by taking the “The Art of Covert Hynosis” course by renown Master Hynotist Steven Peliari and Chairman of the International Hypnosis Association

http://bit.ly/b-ch

When we look into hypnosis, we do of course look into being able to hypnotize somebody. A common problem we face however is that we consider that knowing how to hypnotize someone is going to be too difficult, and that there’s no point in learning how to hypnotize somebody, because ultimately we’ll most likely give up.

Most people imagine  that being able to seemingly “control” another person’s behaviour, and “prevent” them from doing things, could only result from a truly trained professional. In actuality however, you can have this sort of “control” over others with minimal effort.

“Tell me your secret?… “how does it work so easily?”. My response is simply… “do it” . Just relax, plant suggestions within their subconscious. Once you start to see how effortless people will follow your commands, you will become cool with hypnosis, that you won’t be able to help one’s self. You will be hypnotizing just about everyone you see.

So who do you go to to learn hypnotism with the Right Online Hypnosis Course?

And finding a good quality online hypnosis course is no easy task. There is conversational hypnosis, stage hypnosis, instant hypnosis, self hypnotism, converstional hynosis, street hypnosis, eriksson hypnosis and so on. With so many different courses to choose from, making a decision on which course you should choose can be a little overwhelming.

The hypnosis industry is unfortunately not free of charlatanism, and a lot of courses out there will claim to be able to teach you “mystical forms of hypnosis” which in reality is just utter nonsense. A lot of “new age” Hypnosis courses will attempt to combine “universal energy”, “remote healing”, “reiki” and other disciplines with some pseudo-hypnosis techniques, shamefully perverting a respectable field that has been used for hundreds of years.

It is important to stay far away from any hypnosis course that claims to be able to channel any form of mystical “energy”. Now don’t confuse this “mystical” energy with the scientific definition of energy. Hypnosis does involve a lot of energy, but it’s most definitely not mystical.

At this point let me introduce Steven Peliari, Master Hypnotist and Chairman of the International Hypnosis Association and his course  THE ART OF COVERT HYPNOSIS . http://bit.ly/b-ch

Steven explains quite simply that hypnosis, NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and Mentalism all form the basis of modern day covert hypnosis theory and its related science. And each of these three fields go hand in hand to create this discreet form of hypnosis, that works absolute wonders without others knowing what’s really going on. Learning about any one of these disciplines would be an amazing course all by itself. To be sure a student gets a well rounded education and effective hypnosis techniques, all three disciplines and how they work are extensively covered in this program.

With The Art Of Covert Hypnosis, you will study the exact techniques to make everyday people do as you say and you’ll also discover the incredibly advanced and powerful hypnotic techniques that professionals use on massive crowds of people. This form of mass hypnosis is something that other courses don’t teach you. Learn how to hypnotize someone without them being aware of it, then be taught how hypnosis is secretly used in your day to day life on you. 

The following are but just a sample of the important topics Steve will share with you 

• use ‘authority’ and ’suggestion’ to inspire large amounts of people to do just about anything you command. Politicians use these techniques to sway vast amounts of people to vote for them at the polls.

• ‘hypnotize’ seemingly ordinary people to follow you simply because you have an attractable presence they’re almost addicted to.

• replicate the techniques that psychics, illusionists, clairvoyants and mediums use through a skill known as ‘cold reading’. This isn’t supernatural garbage, this is a real life step by step explanation of the techniques these professions use.

• protect yourself against modern day charlatanism. You’ll find out how shockingly well it’s disguised within the various “alternative medicine” fields.

• impress your friends and strangers by using the ‘warm reading’ technique that astrologists and tarot card readers use. People will think you’re a mind reading psychic.

• cause large crowds of people to fall to the ground by just raising your arms. This is the same technique used by the faith healers you see on TV and at miracle crusades.

• get people to fall into a deep trance with just the click of your fingers. This ‘instant induction’ technique is perfect for doing anything from getting strangers to love you at first sight, right through to having people obey your commands.

•             achieve dominance over anyone you meet, and make them do almost anything you say, within only a few minutes of speaking to them.

The course is very fulfilling and  complete. The Art of Covert Hypnosis is comprised of 15 audio chapters with over 8+ hours of audio instruction. There is also a comprehensive 322 page course guidebook and exercises manual too. It’s worth is significantly much much more than its investment.

Use all these hypnotism techniques for goodness and to have a better life….

Do it right. Use it now. We all deserve a good life……

I have provided a video review of the product offer …. go to http://www.your-fearless-video-review.com/coverthypnosis/video.html  

http://bit.ly/b-ch

————Feedback ————–

As a fan of The Secret and the Law of Attraction I was always intrigued about how those spiritual things really work. I needed an explanation. Scientific facts. The Law of Attraction suggests: “ask the universe”. So, I did. To my surprise within a couple of days I stumbled upon Steven’s course online. Not only did the course lay out all the science behind the power of the Law of Attraction, it also gave me the tools to stop hoping for things and start making them happen. 

Highly recommend Steven’s course. In short… Get it! 

