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5 Keys to Properly Selling Your Small Business

November 6, 2013 by Thomas

 

If you’ve started a small business from the ground up, then you know just how much hard work goes into making a business successful.

So, when it comes time to sell your baby, it’s important that your exit strategy is the right one in order for all that hard work to pay off.

With sale success in mind, here are 5 key strategies to properly selling your small business:

1. Patience is a Business Virtue

No matter how much planning goes into the sale of your small business, if you don’t wait until the most opportune time to sell, then you’ll likely end up disappointed. This is true for you, the seller, as well as the potential buyer.

In other words, it’s wise to wait until the timing is right and your small business is financially stable before selling. A business that’s successful on paper will result in a higher selling price. That said it’s also important to wait for a buyer who’s not only financially capable of taking over your business, but also business savvy.

2. Picking the Right Buyer

Most small business owners don’t just sell their livelihoods only to walk away and never think about the sale again. In fact, owners have a vested interest in their businesses long after the sale either in the form of shares, partial ownership, or on an emotional level.

Because of this, it’s imperative that you choose the right buyer to take over your small business. This means a financially stable buyer with experience in running a small business. On top of that, look for a buyer with the same passion you have for your small business.

3. Broker vs. Sell by Owner

Selling your small business yourself may sound like a good idea, especially considering the fees and commission involved with hiring a broker. But, if you don’t know what you’re doing in the sale department, then the money saved selling on your own may be more trouble than it’s worth.

So, take into consideration the paperwork involved with purchase agreements, nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements, bills of sale, leases, and security agreements. If that’s something you can handle realistically, then a broker may not be necessary.

4. Finding the Right Selling Price

When it comes down to the bottom dollar, a lack in research could result in your small business’s selling price coming in too high or too low. A high price is bad because it scares away potential buyers whereas a low price makes you, the seller, look like you’re trying to get out of a business gone wrong.

So, it’s wise to consider everything from the competition to the economy to the industry your business is based in before setting the sale price. This, combined with independent research on brand specifics, will result in the right asking price.

5. The Why Behind the Sale

Beyond all the pre-sale preparation and planning, everything about selling your small business will boil down to one word and one word only: why? The buyer’s definitely going to want to know, so be prepared.

Ask yourself why you’re selling your bread and butter – if it’s because you’re moving on to new horizons or retiring, then that’s perfectly fine. But, if you’re selling because the business is failing, then that’s something the buyer needs to know. In other words, be honest with yourself and the potential buyer.

By keeping these key strategies in mind, you’ll have a hassle-free time selling your beloved small business.

Photo credit: sellabusinessflorida.com

About the Author: Adam Groff is a freelance writer and creator of content. He writes on a variety of topics including personal health, the best accounting software, and small business.

Filed Under: Business Life Tagged With: bc, sales, sell, small business, strategy

Why Do Your Meetings Go Nowhere?

October 9, 2013 by Thomas

Surprisingly, office meetings are always long. You hardly ever hear of anyone complaining that the meetings were too short.

Every company has its own culture when it comes to meetings and how they are conducted. The general sentiments surrounding office meetings however make them appear boring and ineffective.

But why should it be this way? Is there an alternative to making meetings productive?

The fact remains that every meeting usually has an agenda that is communicated either before or during the meeting.

What makes meetings seem like they are ‘going nowhere’ has to do with the set up and the premise for which these meetings are held and how the content is passed on.

Below are some reasons behind the failure of company meetings.

Objectives Aren’t Clear

Every meeting started must have clear objectives.

Lack of tangible and well-structured objectives not only wastes time but also confuse the attendees who may be left to guess what the meeting is all about. Be sure of what you are trying to achieve by holding the meeting and bring that objective out clearly.

To help you on this, a pre-meeting review and rehearsal would be appropriate just to ensure that the agenda is in order and the points are well arranged, this enhances and streamlines the objectives of the meetings. Unless you convince yourself, you may not be able to convince the rest of the attendees.

