Find out how The Exit Strategy Handbook along with its companion Dashboard software can put you ahead of the game in selling your business -- so you can start the next chapter of your life.
Find out how The Exit Strategy Handbook along with its companion Dashboard software can put you ahead of the game in selling your business -- so you can start the next chapter of your life.
Public Notice
January 21, 2013
B2B CFO, LLC owns certain trademarks granted to it by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the services identified in the respective trademark registrations. B2B CFO, LLC has exclusively licensed this intellectual property to B2B CFO Partners, LLC dba B2B CFO®. No other individual or company may use the following trademarks in any manner, including on websites, brochures or promotional materials. Any use of these trademarks other than by B2B CFO® for the category of services protected and identified in the trademark registrations likely to cause confusion, mistake or deception of consumers and the public as to the source or origin of the services sold under the mark, constitutes infringement under Section 1114 of the United States Code, Title 15 (15 U.S.C. § 1114). Any person who uses a word, term, name, symbol, device or any other false designation of origin, false or misleading description of fact, or false or misleading representation of fact which in commercial advertising or promotion, misrepresents the nature, characteristics, qualities or geographic origin of goods or services shall be liable for damages in a civil action under §43(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. §1125(a) ("Lanham Act"). Further, use of a trademark with an intent to deceive consumers is prohibited by state and federal consumer fraud statutes. Only B2B CFO® is authorized to use the following trademarks:
Part-Time CFO (Reg. No. 4,152,663), Interim CFO (Reg. No. 4,266,462), Every company, regardless of its size, needs a Chief Financial Officer (Reg. No. 3,824,944), B2B CFO (Reg. No. 2,576,655), Business-to-Business CFO (Reg. No. 2,526,102), First Direction, Then Velocity (Reg. No. 4,216,280), Cash. We Help You Get It. (Reg. No. 3,824,955), Finding The Exit (Reg. No. 3,883,069) and Entrepreneurial CFO (Reg. No. 4,159,937)
Questions can be directed to our law firm: Yvonne Tagart, Ronan & Tagart, PLC, Scottsdale, AZ, (480) 305-5150
Book Details
Hardback: 194 pages
Publisher: B2B CFO, LLC; 1st edition (June 1, 2006)
Language: English
Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x .7 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.88 ounces
Table of Contents
A Letter to business owners
Chapter 1 The Unofficial Organization of Your Company
Chapter 2 Entrepreneurs are Finders
Chapter 3 Finders Live in the Future
Chapter 4 Minders Live in the Past
Chapter 5 Grinders - Today is All that Matters
Chapter 6 Tempting a Good Person
Chapter 7 Who Is Watching the Controller or IT Manager?
Chapter 8 Infrastructure Creation
Chapter 9 Infrastructure Peak
Chapter 10 Outgrowth of Infrastructure
Chapter 11 The Danger Zone
Chapter 12 Escaping the Danger Zone
Chapter 13 Moore's Law and the Finder
Chapter 14 Bankers - Friends or Foes?
Chapter 15 Current and Future Different Customers
Chapter 16 The Black Clouds that Haunt
Chapter 17 Triangular Relationships
Chapter 18 An Exit Strategy
Chapter 19 B2B truisms: A Summary
Chapter 20 My Favorite Quote for Finders
The Danger Zone
Lost in the Growth Transition
Dear Business Owner:
This is an open letter to the risk-takers of our society - the owners of closely held growth companies. You are the reason our economic society works. You employ the largest number of salaried employees in our country.
You feel the truthfulness of the adage, "It is lonely at the top." You sometimes wonder if anyone will ever understand you, your goals, your business wishes and ambitions. You also have frustrations that cause you to worry about your business. Some of these worries are with you 24/7, 365.
Many of your peers have expressed sentiments to me such as, "I do not understand why I had more cash when my company was much smaller than it is today;", "I do not understand why bankers will not give me the money I need;", "I used to love my business when I first started, but now I feel trapped;", "I don't have time to leave the office to spend time with customers or my family;" and so forth.
Expressions similar to the above are symptoms of a larger problem, a phenomenon I call The Danger Zone. The purpose of this book is to help you understand this phenomenon and to give you some suggestions to avoid or get out of this situation.
The goal of this book will have been accomplished if it helps one business owner avoid or escape from The Danger Zone. Hopefully, it will help many.
Jerry L. Mills
Read the first Chapter
Enter in your email address and the first chapter of
The Danger Zone will be emailed to you.
Your email address will never be shared with anyone else.
Book Details
Hardback: 200 pages
Publisher: B2B CFO, LLC; 1st edition (Nov, 2007)
Language: English
Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x .7 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.88 ounces
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 Your Exit
Chapter 2 Illusions
Chapter 3 Distractions
Chapter 4 The Illusions of Increased Sales
Chapter 5 The Illusions of Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
Chapter 6 Nepotism and The Peter Principle
Chapter 7 Suicide
Chapter 8 Success
Chapter 9 Murder
Chapter 10 8% of the Titanic
Chapter 11 A Bank Exit
Chapter 12 Shareholder Exits
Chapter 13 Chapter 11 to a Sale
Chapter 14 Chapter 11 to Chapter 7
Chapter 15 A Rising Tide Raises All Ships
Chapter 16 Think Like a Buyer to Exit Profitably
Chapter 17 It's All About Cash
Appendix A Word About B2B CFO®
INTRODUCTION
My book, The Danger Zone, Lost in the Growth Transition, defined The Danger Zone as the situation wherein the cash needs of a company far exceed the available cash. This situation often causes a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, liquidation of assets or other time-consuming planning events in order to salvage the company.