Ran Weiss, Entrepreneur, Israel, www.The11UncoveredLaws.com

Brandominic (writer’s name) is from Asia and is on his way to make a successful life thru Internet Marketing. Visit my website of 15 or more VIDEO REVIEWS of “Truly Working How-to” ebooks from health to wealth. Go…it will be eventful….. http://bit.ly/6ZokaG

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/entrepreneurship-articles/you-really-can-hypnotize-someone-easily–1780416.html

Making it online isn’t a quick process it takes time to learn and implement the techniques but once you do have the basics down this is a very lucrative business, making money becomes a automated stream of money what I mean is to start off with you put allot of effort in learning and implementing but once you are all set up it takes care of itself with a little fine tuning from time to time.

Choosing the right system and mentor is crucial to your success I myself found a good mentor who had an amazing team around him so this giving me the luxury of people who have tried and tested online marketing and know what exactly works and what doesn’t .

The good thing about all this is if you choose the right system and mentor it doesn’t take long to learn I was making money a month after I found the right people to help me this is after the initial set up and learning what I had to do now it is all so second nature and looking back I am glad to say the least that I stuck through the bad times until I found the money pot.

Below are some tips on getting started.

1. do you research find out as much as possible about the mentor and system you are looking at don’t be afraid to contact them by phone if they are any good at what they do they will be able to answer any questions that are bugging you.

2. Once you have found your mentor and system study it and ask questions, this is a business your business I don’t know of anyone who started up a business and didn’t have at least the basic understanding of how it all works, don’t worry if you’re not very good at studying all good systems make it easy to learn usually through easy to watch and learn online videos.

3. Implement, it’s good to learn but at some point you are going to have to have a go, doing this for the first time is the were the time-consuming bit comes in but as you complete each stage you will become an expert at that particular stage.

4.Take your time it’s not a race if it takes 3-6 months even a year before you know what you are doing then so be it don’t put yourself under pressure as you will only end up rushing things or even packing it all in don’t stick with it, it is worth it in the end.

5. Don’t get side tracked it’s easy to get distracted when learning something new as there is so much information to take in stick to the plan that your mentor is showing you and it will all turn out good in the end.

I hope this has been of some help good luck and see you on the other side.

For more information on becoming an internet marketer and on me go to.
http://www.who-is-darren-firth.weebly.com
http://success-via-the-net.com
http://success-via-the-net.blogspot.com

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/entrepreneurship-articles/how-to-get-started-in-internet-marketing-1782860.html

With the economy the way it is, some people might say you would be absolutely crazy to try and purchase a shop from a children’s franchise right now. The news has been satirized with stories of franchises getting decimated and shops closing almost as quickly as they open; but children’s franchises? Haven’t we heard that parents are cutting back to bare bones? What parent is going to spend extra money on a children’s service when they can barely pay rent?

The thing that some people tend to forget about a children’s franchise is that it doesn’t necessarily have to about spending “extra” money on an expense. No one is telling you to purchase a franchise that sells nothing but designer pacifiers- that would not be a good purchase. Instead, children’s franchises can be about stuff that parents do need, like haircuts, or affordable clothes at reasonable prices. Not all franchises are about excess and as long as you offer a good product at an affordable price. With this and some good advertising your franchise should be able to survive any economic downturn.

While parent’s will sometimes look to save money by not paying for services that they can now do themselves (think lawn mowing, pool cleaning, etc.), there are a few things where the risk is sometimes not worth the reward. A prime example of this is a child’s haircut. If parents can find an affordable place that their kids actually want to get their hair cut, they will be willing to spend the money instead of risking messing up their children’s hair. If you can find a franchise that offers a proven track record of repeat customers in the kids haircutting business then jump on it. You still have to do some intense advertising to make sure people still come, but with a proven name that parents trust and kids love this is not that bad of a risk.

Clothing might be a tougher inroad then something such as haircutting. There are two types of clothing stores: designer and discount. Unfortunately, since most big box stores sell clothing at a discount there is not a huge market for new discount clothing franchises (and if you’ve looked around lately, there aren’t many trying). Designer children clothing franchises can succeed, but aren’t really that great of a bet considering how thin of a line you have to walk to make a profit. If you are going to go the designer clothing route with a franchise make sure it’s with someone who has already established a name for themselves. Also, make sure you’re in a well off neighborhood where there might be a little extra money to burn. Another thing: designer baby clothes are a good bet, there are just too many of them. Make sure you’re the only one in an area and make sure it’s a busy location.

There is no such thing as a “sure thing” in this economy, but as long as you take some care you’ll be able to open some sort of childrens franchise with ease, and more important, keep it open.

Opening some type of childrens franchise is something author Kimberly Green has looked into and is still considering in her business plan.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/entrepreneurship-articles/how-to-open-a-childrens-franchise-in-this-economy-1782905.html

So now I preach to business owners to execute the same dispassionate approach when it comes to their privately held business. It is so much more than an arm’s length investment.  It is their life’s work, their identity, their pride and joy. The very nature of the entrepreneur means they are confident and optimistic, otherwise they would not have started the business in the first place. This attitude can really cost them in both good times and bad. When things are going well, he projects that they will get even better. When things go poorly, he reasons that this is just a short term issue and he will power through it.