Unregulated Number of Attendees

Before holding any meeting, the number of people to attend these meetings needs to be checked and ascertained.

Not everyone should attend the office meetings. In fact that is one of the reasons that make these meetings fail in making an impact. The more the people attending the meeting, the higher the likelihood that such a meeting will consume so much time compared to the set time limits.

Instead of each person attending the meeting, only a few should be picked and the rest served with a brief summary of the discussions later on.

Time Blown

A meeting is ‘elastic’ in nature; it tends to stretch out to fill whatever time it has been allocated.

Meetings which take longer than necessary tend to eat into the company’s time and still end up being counterproductive. Part of the time allocated will normally be used for conversations that are not even company related or if they are then not on the agenda.

To make such meetings successful, you can reduce the time so that only the relevant things get time to be discussed.

The ‘Latecomer’ Factor

Meetings tend to spend too much time on arrivals. Late arrivals in particular can waste time for the entire group.

The solution to this is to start the meeting on time so that latecomers will find ways to catch up on their own. People will soon shape up and arrive in time because latecomers are embarrassed walking in when others are embroiled in deep discussions. This will save time for the whole group and the meeting will achieve its purpose.

Conducting Sitting Instead Of Stand-Up Meetings

Research shows that stand-up meetings take lesser time that those where people are seated.

This is because stand-up meetings tend to make people less comfortable, meaning decisions are arrived faster, deliberations made in record times and only pertinent issues get airtime. So far these meetings have been ranked among those that are productive and efficient.

Remember time saved in the course of a meeting is always equated to productive time given back to the company.

Discuss more with less time; you will find meetings meaningful and effective.

Photo credit: imlworldwide.com

About the Author: Tina Samuels writes on how to be first on Google, social media, marketing, and other business topics.

Filed Under: Business Life Tagged With: bc, employees, Meetings, office, production, strategy

Simple Sentiment Analysis for Small Business

June 13, 2013 by Rosemary

Stop reading this post right now if you’re rolling in cash, have a team of more than 10 people involved in your marketing efforts, or if your social media headquarters looks anything like this:

Social listening command center

OK, now that those lucky folks are gone, let’s talk reality for most of us.

Are you relying solely on Google Alerts to find out what your customers are talking about? Maybe you took it one step further and set up a Hootsuite column to track Twitter mentions. What are you doing with that information as it accumulates?

Welcome to the club.

But we can all take it up several notches this week, by implementing a few simple routines.

Step One – Start Proactively Listening

Use the free tools at your disposal and start seeking out mentions of your brand, your company, and your industry. Both Topsy and Social Mention are great options, and will cover Google+ and Twitter, as well as blogs. I do this task weekly, gathering the resulting information into a spreadsheet.

What’s that you say? No-one’s talking about you? Not to worry.

Turn the tables, and evaluate sentiment about your big brand competitors. Find larger companies that are in your industry and see what people are saying about them. Is it positive or negative? You might uncover a great business opportunity, or a competitor weakness by doing this. Bonus: you might discover topic ideas for your blog!

Step Two – Self-Exams Are Useful Too

Particularly if you don’t have a lot of external social discussion going on yet (maybe you just launched, or you haven’t gotten traction yet), evaluate the contents of your email feedback or support questions. Analyze whether the questions and reactions you’re getting from your own customers are positive or negative. Talk to your colleagues and collect some anecdotal evidence if you don’t have a formal online feedback tool.

Step Three – Act on the Data

Now that you have some indicators of sentiment, get further value out of the exercise by engaging with those who mentioned you. For example, if Topsy revealed a Tweet that gave you a shout-out, you might reply to that person with a thanks. If you found that a certain person has been promoting your content consistently, you might want to reach out and look for some of their content that you can promote.

On the flip side, if you find someone who is unhappy with your services or who has mentioned your company in a negative light, evaluate whether you can address the issue and turn them around. This is one of the strong suits of social media—the ability to capture those negative reviews and the opportunity to respond to them.

