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Global Market – How the Typhoons in Manila affects my small business in Florida Today.

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This Noobpreneur.com website “talks” about many subjects affecting entrepreneurs and small business owners. Franchising, freelancers, marketing, global economy, how to do businesses up and down our own street and how to do business around the world. Ivan ( the owner of this website) has written many post that parallel my interest and efforts as a small business owner and entrepreneur even though he comes from the other side of the globe.

Global Economy And Your Business

Recently, I have been strongly hit in the head regarding the global economy on which I operate. In pursuing my most recent venture, I had elected to hire freelance marketing. I have in the past, used with various levels of success, freelance services out of India. The company I hired and contracted with this time are in the Philippines. They contracted and agreed to perform certain services within a certain time frame. I built my plans around those agreements. They are missing their targets.

I knew they were having some “bad weather over there, but got curious as to if it may be affecting their work. They are being rampaged by storms, rains, typhoons, mud, water, and basically the wrath of Mother Nature. I am out of Southwest Florida, and we are supposed to be in the midst of our “Hurricane Season”, and have had zero storms. Five years ago, the storms were lined up and hitting us one after another and turned our lives upside down. We were evacuated off our barrier island and our lives were at a standstill. Power Lines were down, Internet service, and phones were non-functional for days.

Global Economy And Your Business

Photo (c) foreignpolicy.com

In this case, I could not reach my contact in the Philippines for days, and finally have spoken to them only to really learn of the devastation both physically and emotionally. On our local news between the story of the dog that can catch a Frisbee, and the local crime is sandwiched a short 10 second segment on the storms affecting the Philippines. What does it matter to people in Florida what is going on in the Philippines.?

After reaching to my contact, he told me the stories of his employees living in evacuation centers, mud filling a house “up to the second level”, and just basically traumatized employees trying to cope. (see attached video link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_zXQhuvd6s )

He offered on several occasions to compensate me for the contract shortfall. I felt ashamed that such a thought would even be felt to be necessary. My life is my life, my work is just my work, and is not even a close second. We do live in a global economy. When doing business with India in the past and the Philippines now, I had elected to read their local newspapers to try to get a feel of what may be affecting their daily lives as I know that our work is just a derivative of the world that surrounds us. I know other parts of the world have suffered as a result of Natural disasters and catastrophic events, but living on this little barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico in SW Florida, I feel like these storms were not that far away. And when they get their lives back together, business will resume- but at this point that just does not seem so important.

Success is a Journey, Not a Destination

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Success is a Journey – Not a destination.

A well repeated phrase that ones reads, nods in approval and then moves on to other matters. But what does it really mean? Taking a moment to interpret the meaning can provide a strong foundation for business and personal planning of a small business owner or entrepreneur.

 3 Scenarios of “Success”

1. Just consider all the investors in the late 1990’s that made millions in the stock market Dot-Com boom.

Buy low, sell high, make millions- you are a success. Three months later the Dow loses 600 points in one day, the market continues to fall, those millions are lost and investors are left with no gains or worse – are you still a success?

2. Fast forward to the Real Estate Collapse that we are now experiencing.

Buy an entry level house, “flip it” make some good money- Are you a success? Now take those gains, leverage those monies, buy a bigger house, “flip it” make a lot more money.-Are you a success? Things are good, this real Estate thing seems almost automatic, so you take all those monies, buy a $1,000,000,000 property with plans to fix and flip it for $1.5M, but the market turns south and all the real estate gains have gone away and you cant find a buyer for your house at $740,000- are you a success?

3. Now Consider the Entrepreneur/Small Business Owner.

You successfully start your own business. You reach break-even. Are you a success. You reach $1,000,0000 in annual sales, then $2M, then $3M – Are you a success? You sell your business for several million dollars- Are you a success? I say you have reached certain successes, but the journey continues.