Getting back to investing for a minute, I find that my best decisions are made when the market is closed and I am in planning mode.  I might put on a stop loss order for that mining stock that has run up 40% in the last 3 months or put in a sell order if it hits 50% above its previous 52 week high. I might place a buy order for a hot stock anticipating a pullback rather than buying it in a high volume upward move. I am trying to take the emotion out of my decision making by planning ahead for my trigger points.

For a business owner, it is important to recognize something is always for sale at the right price and terms. The business owner needs to recognize trigger points, both positive and negative and should establish a plan to be able to act upon them. Some positive triggers are you just had your most profitable year ever, you just got your first big order from the coveted blue chip account, or you just introduced a promising new product. The owner thinks this trend will continue indefinitely.

On the negative side, triggers might be your largest account runs into financial difficulty, the loss of a key employee, a health issue with the owner, or a competitor that has introduced an improvement on your major product. The owner believes that these are just challenges that he can manage his way around.

On the positive end, you can very effectively sell the trend to potential acquirers. Often times competitive forces act to bring the short term upward trend back closer to the norm. If the owner in his optimism waits to capture a second helping of his initial trend, he may have moved back to the norm and can no longer sell the positive trend.

If, on the other hand, an owner, especially later in his working life, tries to power through a negative trigger, the likelihood is that his business is in for a protracted downward slide. If he recognizes this in advance and has prepared for his exit, he may be able to sell the company before too much financial damage has occurred. A strong buyer can stop the slide if they get involved early enough. Just like you can sell the trend on the upside, the market will impose the negative trend on your company’s selling price with a downward trend.

The Basics of Exit Preparation

1. Recognition of potential financial impact

Your business is likely your family’s largest asset. In many cases it represents over 80% of your family’s net worth.

Your business is illiquid and the price is subject to broad interpretation by the market.

Your business can not be sold quickly. An orderly business sale usually takes between 6 and 12 months.

If you have a debilitating health issue and are not able to work or you die, your business value could drop 20, 30, 40% or more over a very short period of time.

Buyers will be predatory if you are selling from a position of weakness

2. Have your business in move in condition at all times

Have a well-documented procedure manual

Make sure that there is management in place (beside the owner) that has decision making ability and authority

Create a growth plan – a 5 to 10 page document identifying the potential you have created in your business and where you would invest to grow if you had greater resources

Have your books reviewed by an outside CPA

Ensure your data processing systems are updated and reflect best practices in your industry

Institutionalize your customers – they are owned by the company, not by the salesman

Institutionalize your vendors

Move whatever time and materials business and handshake business to contracts if possible

Provide price incentives to move short term contracts to longer term contracts

Once you have acknowledged the importance of your exit strategy and put these disciplines in place, you can be prepared for the triggers that either you create or that have been created in the marketplace. An important point to recognize is that your business sale date will not necessarily be your retirement date. More often than not the new owner will want your continued involvement for some time after the sale.

So let’s say that there is a positive trigger like a big consolidation in your industry at very attractive multiples. You could sell now and stay on for one year or perhaps several more in a different or reduced role.  You could wind down from the rigors or day-to-day management and take on the role of CEO – Chief Evangelical Officer.

Dave Kauppi is a Merger Acquisition Advisor with MidMarket Capital, serving mid-market business sellers. We maximize your business selling price with our buyer database, Strategic Buyer Search, and our Soft Auction Process. Visit us at http://www.midmarkcap.com/ Subscribe to our free Exit Strategist newsletter http://www.midmarkcap.com/exit (630)325-0123 davekauppi@midmarkcap.com

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/entrepreneurship-articles/selling-your-business-treat-it-like-an-investment-1783458.html

You may be interested in becoming an entrepreneur because you lost your job, or because you have a great idea, or because you cannot find a job you are interested in.

Regardless of the reason, however, you will find there is more information available today concerning starting a business than the average human being can consume in a lifetime. Standard advice includes:

* Prepare a solid business plan
* Have cash for at least six months
* Work with a good accountant and attorney
* Understand your market
* Know your competition
* Have a marketable product or service

This is good advice indeed. But in our experience, business startup success or failure involves more than adhering to these maxims. Here are the things you need to pay attention to in order to avoid sabotaging your business success.

10 Mistakes That Will Hurt Your Chances of Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur

Entrepreneur Mistake #1: Letting fear immobilize you. We believe the number 1 issue that affects the success of a new business is fear of failure, fear of success, fear of criticism, fear of feeling unappreciated and fear of thinking no one will like your product, your service or you. Understand that fear can immobilize you. Learn to recognize it and deal with it.

Entrepreneur Mistake #2: Failure to develop real relationships. Nothing happens until a relationship is formed. No meeting, no sales opportunity, no business. Take the time to build a relationship, and then you are ready to sell.

Entrepreneur Mistake #3: Failure to respond quickly. The quicker you respond, the more responsive you appear. E-mails not returned in days, voice messages ignored, and proposals or sales agreements delayed show that you don’t care about your prospect’s business. Forget the absurd advice that a quick response makes you look eager or desperate for the business. It makes you look – responsive.