Are you doing any sentiment analysis right now? How might you add this data to your marketing tool kit?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Filed Under: Successful Blog Tagged With: Analysis, bc, feedback, sentiment, strategy

How Do I Hire the Right People?

June 12, 2013 by Thomas

Judging a book by its cover probably is not the best way to find the right candidate for your company. These days you have to at least open the book and read the first chapter.

Luckily, there are ways to ensure your company hires the right people without sitting them down in an interrogation room first.

The following tips will help you get the most out of your first encounter with potential employees and ensure you pick the perfect candidate.

Screen Resumes

In an attempt to streamline the interview process, resume screening is a great way to cut out candidates that don’t meet the requirements. Sure, resumes are naturally screened as you read them, but they should be accompanied by a detailed checklist.

The job specific checklist can work as a 1 to 10 scale broken down into categories ranging from candidate qualifications, experiences, and whether or not they should move on to the interview process.

By doing this, you, the employer has a tailored checklist that’s easily compared to other checklists based off the competition’s resumes. Additionally, it’s wise to have dedicated screeners during recruiting periods to act as candidate experts.

Interview for Attitude

Before you hire any employee, it’s important to know whether their knowledge and skill level is up to par. But, another essential facet to any potential candidate is their inner office attitude. That’s where the interview comes into play.

Don’t spend too much time grilling the candidate on information already stated in the resume. Instead, try to gauge their personality. Ask questions concerning work habits, how they function under stress, and their opinion on working long hours.

This is also where your ability to read body language plays a huge role. If the candidate becomes uneasy or makes a seemingly harmless joke at the mention of possibly working nights and weekends, it’s probably because they’ll ultimately have a problem with it.

Quiz References

If and when a candidate reaches the reference checking stage, it’s the perfect time to dig deep into the potential employee’s work past. And, if the reference is strictly professional, it’s also a great chance to gather unbiased opinions about the employee in question.

Once questions concerning the candidate’s abilities are out of the way, transition directly into their people skills. Questions like whether or not the candidate works well with others, their day-to-day attitudes, and their willingness to go above and beyond what’s asked of them are all fair game.

Test for Success

After the candidate checks out on paper and face-to-face, it’s wise to request they take an abilities test.

Whether it’s to get a sense of the candidate’s general knowledge or gauge skills particular to the job, if the potential employee is all they say they are, they should have not problem taking the test and more importantly, receiving an adequate score.

So, when it comes time to fill your next open position, take some of the above tips into consideration and find the best employee for the job.

As an employer, what have your hiring experiences been like to date?

Photo credit: ABC15.com

About the Author: Adam Groff is a freelance writer and creator of content. He writes on a variety of topics including business, invoice software, and personal health.

Filed Under: Business Life Tagged With: bc, employees, Hiring, strategy

10 Step Half-Year Blog Checkup – How YOU Doin?

June 6, 2013 by Rosemary

It’s almost the halfway point of 2013–time to take stock and make sure you’re putting your best foot forward. Remember those shiny dreams and goals you came up with in January?

To quote my favorite Friend, Joey, “how YOU doin?”

Let’s find out by running through 10 quick checkpoints. There’s still the whole second half of the year to do a course correction and kick butt.

