What is A Circle of Competence? Famed investors Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger long ago popularized the mental model of staying within one’s circle of competence as an investment strategy. Staying within one’s circle of competence refers to investing only within areas where one has earned knowledge, skills, and expertise while avoiding investing in areas … Read more
Staff Retention Critical After Closing A key component of a company’s intangible assets or goodwill is its employment relationships with its employees and independent contractors. For many businesses – especially in service-related industries – having a trained group of staff members is essential to acquiring customers, keeping customers, and ultimately generating profits. When it comes … Read more
Red Flags A Warning Sign Potential buyers of businesses often look for red flags, or warning signs concerning the characteristics of a given business for sale. While virtually every business has negative traits, a red flag indicates a significant and unusual risk that a business may not perform up to the buyer’s expectations after the … Read more
Credibility Key When Selling Businesses In order to establish credibility when selling a business, the business owner – and by extension their business broker – must be trusted and believed by the buyer. By becoming a believable and credible source of information, it is also possible for a business broker to convince a buyer that … Read more
Debt Assumption in Business Sales Corporate debt is borrowed money on a long term basis that is used to serve a financial need that can not otherwise be met. This differs from a company’s accounts payable (A/P) which represents short term liabilities owed by a company for products or services purchased on credit. Long term … Read more
Heuristics May Lead to Cognitive Bias For decades, economists assumed that when making decisions people always act rationally – or within a logical and predictable decision making framework that maximizes their own economic self interests. This assumption changed beginning in the 1970s when psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky reshaped our understanding of human nature … Read more
Redevelopment Clauses Impair Leasehold Rights A valuable asset of many businesses – particularly in retail-related industries – is its leasehold right or the right of a commercial tenant to temporarily occupy leased premises. A business with a secure long term lease allows a buyer enough time in which it may obtain an attractive return on … Read more
“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.” – Albert Einstein Ask Seller Prepared Questions When purchasing … Read more
What Is A Purchase Agreement? A purchase agreement in the context of business sales is the governing contract between the buyer and seller as it relates to the buyer’s purchase of the seller’s business. The deal terms, contingencies, included assets being sold, closing date, and the disposition of the deposit are all covered in the … Read more
What is Return on Equity? Return on Equity (ROE) is a financial performance metric that measures a company’s return on its net assets. The formula for calculating the ROE of a business is the net income of a business divided by its net assets (or shareholder equity). A high ROE for a business as measured … Read more