Entrepreneur Mistake #4: Becoming a pusher. Nobody likes a pusher. So when your buyer says “yes” – stop selling. And don’t up-sell, which is getting the buyer to buy more than they need. It’s great for short-term profits and terrible for a long-term relationship.

Entrepreneur Mistake #5: Quitting at no. Nobody likes rejection, but sometimes we see it when it’s not there. No is often an initial response to someone the buyer doesn’t know, not a conclusion. Or, it can come from a gatekeeper whose job it is to say no.

Entrepreneur Mistake #6: Getting stuck in perfection. There is no such thing as the perfect proposal, the perfect letter and the perfect response. Good is often good enough unless you are dealing with life and death situations, which most of us are not. The extra 20 percent you put into your product, service, response is neither recognized nor appreciated by the recipient. But the fact that it took you too long to respond is recognized and not in a good way.

Entrepreneur Mistake #7: Wearing your personal beliefs on your sleeve. No one cares about your opinions when you are in a sales situation. Your political, social, sports beliefs should stay with you.

Entrepreneur Mistake #8: Lack of focus. When you are not focused on your employees, clients and prospects it looks like you are not interested or that you are overwhelmed. When there is a lack of focus in your organization, it looks like a version of the fad of the month which quickly blows morale as staff struggles to juggle changing priorities and new initiatives.

Entrepreneur Mistake #9: No executive presence. Executive presence is not about just looking the part. Executive presence is about being the part. It’s about managing your image thoughtfully and not artificially. Like it or not, tired, overweight, out of shape and sloppy people who aren’t aware of current events and haven’t read a book since high school or college present a very different image than people who take care of themselves and are intellectually curious.

Entrepreneur Mistake #10: Not showing gratitude. Becoming a success in your business never happens by yourself. Along the way there are people who share their advice, help you through the tough times, perhaps give you an introduction. Don’t forget them when you become successful. Gratitude has a return.

These are very difficult economic times. Starting a new business can be exhilarating and very rewarding – personally and professionally. Yes you need a solid business plan, financing and a marketable product or service with a strong and compelling value proposition. But you need more. And, you need to start eliminating sabotaging behaviors that will kill your transition from executive to entrepreneur right now.

Management Consultants and Business Performance Improvement Specialists Tony Kubica and Sara Laforest have 50+ years of combined experience in helping budding entrepreneurs accelerate their business growth in record times. Now, they unveil the common, subtle and self-destructive actions that will hurt your business performance. Get their free special report: “Self-Sabotage in Business” now: http://www.kubicalaforestconsulting.com/resources.php

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/entrepreneurship-articles/becoming-an-entrepreneur-10-mistakes-that-will-kill-your-transition-from-executive-to-entrepreneur-1783474.html

In that process, I have established a few good friendships with accountants that have evolved into social relationships. In spite of these efforts, I have gotten very few referrals, even from the accountants that I would consider close personal friends.
One of the reasons is that many accounting firms are establishing their own merger and acquisition departments. I remember having a discussion with the head of one of those captive M and A firms and she expressed her frustration over the lack of client referrals from the accountants in her own firm. She said that only a handful of the more than 300 accountants in her firm had ever referred an internal client to her investment banking group.

Recently a national accounting firm with offices in 30 major cities and a headquarters in the Chicago area announced the closing of their capital markets group – their merger and acquisitions department. I find that remarkable given the current demographic profile of business owners. Baby Boomers are the owners of almost 50% of all privately held businesses in America.
Baby Boomers are starting to retire in large numbers. According to a BSI Global Research Study, 42% of all CEO’s plan on retiring within five years. The translation of this phenomenon to business owners is that a growing number of businesses are changing hands.

According to a Gallup Poll and a VIP Forum study, up to $8.3 trillion in wealth will transfer over the next ten years due to ownership changes in privately held businesses. These businesses are either being sold, passed on to the next generation, acquired in a management buyout or ESOP, or simply shut down.
So back to our accountants. This national accounting firm could not economically justify a merger and acquisition group of 8 people in this environment of exploding opportunity. Yes, I know we have a rough patch, but this will pass and the volume of activity will be steadily increasing for the next decade.

What really happened in this accounting firm? The same thing that is happening in the entire profession. Your accountant does not want you to sell your business. Your accountant has an annuity with your business – your quarterly and annual tax filings, your audit, and an occasional special consulting project that you probably initiated. Guess what. If you sell your business, your accountant loses his annuity. He will have to replace you with a new account. Accountants hate to prospect for new accounts. He does not want you to sell your business.

This position of denial by your accountant may interfere with the planning necessary to get you the best results when you exit your business. Are you planning to transfer ownership to your heirs? Have you formed multiple minority owned LLC’s to reduce your gift and estate liability? Are you planning to sell out to your employees? Most of the time this is a bad idea for the owner’s net worth.

Do you know the real value of your business? Do you know what to do when a competitor approaches you with an unsolicited offer to buy your business? How will a buyer view your business? Are there some minor changes you could make that would dramatically increase the value of your business? What are the tax consequences of an asset sale versus a stock sale?