Definition Of Business Success

Starting a business and reaching a level of success may make one feel successful. Successfully selling your business and making a lot of money can make you feel successful. Maybe what you do after you sell your business has more to do with your feeling of success. I have associated with several people that have successfully sold businesses, and several of them have not waited until the age of 65 to do so. Those I’ve been around that have sold their business have been more of the “whats next” and treat the successful sale of their business as a “success along the way”.

As an entrepreneur the idea of selling your business for large gains is alluring, and perhaps both inspiring and strongly motivating. The existence of a small business owner/entreprenurs is a series of successes and failures. As an entrepreneur, I say enjoy the successes you attain-heaven know the failures may be more prevalent, but effort yourself to appreciate the successes that come your way.

Business Success

Photo (c) theaposition.com

I have successfully sold my own business, do I consider myself a success – not really. I really think my success, as by my measurement will get determined by what I do next. Planning for your success is very important,. And planning how you will reach your goals and levels of success is important. Very often selling the business that you may have started and nurtured for so many years can be very fulfilling, yet keep in mind it is not always the end-game. “Success is a journey not a destination.”

You are in a great relationship with a great family life, and have good friends – Are you a success? To that I say – So far so good… keep it going.

Failure to Plan is Like Planning to Fail when Selling your Business

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When should one begin the planning for the sale of your business?

It has been said that that thought process should begin when you start your business. So Entrepreneurs, while in the initial throes and excitement of the planning stages of starting a new venture, it is also appropriate to broach the subject of exit strategy. Too often the daily process of running and growing the business disallows the consideration of an exit strategy.

Do You Have An Exit Plan?

A recent study (as printed below) conducted revealed that 75% of small business owners do not have an exit plan.

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ — The California Association of Business Brokers (CABB, a non profit trade organization) says that there is one thing that most small business owners fail to do when preparing to sell their business: have an exit strategy in place. A recently reported study conducted by Harris Interactive found that among those small business owners surveyed, three out of four small business owners did not have an exit plan developed.

An Exit strategy may be transitioning your business to family members, a planned merger, a planned closure, a planned sale of your business, or other possibilities. The below is focused on issues related to the planned sale of your business.

How NOT to Consider an Exit Strategy:

Exit Strategy

Photo (c) newportboardgroup.com

  1. Wake up one morning and say I hate what I am doing, call a business broker and ask to sell your business ASAP. Now if you wake up 60 morning in a row and hate what you are doing it may warrant a call to a business broker to discuss the potential sale of your business.
  2. Wait until an unexpected illness strike you, before you begin the process of exploring the strategy of setting up your business for sale.
  3. Enjoy the good years of business success and allow this success to keep you from developing an exit strategy, and then wait until your business is faltering and can no longer support its own cash flow requirements and then be forced to sell your business in this adverse environment.

Things TO DO when Considering an Exit Strategy

  • Give yourself time, pick a time horizon 2-3+ years out to perform task that would aid in the sale of your business.
  • Try to understand the approximate value of your business. Your business may be one of your most significant assets, and just knowing it for net worth purposes and planning purposes can be invaluable. www.sellabusinessflorida.com
  • Focus on improving the quality of your numbers and your records. Look at your income statements, and balance sheets objectively and see if numbers stand out or jump out as hard to explain, or unusual. Any reports or figures that results in error that are “carried forward”, or allowed to exist – have them reconciled.
  • Work on systems. The more systems in place to more well thought out your business looks. The more systems in place, adds value to a new owner and improves both value and the likelihood of success to the new owner that buys your business.

When is a good time to BEGIN the process of evaluating a good exit strategy for your business? TODAY

Competitors – Rotten SOB’s or Valuable Strategic Alliance?

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Competitors – Friend or Foe ?

Competitors can simply be defined as
“one selling or buying goods or services in the same market as another”
… per Merriam Dictionary

or “those rotten SOB’s that undercut my pricing, run their business without any regards for proper business ethics, and generally derate our entire industry”
… per an upset business owner

Small Business And Competitors

How do you view your competitors? As small business owners we all have competitors. Sometimes they are just down the street or across the globe. I am in the business of helping small business owners buy and sell businesses. Very often when a small business owner desires to sell their business, their competitor may be the first logical party to approach. The relationship that a small business owner has with those competitors is potential buyers of their business will dictate the viability of effective dialogue. When running your business a competitor can be a valuable alliance.

