There’s something about the ten-year mark that makes one pause and look inward. I’m not sure the exact day I set foot in the M&A industry. Perhaps it was the day in 2005, when Chris and I started talking about selling our own business. Or maybe it was the day in...
![Why M&A People Make Me Cranky [Interview]](https://www.allantaylor.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/andre-hunter-vm2cwMEiUFA-unsplash-400x250.jpg)
I first met Josh Patrick in 2009 when I was writing a blog for the New York Times. We quickly connected based on our shared attitudes around small business -- namely the need for owners to create a business with transferrable value, and to be more proactive about...
If you’ve ever perused Amazon.com or your local bookstore looking for information on how to exit your business, you’ve probably come up with a short list of resources. While there are countless titles about starting and running a business, there are precious few that...
If you talk to anyone who has known me for longer than an hour, they’ll most likely tell you that I gave them a book recommendation. As an English major, former bookstore manager, and avid reader I can’t resist trying to put books and people together. I secretly judge...
The good folks at the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal published my latest guest commentary this week [subscription required]. It was part of the "Northwest Arkansas' Largest Private Companies" issue. Here is the article in its entirety. Enjoy! I’m a sucker for a...
A New York Times blogger writes about the sale of a business that ended in disaster. Despite all of the details provided, it’s hard to know exactly what went wrong and why. Regardless, it’s a great opportunity to try and learn from someone else’s experience and avoid repeating these three mistakes.
If you have ever promised your child a treat in return for good behavior, you know all about negotiating leverage. When selling an attractive business, you also have leverage — but only up to the point where you sign a letter of intent (LOI). Here are seven things you can do — before you even put your business up for sale, and before signing an LOI — to minimize the chances of your deal dragging on for months and becoming watered down.
It’s not often that I’m able to weave grandmothers, due diligence and airborne mashed potatoes into one post, but last year I managed to do it in a New York Times piece titled 5 Reasons Selling Your Business Is Like Thanksgiving Dinner. I had a ball writing it, and I hope you’ll have fun reading it. Following is an excerpt that includes reasons number one and two.
Independence Day. A day to celebrate American virtues like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. While we don’t hold a monopoly on entrepreneurship in this country, both the dream and reality of small-business ownership are part of our national identity. America...
As we get ready to welcome ghosts and goblins to our front door this Halloween, now seems like a good time to name some of the nagging fears we tend to have about selling our business. Following are four fears that can get in the way of a successful sale.
While family-owned businesses can have impressive results, outperforming public companies in areas like stock price and return on equity, the statistics associated with ownership transfer are sobering. Following is my Email interview with best-selling author and third-generation business owner, Tom Deans.
While every deal is different, the underlying reasons for selling a business tend to be quite similar. Regardless of the size of the business, its age (or that of the owner), the industry or geographic location, most of us end up reaching our limit as business owners...
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