The two or three years prior to selling your business are critical to your family’s financial future. Normally a business owner sells only one business in his or her lifetime. The process is very complex with many variables. Good planning and good merger and acquisition process can result in swings of hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in your after tax proceeds.

Dave Kauppi is a Merger Acquisition Advisor with MidMarket Capital, serving mid-market business sellers. We maximize your business selling price with our buyer database, Strategic Buyer Search, and our Soft Auction Process. Visit us at http://www.midmarkcap.com/ Subscribe to our free Exit Strategist newsletter http://www.midmarkcap.com/exit (630)325-0123 davekauppi@midmarkcap.com

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/entrepreneurship-articles/your-accountant-does-not-want-you-to-sell-your-business-1783659.html

For the larger business owners that are interviewing M&A firms, this “qualified buyers” claim deserves a careful investigation. These M&A firms have lists of hundreds of private equity firms with their buying criteria, business size requirements, minimum revenue and EBITDA levels and industry preferences. All M&A firms have pretty much the same list. There are subscription databases available to anyone. The better M&A firms have refined these lists and entered them into a good contact management system so they are more easily searchable.

The approach these M&A firms with these Private Equity lists employ is to blast an email profile to their list and if they get an immediate and robust response, they will focus on the deal and work the deal. What happens to the 90% of sale transactions that clearly do not fit either the minimum EBITDA and revenue requirements or the conservative valuations of this group of buyers?

Those deals requiring contact with strategic industry buyers usually go into dormant status. They will not be actively worked, but will occasionally be presented in another email campaign, mail campaign or at a private equity deal mart (industry meeting where many M&A firms present their clients to several PEG’s).

For the business owner that has paid a substantial up front engagement fee or healthy monthly fees, this is not what you had in mind. The way to get a business sold is to reach the strategic industry buyers. That is not easy. Presidents of companies (the buyer decision maker) do not open mail from an unknown party. So, mailings do not work. Let me repeat that. In a merger and acquisition transaction, mailings do not work.

Presidents of companies do everything possible to keep their email addresses confidential, so email blasts on a broad scale are not possible. Telemarketers are not skilled enough to pass through the voice mail and assistant screening gauntlet. If you have ever tried to present an acquisition opportunity to IBM, Microsoft, Google, Hewlett-Packard or Apple, let’s just say it would be easier to get into a castle with a moat full of alligators.

The investment bankers from Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs can generally get an audience with any major CEO. However, the fees they charge limit their clientele to businesses with north of $1 billion in revenues. So how do $15 million in revenue businesses get sold? You need to locate a boutique M&A firm that will provide a Wall Street style, active selling process at a size appropriate fee structure.

What does this mean? The approach that consistently produces a high percentage of completed transactions is the most labor intensive and costs the most to deliver. It is an old fashioned, IBM, dialing for dollars effort, starting at the presidential level of the targeted strategic buyers. It usually takes ten phone dials and a great deal of finesse to penetrate the gauntlet and get a forty five second credibility opportunity with the right contact.

If you are able to pass that test and establish their interest, you ask them for their email address so you can send them the blind profile (two page business summary without the company identity) and confidentiality agreement. This is a qualifying test. The president will not give you their email address unless they are serious about the company you have described for sale. If the president is not the appropriate contact, his assistant will generally direct you to the correct party. When that happens, we update our contact management database with this information so on the next M&A engagement we go directly to the proper contact.

Our first engagement in an industry requires a great deal of this discovery process. With each subsequent engagement in an industry, we become increasingly efficient and improve our credibility and brand awareness. There is generally an advantage to engaging an M&A firm that has experience in your industry. After several transactions in a niche, we become that more efficient and effective. Our list truly becomes a list of “qualified buyers.”

For example, by our fourth engagement in healthcare information technology, we know the specialty of the top 300 players, we know the lead on M&A deals, we know his direct dial number, email address, and most importantly he knows us.

So, on engagement four in XYZ industry, we put together the blind profile and confidentiality agreement. We get our seller client to approve our list of targeted buyer prospects. We generate our daily hot list of the 20 contacts we will call. We either talk with them directly of leave a voice mail asking them to watch their email for our acquisition opportunity. Our open rates and response rates go up by a factor of 10 X with this labor intensive approach.

Having credibility and brand awareness in an industry helps because we ask them in the email to reply back if they are not interested. We can then update their status on this deal and not continue to try to contact them.

When they are interested, they sign and return the confidentiality agreement. We then email them the Confidential Acquisition Memorandum (the Book). We enter a hot list follow-up in 5 business days. If they remain interested, they will generally have a list of questions they send us. We work with our clients to provide a written response and update the memorandum with a fluid FAQ section that is constantly updated with each interested buyer. This saves us and our clients a great deal of time answering questions only one time.

We have incorporated our FAQ list into our marketing process very effectively. Any time we provide a written response to a buyer, we update the book and we update a stand-alone FAQ document. This FAQ document contains all the questions in date order from all of the buyers. Every time we update the list with new questions, we send it out to every buyer that has previously executed the confidentiality agreement.

Here is our not so subtle message to the buyers, “You are not the only buyer involved in this process.” The impact is amazing. The buyers behave much better and they move the process forward at a better pace than they normally would.