The past 30 years have taught me much about how business owners react to both avoid and escape The Danger Zone. I have witnessed first-hand the business conditions of more than 100 companies during my career. Consequently, I have realized for some time that it might be beneficial to other business owners to read about some of the experiences I have witnessed.
Much has been written about the stories of Fortune 100/500 companies as they have gone through their business cycles of success or failure. While their stories are interesting, it is often difficult for the owners of closely-held businesses to relate to the business problems of companies that are doing billions of dollars in annual sales.
BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT
Non-Fortune 100/500 businesses employ the majority of the employees in our nation. A February 2007 article states:
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, there are around 25.8 million businesses in the United States with 100 or fewer employees. These companies generated between 60 and 80 percent of the new jobs created annually over the past decade. Collectively, they are a significant driver of the U.S. economy.
The combination of Moore's Law and other economic factors will cause an increase in the number of these businesses in the future, hence the importance to address their needs and concerns.
RESPECT
The partners of my firm refer to the businesses described above by the U.S. Small Business Administration as entrepreneurial, growth or mid-market companies.
I hold the owners of such companies in the highest respect. Many have become my heroes. Such owners are usually not only risk-takers but are bright, articulate and creative. Most have work ethics and values that put the rest of our society to shame. It has been my privilege to work with some of the brightest and best of our business society.
I truly admire the risk-taking attributes of these entrepreneurs. A CEO of a Fortune 500 company who makes errors can get fired but often leaves the company with millions of dollars in cash or stock options. Conversely, the CEO of a growth or mid-market company who makes errors can literally lose everything - the company, personal assets and close personal relationships.
BUSINESS ILLUSIONS
The majority of this book consists of stories of actual situations in which I have been involved during my career. Not only are the stories interesting, but there is much to learn from each situation. The cumulative knowledge that can be gained from all of these stories is profound.
While documenting these stories, I began to notice a consistent theme or by-product; thus, the phrase Business Illusions became the subtitle of the book.
PROACTIVITY
Victory more often than not goes to the aggressor. As entrepreneurs, we want to become proactive in our planning to avoid The Danger Zone and to work towards a successful exit strategy. The proactive approach to a successful exit strategy is the theme of this book; hence the title Avoiding the Danger Zone, Business Illusions.
Read the fourth Chapter
Enter in your email address and the fourth chapter of
Avoiding The Danger Zone will be emailed to you.
Your email address will never be shared with anyone else.
The Exit Strategy Handbook
Paperback: 225 pages
Publisher: B2B CFO, LLC; 1st edition (March 1, 2013)
Language: English
Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x .9 inches
Shipping Weight: 16.97 ounces
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 Who needs this book
Chapter 2 The Success Team™
Chapter 3 The Future: A buyers or a seller's market?
Chapter 4 Today's realistic value of your company
Chapter 5 The process to increase the value of your company
Chapter 6 Preparing for your last customer: The buyer
Chapter 7 The Data Room
Chapter 8 Intellectual property
Chapter 9 External financial statements
Chapter 10 Legal and other matters
Chapter 11 Insurance needs
Chapter 12 The largest competitors to your company
Chapter 13 Customer information
Chapter 14 Product or service lines
Chapter 15 Labor and employee compensation matters
Chapter 16 Environmental matters
Chapter 17 Significant contracts
Chapter 18 Key venders and suppliers
Chapter 19 Investment Bankers and M&A companies
Chapter 20 Post-Sale wealth management issues
Chapter 21 Software, databases and systems
Chapter 22 Corporate documents
Chapter 23 Minority shareholders
Chapter 24 Presentations to the potential buyers
Chapter 25 Post-Sale issues and recommendations
INTRODUCTION
This book is unique.
It is written for a unique audience that is about to go through a unique period of time.
This book is for owners of closely-held companies who want to sell their businesses in the next few years. You are unique because you represent only about 8% of the population in the United States, yet you employ between 60% and 70% of all USA employees.
Most of your assets are found in the companies you own. The biggest anticipated check in your future is an eventual sale of your company to someone else, whether a third party, management, an ESOP or some other type of buyer. Your hope and dream is that someone will see the value in your company and pay the value that you desire.
You are about to go through a unique period of time, something that has never happened in the history of mankind. There are about 60 million baby boomers that will be retiring in the next few years. These baby boomers own more than 10 million businesses, most of which will try to be sold to third parties during the next few years. This will create an unprecedented number of companies that will be available on the open market.
