The hot topics today were:
Why?
Well, as the economic picture improves the news is full of commentary about hyperinflation, supply chain troubles, government money printing, and people saving their own money at a high rate because of all the free government money, etc.
For the small business owner the fear of inflation and tax increases in this kind of scenario is a big deal.
In the end, the cost of money (i.e. interest rate) is so low that investment decisions likely will not be strongly affected. Some acceleration of capital spending will occur.
And there will be a boost in consumer spending as the pent up demand for certain products and commodities picks up.
So, not surprising – either on the concern or on the reaction to the concern.
It’s the typical small business thing – we worry about inflation and taxes and government policy. But then we thread the needle and navigate our way...
Estate Planning was the key topic today – the kind of topic that eventually comes up in a family business.
My comments will respect and guard the privacy of the client – but I will reflect on the kind of topics that must be discussed in a family business where an eventual transition from founder to successor will occur.
Today the main topic of this work session is about building sales capacity:
With a couple of minor deviations to:
This business has very low turnover and that is interesting. Why, I asked?
Well, it seems that the answer is rather complicated.
Today the main topics of the working session included:
This is particularly important in the small business sector – for reasons that differ from corporate acquisitions.
In business the whole point is to develop your idea into something that customers want and then buy!
What if your idea doesn’t work? What if the way your idea was to work is blocked?
Do you know when to pivot? How long do you keep pushing an idea? When is the right time to give up? And, if you give up, what do you really mean by that? Does giving up mean walking off the playing field? Does it mean putting the idea away forever? Or does it mean you figure out a way to do your own thing?
The client made a huge decision to move on from the idea of becoming the national distributor of someone else’s product. He decided to do step #1 of a plan to manufacture and distribute his own line of blades!
I love this idea and here’s why!
After weeks and weeks of getting nowhere with the European manufacturer who seems unwilling to get rid of an underperforming national distributor, who himself says he wants to exit the...
Today’s work session was very short because of a client-scheduling situation and we only worked for a few minutes.
We covered two points, each of which contained a valuable lesson for the business owner:
There is a little known legal point of which you should be aware. When you buy a business situated in a building (and you are buying the building and the business), the vendor will certainly not want you to close on one and not the other. The attorneys papering the deal will always link the commercial offer to the property offer so that one must proceed with the other, and never independently. You don’t want to end up buying the business and not the building or buying the building and not the business – unless of course that is your deliberate intention. But of course we are not talking about that. We are talking about buying an operating business with a building full of equipment and a staff that must work there. That point...
Thank you for joining me today. Read more about me here. Today’s work session focused on several topics:
The owner’s brother is getting quite accomplished on social media. The website has been up and running for a while and the number of followers is increasing. Now the conversation is focused on driving more and more traffic to the website. The use of Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter is essential to this strategy. The effort is time consuming but the net effect is to draw “eyeballs” to the website. The conversation may seem esoteric at times for its choice of technical terms like: SEO (Search Engine Optimization), organic keywords, internal links, key word search, and so on. This is all good and there really is no going back from social media.
Today we entered a serious strategic discussion – with questions focusing on competitors. In the search for incremental customers (that is, larger blocks or...
IS IT TIME FOR A LOOK UNDER THE HOOD?
A NOTE FROM THE CATHOLIC CEO in “late pandemic times”……………..
Business lessons are sometimes learned easily. Sometimes we learn the hard way! There are business rules of thumb.
Let our team know what you think about these lessons or lessons you’ve learned. Send your comments to [email protected]. Contact me to discuss how we can help you build these into your regular daily work. There is a Catholic approach to each one!
An old friend from Florida used to tell me (in his unique southern accent)… “Cash ain't cash unless it’s cash!” Set up a weekly dashboard that signals your cash on hand every Friday night.
Work into your financial statements a regular way of measuring your company’s valuation. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, sometimes called earnings or pre-tax revenues, multiplied by 3 to 5 is a useful multiplier and indicator of value – as are comparable sales, net present value of the...
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