Once a buyer’s questions are answered, we usually arrange a conference call and Web Demo if appropriate. If the buyer remains interested, we then arrange a buyer visit. This is prepared with the seller as we coach him on what questions to expect and what message he needs to convey.

We also carefully orchestrate the rules and regulations of the visit with both buyer and seller including the visit premise so the employees do not get worried or suspicious. It could be a new banking relationship, an insurance company, or a strategic alliance.

If the buyer remains interested, they may ask for some much more detailed information. At a certain point we have to draw the line on information flow and push for a qualified letter of intent, LOI. In general a LOI says that if we carefully examine your books and records in a due diligence process and confirm everything you have told us so far and discover no materially adverse items, we will pay you $xx for your company with these deal terms and this transaction structure.

In return for that, the buyer will usually require a quiet period. That means that for the due diligence period – usually 30 to 60 days, the M&A advisors are precluded from shopping the deal any further to other potential buyers. This is also called a standstill. If the due diligence is completed without major incident, the buyer’s team starts preparing the definitive purchase agreement.

Buyers will often try to misbehave during this process and attack the transaction value with each little nit they uncover. Because we have provided ample reminders to the buyer that there are other interested and qualified buyers involved (remember the FAQ’s), we generally are able to discourage this costly behavior.

Once the due diligence is completed, the buyer’s team starts preparing the definitive purchase agreement. This is quite detailed and restates the deal terms and conditions and surrounds that with pages of reps and warranties. The business people refine and negotiate the business points while the respective legal teams negotiate the legal points. If there is an impasse, the top business person on each side generally attempts to balance the risk reward legal issue with sound business judgment.

We are almost there. A closing date is set and the parties usually convene in the conference room of the buyer’s or seller’s outside counsel. The stacks of contracts are reviewed one final time by counsel and the signors walk around the table, adding their signatures. The banker is called and the order is given, “wire the funds.”  Mission accomplished.

As a business seller, you must recognize that a business sale is a very difficult process. The closing ratios for many of the bigger middle market firms is well below 50%. Our feeling is that the more passive mailing campaign, Private Equity email blast, approach is simply a model that no longer works in this busy, information overload world of the large company CEO.

Think about Oracle trying to sell a $500,000 software project to Fortune 500 companies with a mailing. What about IBM selling a large company on a 10-year $150 million data center outsourcing project with an email blast?

This sounds pretty silly when you think of it. Of course they do not do that. They have highly trained, highly compensated, and highly skilled salesmen that call at the highest levels of corporate America and present the strategic case for their complex and expensive offering. These companies are the best at what they do and understand what it takes to maximize their performance. With a business sale, you have the same type of highly complex, strategic, and expensive proposition. What makes you think that your business sale will be accomplished by any other process than a direct sales approach by highly trained M&A professionals calling on the presidents of the buying companies?

Dave Kauppi is a Merger Acquisition Advisor with MidMarket Capital, serving mid-market business sellers. We maximize your business selling price with our buyer database, Strategic Buyer Search, and our Soft Auction Process. Visit us at http://www.midmarkcap.com/ Subscribe to our free Exit Strategist newsletter http://www.midmarkcap.com/exit (630)325-0123 davekauppi@midmarkcap.com

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/entrepreneurship-articles/selling-a-business-new-rules-for-merger-and-acquisition-success-1783769.html

The letter began: “Our buyer group has requested that our firm assist them in locating a company within your industry that would be willing to sell their business. The limited information we have regarding your firm indicates that your business may meet the buyer’s requirements. We would like to speak with you further about the opportunity to sell your business.”

Our new client asked us what we thought about this letter given that her company was very unique and she did not believe that this company really understood what her business did.  As I read the letter, my suspicions were confirmed. This unfortunate practice of soliciting business owners through mass mailing representing supposed buyers gives our profession a real black eye. I don’t know where this practice started, but many in the business broker profession have unfortunately been taught that this is a valid way to prospect for sell side engagements.

Here is how it works. If the business owner responds to the solicitation, the business broker schedules an appointment to meet with the business owner. When the broker shows up, one or two things happen. If he says he is representing an industry buyer, somehow the potential selling company just is not a fit. It is either too small, not growing fast enough, in a slightly different niche, doesn’t have big enough gross profit margin, etc., etc.

Another approach is to say that he is representing a Private Equity Buyer. Let me tell you, everyone in our profession could claim that. Our firm gets 5 solicitations per week from Private Equity Buyers. The typical email reads:  ……………..should you have any clients or prospects who fit this criteria and our investment parameters below, we certainly would be interested in discussing them with you:

–    New investments: $20+ million in revenue, $3+ million in EBITDA
–    Add-on acquisitions: $3+ million in revenue
–    Investment size: $8 – $50 million
–    Geography: U.S. and Canada
–    Industry generalist

With that broad criteria and the industry agnostic approach, thousands of businesses could qualify. There are a couple of problems here. First, Private Equity Firms almost never engage an M&A firm on a retainer and success fee basis. In other words, if the M&A firm will go out and find prospects on their own dime and bring those prospects to the PEG, and a deal is closed, then the PEG will pay the M&A firm a success fee. It is entirely a contingency based model. So for an M&A firm or business broker to call one of these PEGs a buyer client is a bit of a stretch. Also, PEG’s are strictly financial buyers, so if you want more for your company than 5 X EBITDA you are not going to get it from these buyers.