These companies will most likely be in competition with yours when you are ready to sell. We anticipate a buyer's market during the next few years, which will cause certain sellers to either not be able to sell their business or that will sell the business for a lower than expected amount. Additionally, it is anticipated that income and other taxes will increase in the near future, which might have the effect of possible reductions in obtaining values you might expect from the sale of your company.
The subtitle to this book is "A to Z to Prepare for a Buyer." This means that this book and the accompanying secured website have been prepared in a step-by-step process to help you sell your business. This process is similar to following the blueprint for a house or building. You are in charge of the blueprint and you will delegate to people the tasks that will help you with the future desired sale of your business.
The secured website that accompanies this book is accessible by applications (apps) from certain mobile devices. You will have dashboards, calculations of the current value of your business and other tools to help manage those to whom you will delegate important tasks.
We wish for your future success.
Sincerely,
The partners of B2B CFO®
[x] Close
With over 218 partners and 6,612 cumulative years of experience, B2B CFO® provides CFO services. Each B2B CFO® partner works with multiple companies therefore you don't have the cost of a full time CFO. What does B2B CFO® do? We use our six step process, the B2B CFO® GamePlan™ to take you to a higher level of success. Our experienced CFOs work with you to analyze and review your financial systems and then work with you to get more cash into your business. Read more about the B2B CFO® GamePlan™ to see how we do this.
Please click on the tabs below for more information about the B2B CFO® GamePlan™
The people we serve
We serve owners of companies with revenues up to $75 million that want to increase cash, profitability, sales and company value.
Our attitude of respect
We recognize the wisdom of the adage, "The world consists of two types of people, those who act and those who are acted upon." We realize you are of the former group.
Entrepreneurs are the geniuses of our generation. With approximately 330 million Americans in the United States, your group, entrepreneurs and business owners, consists of about 8% of the population of our great country. Yet despite that small percentage, you and your peers employ 70% to 75% of the W-2 employees of our nation! As such, we understand that the future economic recovery of our country rests upon your shoulders.
We recognize the complexity of that burden and want to help you, even if it is, seemingly, in a small way. For it is often from small things that great things derive. The acorn seed is smaller than a quarter, but it can give birth to the Oak tree which can grow more than 60 feet in height and live for centuries. And so it is with business owners.
Are you familiar with the story of Hewlett-Packard? Today, it's one of the world's largest information technology companies. But what you might not know is that the company was created with just $900 in a one-car garage by two entrepreneurs, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. They were entrepreneurs with a seed of an idea. They risked all they had on their idea and achieved great success.
Why did you start your business?
We often ask business owners the question, "Why did you start or buy your business?" This is a fun question to ask because of the diverse reasons owners give. Some of the responses are:
We refer to you as a 'Finder'
Our firm has its own distinctive terminology, which refers to you and your peers as 'Finders'. We've even written about your characteristics in our book, The Danger Zone:
Finders are the leaders of the company. They are not necessarily the people who lead all company employees on a daily basis. Finders demonstrate the type of leadership that "pulls" people into the future - employees, current customers and future customers.
Finders demonstrate some specific attributes that are essential to this success. There are numerous terms that can describe the leadership of a Finder; the following few will give you the main idea.
You will notice that all of the above attributes or future functions require action. Hence, Finders are all about the future. They do not live in the past. They view the past as a tool from which to learn, not as a place in which to dwell (The Danger Zone, Lost In The Growth Transition, pp. 25- 26).
Finders often become frustrated
It is our experience that Finders often become frustrated with the day-to-day grind of running a business, which often takes them away from their original goals of starting the business.
The B2B CFO® GamePlan™
The purpose of the B2B CFO® GamePlan™ is to help Finders either get on track or keep them on track with their original goals and objectives of starting and/or purchasing their company. The B2B CFO® GamePlan™ consists of six separate steps:
The Discovery Analysis™
The Strategy Process™
The Strategy Implementation™
The Results Solution™
The Excel Experience™ (Excel – to do extremely well, surpass, outclass, outrival)
The Exit Strategy™
What's the next step?
We invite you to call upon one of our professionals to deliver a complimentary Discovery Analysis™ of your company. The process is confidential and will not take much of your time.
Something about our professionals
B2B CFO® is unique. Unlike a full-time chief financial officer or part-time CFO (interim CFO, temporary CFO, fractional CFO, contract CFO, or other companies that provide CFO services), we create a long-term, professional relationship with a handshake on an affordable as-needed basis. Services are provided objectively by seasoned partners who average 25 years of experience.
We can help with the simple things, such as helping to improve cash flow, or the more complicated matters, such as a business exit. As you'll discover, with more than 6,000 years of collective experience and a multitude of national partnership resources, there isn't much we can't do for you.
Article Source: The B2B CFO® GamePlan™
[x] Close
[x] Close
Contact [name]
and receive a free Discovery Analysis™
[x] Close
Thank you for submitting your request for a Free Discovery
Analysis™. A B2B CFO partner will contact you within
2 business days.
Please take this opportunity to share the Free Discovery
Analysis with others that you feel could benefit from working
with an experienced, as-needed CFO.
