the government with TQM (Total Quality Management). Then before I left the government, I worked with ERWin and some process standard model -- I've forgotten its official name. We had pages and pages of flows that were not easy to follow.In 1997, we worked with a fancy software application that was not user-friendly and spit out huge process maps. In 1998, I joined another company... Read More
To Grow (Catapult) Your Business That's Why.When it's in your head it's not as likely to happen--too much missed.Before becoming an executive business coach, in my previous career as an electrical engineer I discovered some key practical things about business planning that showed me how to explode the growth of a business.When I was in college if I was asked to design something my designs always worked?.on paper.When I got out of college, my boss would frequently come to me... Read More
You have heard that there is extra money on the table marketing products related to yours. You have also heard that your direct competitors product is off the table. How unfortunate. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to profit from the hard work, expertise and quality of your competitions product?By the end of this article you will be very familiar with three ways to do just that. You will not only profit from your direct competition, but will be... Read More
This week I coached a wonderfully lovely woman I'll call Jill. She's a bright woman, very compassionate and sweet. She's at one of the corporations where I am an outside consultant/coach. This was our first meeting but within seconds I could tell she had a lot on her mind.. and her plate.She basically has to work 12 hour days 6 days a week to be able to keep up with her job. She's highly in demand and is spread a... Read More
It's easy to lose sight of what needs to be communicated to prospective investors when writing the various sections of a business plan. Successful business owners/entrepreneurs use each section of their business plan to work up interest, to present arguments and, most important, to build trust and confidence.How To Earn The Trust Of Skeptical Investors?Usually some sort of upfront investment precedes starting or expanding a business, whether it be time, energy or cash. If you plan to raise cash from... Read More
If ever there were an industry where we want zero defects, it's healthcare. Patients, medical professionals, and healthcare administrators all want mistakes eliminated and quality and efficiency improved. Although most industries have undergone some type of data-supported, systematic, quality-improvement process, healthcare still has not. Medical and technological advances continue to outpace process and education adjustments. Demand and expectations for medical care are increasing. Inefficiency also leads to(causes, brings about, etc.) overcrowded emergency rooms, customer complaints, and lost revenues.Six Sigma allows... Read More
Some analysts credit [Larry] Ellison with anticipating the consolidation in the enterprise software industry and leading the charge. Ellison 'called a major shift in an entire market, which was impressive.'(1)Anticipating consolidation? Calling a major shift? Didn't Microsoft start as a PC operating system vendor in 1975? In the eighties they owned the desktop, today they're across the enterprise. Computer Associates began with a sort program in 1976. Now its product suite offers one-stop shopping for managing the enterprise. And in... Read More
After 128 years of business, a household word, Montgomery Wards, Inc., closed their doors forever and filed bankruptcy.With 258 stores and 28,000 employees in 30 states, Wards fell victim to competition from service-driven retailers like Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Circuit City. Wards claimed a "poor retail environment" for the failure. Interestingly, Wal-Mart and Home Depot didn't shut down. (Editorial sarcasm).Wards is a perfect example of a company that thought it was in the retail business and missed the fact they're... Read More
Private equity firms have raised so much capital over the last 12 months that they are vigorously competing with one another for opportunities to put their money to work. Business owners, who previously would have had to go hat-in-hand to investors, instead find themselves inundated with unsolicited offers for their companies. Companies with solid balance sheets, good management and strong growth prospects are able to tailor deals to their liking, and get solid valuations.According to Private Equity Analyst, a newsletter... Read More
With the help of balanced scorecard strategy map, it is very easy to design the organization goals and build business strategies. Balance scorecard and strategy map are interrelated with each other. Strategies map is the foundation to design business strategies or perspective. Using strategy map, you can design the strategies and using balanced scorecards you can build business models.Strategy MappingStrategy mapping deploy the concept of balancescorecard developed by Kaplan and Norton. Balanced scorecards is a business strategic approach which covers... Read More
A significant advantage of some business ideas is that the venture can break even at what seems to be an easily achievable volume. A technique for quantifying that volume, called break-even analysis, examines the interaction among fixed costs, variable costs, prices, and unit volume to determine that combination of elements in which revenues and total costs are equal.Fixed costs are those expenses necessary to keep the business open, and are not impacted by sales volume. They will include such things... Read More