With my previous business, we had fairly open relationships with many of our competitors, and found that at times working together could prove to be mutually beneficial. We had a production company and many of our supplies came from far away. Very often we would coordinate with nearby competitors on shipping arrangements to “share truckloads” to reduce both of our cost. We also would fall short of certain supplies that would potentially shut down our production lines. Maybe we would get a sudden large customer, or just mis-allocate. We would put a call into our local competitors, arrange to buy some supplies from them, and they would do the same with us.

We were competitors, but were business men first and recognized the value of mutually beneficial arrangements. Furthermore, In my previous business we incurred a significant disaster to our production facility which caused our business to shut down to rebuild. The relationships we had built throughout the years with competitors, had the owners of those competitors business on the phone with us offering assistance. And this assistance was invaluable in allowing us to transition through this difficult event. Some of their assistance resulted in additional short term business for them. Other assistance resulted in significant long term relationship building between our 2 companies. I would like to think I would have done the same for them.

Business Competitors

Photo (c) prosper-consulting.com

Very often industry matters, panels, trade groups require the interaction of competitors to benefit the group and or industry. “A rising tide raises all ships”. Is true when you have competitors that can work together, you can benefit the entire industry.

But it would be naive to think that issues will not occur between competitors. You seek the same customers as competitors, and very often it is you or your competitor that gains that new customer, and you want it to be you-your competitor wants it to be him.

Building a relationship with competitors can be beneficial. It doesn’t mean that you need to go out for a beer once a week. But it does mean that you can pick up a phone and make a business request and know that your competitor can do the same with you. It is not always possible to have a mutually beneficial relationship with a competitor. But it should at least be considered and or explored.

Need a Job? Buy a Job – Buy a Business

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Consider the various routes successful entrepreneurs business owners take when building a successful operation.  It is important to consider that the path taken is varied, and success need not necessarily follow one specific path.  Bill Gates did not invent the MS-DOS program that became the Windows operating system we know today.  Entrepreneurs can start with an idea, and turn it into a successful business venture.  Entrepreneurs can buy a business, step in and continue that operation and grow it.  Entrepreneurs can “buy a job.”

“You Are Not Buying a Business You Are Buying a Job”

This statement has been attributed to certain business opportunities that potential business buyers or entrepreneurs are evaluating.  Is it wrong to buy a business, when what you are doing is” buying a job”?  Firstly what the statement is intended to denote is that, you will be an integral part of the daily operation, the business may not operate properly without your daily workload, you will not necessarily be in a fixed overhead or supervisory role but rather part of the variable cost of running an operation.  You will be buying a business that you be working at in the day to day operations.

Buy A JobFor example if your spouse and you buy an existing business that is a 2 man Sandwich shop- you may be “buying a job.”  At times the prospects of “buying a job” in lieu of buying a business is viewed as a negative.  Is it wrong to “buy a job.”  Personally I dont think so.  Consider the scenario of the employee that worked for the same company for 15 years, walks in his office one Monday morning to learn that he has been let go, downsized, fired, or  laid-off.  When YOU buy your own business or buy your own job,  WHO is going to walk in your office and fire you? Nobody.  You have control of your destiny not always offered when working for others.  When you own your own business you know how the company is doing.  You don’t spend a minute of your time concerning yourself on how your superiors view your performance.

Do you ever wonder where the largest source of buyers of business comes from.  Most future buyers of business are employees right now, or were employees and have been let go and are ready to sieze more control over their destiny.  Currently I am working with a few people of which are both the combination of currently employed and recently let go. Whether you buy a business or look to start your own business, your should be prepared for some hard work. You will probably work harder and stress more than when working for others but does the trade off of control and working for yourself make it worth it?  Today one is buying a business in a buyers market.  More sellers are offering seller financing when selling their business.  Maybe it is a good time to buy a job