10 Step Half-Year Blog Checkup

  1. Go into your Google Analytics and find your most popular post. Use that as a jumping off point for more content. Update the topic, do a “part two,” or simply re-promote it via your social channels. You might be able to get more juice out of it.
  2. Run a poll or send an email to get feedback from your readers about what they need. Use the results to guide your writing for the rest of the year.
  3. Make sure you are up to date with your software and plugins. When’s the last time you updated your WordPress? Are there better plug-ins you could be using? Do you need to renew any licences?
  4. Check current best practices for your sidebar, ads, and extra content. Is it time to delete some of those old conference badges, test removing your social profiles, or add a promo for your new e-book? There’s a great blog/community review video at Live Your Legend.
  5. Do you need to update your logo, tag line, or branding? When is the last time you refreshed your graphics?
  6. Is your editorial calendar set for the rest of the year? You don’t have to have a headline for every day of the week, but it might be good to sit down and come up with broad topic areas for each week or even each month. You’ll be sitting pretty if you feed your stockpile of headline ideas at the same time. How is your blog draft “slush pile?”
  7. Check in with your goals from the beginning of the year. How have you done? Do you need to make any course corrections? Pat yourself on the back if you’ve checked any big goals off the list already. It’s so important to take time to celebrate your wins. If there’s something on the goal list that you haven’t accomplished, think about whether it was a good goal to begin with.
  8. Update your social sharing tools and make sure you’re taking full advantage of new developments. All of the major social networks have undergone major changes since January. There are now verified Pinterest pages for your business, Facebook has changed its cover photo policy to allow more text, and Twitter now has interactive “cards” available to embed in blog posts. Have you looked at List.ly yet?
  9. Get up to speed on disclosure regulations. Are you compliant? It might be time to take a moment and read the updated FTC guidelines.
  10. Is your mobile experience optimized? Check your Google Analytics again and note how much of your audience is reading your blog on a mobile device. My guess is that it’s a big chunk! Take time to ensure that your site is mobile-ready.

Let’s use the rest of 2013 to inspire each other to success!

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Filed Under: Blog Review, Checklists, Strategy/Analysis Tagged With: bc, Blog Review, goals, strategy

Big Data for Bloggers

May 23, 2013 by Rosemary

Have you noticed? Big data is the new buzzword. Apparently, it’s so hot you should “make out with it,” according to Mitch Joel in his new book, CTR ALT DEL.

But if you’re like most entrepreneurs, bloggers, or small business owners, you have no clue what big data is, or how it might apply to your business.

So here is my all-access definition: “big data” is sets of information that are way too large to be accessed or analyzed on your average computer or set of servers. Think of data being fed from RFID tags globally, or all of the data in Facebook’s open graph, or earthquake sensor networks. You’re probably contributing to big data yourself, whenever you serve up an ad on your site from an ad network.

Big-data-for-bloggers
Perhaps none of these big data sets apply to your blog site, but the wider discussion about how to draw business insights from big data absolutely does apply.

Maybe we should call it “medium data.”

Here are three ways you can use medium data to draw insights for your blog.

Google Analytics

It’s free, and it’s getting deeper every day. If you haven’t signed up yet, here’s a quick tutorial on how to get started with Google Analytics.

At the most basic level, you can draw insights on who is visiting your blog, which content is the most popular, and where you can improve.

Once you dive deeper into the data, you can figure out whether all that time you spend on Twitter is actually driving people to your blog using Advanced Segments in Google Analytics.

Customer Surveys and Interaction

If you’re a blogger, your customer is a reader, perhaps a commenter or member of your community. Maybe they downloaded your eBook or signed up for an online course. Every time you interact with them, you have an opportunity to gather intelligence.

Whether it’s a quick one question “how did you like that book” sent in a followup email, or a more in-depth customer survey, you have the ability to pull together data to feed your future efforts.

John Jantsch said in an article a year ago, “Until a business of any size gets serious about listening to their customers, talking to their customers, and measuring every possible data and touch point, the promise of more data will only serve to distract.”

Accessing Big Data from Researchers

All of the data you use doesn’t have to come from your own blog site or customers. There are myriad free or inexpensive resources out there that can help you build business insights on your subject area.

Organizations like Edison Research, Gartner, and The Social Habit routinely produce scientifically valid research based on a much wider data set that you can access on your own. Find a research outlet that covers your industry or topic, and leverage their reports to come up with blog post ideas, watch for future trends, and increase your own utility to your audience.

Are you using data (small, medium, or big) to draw insights for your blog?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Image: Flickr CC

Filed Under: Blog Basics, Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Strategy/Analysis, Tech/Stats, Trends Tagged With: Analysis, bc, customer survey, data, strategy

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