Let’s get back to our client’s letter. As I read further, it continued, “The Acme Business Group has over 80 years of combined experience in business brokerage and is an affiliate of America’s largest network of business brokers. As a result, we can give your business confidential exposure to these qualified buyers locally and nationwide. We can help prepare your business for sale with the proper documentation and an effective presentation that will position your company most advantageously to receive the highest offer from one of our potential buyers. We are here to assist through the entire selling process from preparation to negotiation to closing documentation.”

Gee, it sounds like their original “qualified buyer” has fallen through before the end of the letter and they now want to represent you to all of the other buyers out there that are right at their fingertips or at the fingertips of their large, nationwide affiliate network. Get real!

As a business owner, you probably get one or two of these letters per month. Hopefully you will see through them and put them in their proper place, the waste basket. Unfortunately for the Merger and Acquisition advisors that really do have a retainer fee based legitimate buy side engagement, we have an extra hurdle to clear in order to do our job. The approach that our firm uses to overcome a very skeptical business owner community is to provide a very specific description of the target company in our buy side engagement agreement.

For example, our agreement might read, ” The purpose of this agreement is to set forth the terms and conditions under which MidMarket Capital, Inc. (”MMC”) agrees to advise Acme Machine Tool and/or its owners, shareholders and affiliates (collectively, “Clients”) as consultant, and the sole and exclusive finder, in an effort to locate acquisition targets, described as machine tool manufacturers for the medical device industry with revenues between $20 million and $100 million, and effect the purchase or merger of the identified acquisition target’s business.”

If we get interest, but a healthy dose of skepticism from the target company owner we are contacting, we often send him our buy side engagement agreement with the identity and specific contractual terms blacked out. We leave enough of the signature visible so that they can see that it is a real contract, but cannot determine the identity of the client. This generally works to at least begin a dialogue and move to the next step.

Selling a business is not easy and your choice of the firm that you use to represent you can be the difference between a successful outcome and a big waste of time surrounded by a lot of frustration. My hope is that a lot of business owners read this article and reject this unfortunate business process.  As I tell our associates, “What a client sees before the sale is what they can expect after the sale.”  The sale here is selling the business owner on engaging the Merger and Acquisition Advisory firm.  Do you really think a firm that approaches clients with this lack of integrity deserves to get your business?

Dave Kauppi is a Merger Acquisition Advisor with MidMarket Capital, serving mid-market business sellers. We maximize your business selling price with our buyer database, Strategic Buyer Search, and our Soft Auction Process. Visit us at http://www.midmarkcap.com/ Subscribe to our free Exit Strategist newsletter http://www.midmarkcap.com/exit (630)325-0123 davekauppi@midmarkcap.com

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/entrepreneurship-articles/business-owners-beware-of-the-we-have-qualified-buyers-pitch-1783805.html

A few weeks ago I woke up not feeling well.  I could not ignore an annoying pain in the left side of my back.  I prepared for and began my day hoping it would quickly pass (no pun intended…you’ll get it a little later).  When I sat down in my second meeting at 9:30am I found I could no longer concentrate on anything except the pain.  I excused myself only to find it difficult to make it to my vehicle.  I began the most painful 30-minute drive of my life, which ended at the emergency room, knowing that something was seriously wrong and I needed help.

After a diagnosis of kidney stones and another 48 hours of pain my situation resolved itself…hopefully permanently.  Yet something troubled me throughout this experience.  You see, everyone who helped me focused on reducing my pain, not on removing the cause of the pain (the stones).  My situation only allowed for such treatment, but it sure was a helpless feeling knowing that nothing could be done to solve the real problem.

Then I realized this is why entrepreneurs like pain.  Pain is a signal that something is wrong, that something needs to be fixed, improved, tweaked, or otherwise reconfigured to solve a problem and remove the pain.  I want to be clear – entrepreneurs do not just solve or mask pain, they solve real problems in a sustainable and usually a commercialized way.

When I arrived at the hospital, I would have done anything or paid almost any amount of money to have someone solve my problem, my pain was so significant.  You see, my perception of value was directly correlated to my level of pain.  This is no different than the customers of any business – their level of pain has a lot to do with how much they are willing to pay and how quickly they are willing to make a decision to pay for the solution to their problem causing the pain.  No pain results in very few customers.  Lots of people with pain results in lots of customers so long as the cost of your solution exceeds the pain of not resolving the problem.  Marketing and sales needs to be about identifying customer pain points and helping customers understand how you will remove their pain.  Operations needs to be about actually solving customers’ problems. 

My pain was obvious and dominant in contrast to the pain that many entrepreneurs remove by solving a real problem.  Often customers don’t realize they feel pain and have real problems that need to be fixed.  Consider the progression of the mobile phone.  We certainly survived without cell phones, but their development has increasingly solved problems for more and more mobile users.  Many felt the pain of not having access to email and the Internet on their mobile device, and the smart phone solved that problem.  Then the I-phone revolutionized the way we think about mobile technology.  The integration of over a hundred thousand (and growing) applications that each solve a specific problem has created a very sustainable and scalable business model ripe with opportunity.  Solving problems that remove pain is the name of the game.

The conclusion is this – entrepreneurs love pain.  Well, at least the kind of pain that has a solvable root problem.  Entrepreneurs also like to help customers understand their pain and how to remove it.  Do you understand the pain that your customers experience?  Are you solving their problems in a way that removes their pain?  Perhaps most importantly, are you solving their problems better than your competitors?  The entire value proposition of your firm hinges on these points.  The better you fulfill this, the more cash flow your business will have the opportunity to create.

Written By: Ken Kaufman Founder of CFO wise, a Part Time CFO Firm offering CFO Services

For more than a decade Ken has built a reputation as a leader who is respected for his integrity, work ethic, and commitment to lifting people and companies to new levels of achievement. Ken has served in several leadership roles, including CFO, COO, VP of Administration, and VP of Sales, in start-ups, mid-stage companies, and large multi-national corporations. His experiences cover a variety of industries, including construction, real estate, financial services, business services, medical/dental, manufacturing, telecommunications, distribution, retail, internet services & SaaS, market research, and outsourcing.

In two of his executive roles, Ken helped a start-up grow to over $100 million in annual sales in just four years and he helped a medium-sized company almost triple its operations, quintuple net income, and sixtuple cash flow in just three years. Ken has served as a court-appointed receiver and has negotiated “workout” proceedings for several insolvent entities. He was recognized as the top producing manager in a Fortune 500 firm. He has developed and presented numerous business plans and financial models/forecasts that have successfully obtained the debt and/or equity financing required for growth.

Ken founded CFOwise in 2006 and currently serves as its CEO.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/entrepreneurship-articles/why-entrepreneurs-love-pain-1783835.html

Step 1: Establish a physical address (not a P.O. box or a mailbox store) with a landline telephone. Both should be registered to the business name.

Step 2: Make sure that you are registered with your local secretary of state. Most creditors will run your company through a database that automatically verifies your filings in your state.

Step 3: Get an EIN # (apply online Free at IRS.gov). This will seperate your business credit file from your personal and vise versa…Keep them seperated!

Step 4: Get a business checking account with debit card. You will need to take your EIN, business license and ID to the bank and it should be a fairly simple process. Always pay for your order with this debit card and soon your bank will be offering you credit!

Step 5: Head over to dnb.com and get yourself a DUNNS #. It is completely free. Dnb will try and get you to sign up for their credit builder program, etc. If you want to build your credit file very quickly than pay the $500+ for their services. If you don’t want these services but want a credit file set up make sure to tell the CSA just that. If you don’t express that you are NOT interested in their services they will hold off for weeks, even months on processing your application. They want you to pay for their services, in my opinion it’s not worth the money.

Step 6: Start building a good reputation by opening accounts with some Net30 vendors. Some good ones to start with are Quill, NEBS, Unline, Grainger, Gemplers, Staples Industrial, and reliable. Get as many trade lines as possible.

-Note:  Be mindful of when you make your Net30 payments. Speak with the credit dept. and ask what day of the month they report to Dunn & Bradstreet. If the vendor reports to dnb on the 10th of every month. Make sure to place your initial order around the 5th-6th and then pay around the 15th. Why? Well because if you order on the 5th of the month and pay before then 10th than the vendor won’t report that account to dnb. That is how you get the account to show on your credit file.

step 7: Place subsequent orders with your Net30 vendors. This will increase your credit limits exponentially and will increase your chances of getting a real unsecured line without a personal guarantee.

step 8: Start applying for the “easy” to get credit accounts. Staples generally gives a $750 initial card to anyone who applies. Keybank and sears commercial also have a reputation for being easy to obtain credit from. Don’t bother applying for anything from GE credit without at least 2-3 years of very stable credit history. They use equifax instead of dnb. Home depot and gas cards are also fairly easy to get. If you have enough Trade lines and you have a good paydex score you will NOT need a personal guarantee.

-Note: Don’t apply for too many accounts at the same time. Spread them out and do your research before ever applying. This can cause for your file to be flagged and it’s close to impossible to fix. If you apply online and get an error code and a message to call in. DO IT!! Most of the time it is just to verify your information and get permission to process the app. I have applied for a $500 credit line and called to verify info (assumed I had been declined) and was granted a 5K limit!!

Now you have an established commercial credit file. Do NOT pay for services promising to give you trade lines or report positively to dnb on your behalf unless you have physically purchased something. Dnb does pick up on these trends and if they feel you are building a credit file out of illigitimate purchases they will completely delete your file and you will have to start all over! This will cause your current creditors to close your accounts. Building a stable credit profile does take a lot of time and effort but doing it the legit way is very important. Good luck on your journey of building business credit. Remember that business credit in no way replaces personal credit and its beneficial for you to have an excellent personal credit file too.

Erin Pondo – Small business consultant and entrepreneur.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/entrepreneurship-articles/steps-to-establish-a-solid-business-credit-profile-1767949.html