In this post, I explain why I believe that fixed price buy-sell agreements are not workable for most closely held and family businesses. This is as true for large companies as well as much smaller companies. However, if you or your client insists on using a fixed pricing mechanism in a buy-sell agreement, take the steps recommended in this post to maximize the probability of success and minimize the potential for future disputes. My text for this sermon lies in Chapters 9, 13, 14, 16 and 17 of Buy-Sell Agreements for Closely Held and Family Business Owners.
Announcing the Ownership Transition Bundle
Announcing a new Ownership Transition Bundle for business owners and advisers.
My book, Buy-Sell Agreements for Closely Held and Family Business Owners, has been available since 2010 and has sold thousands of copies. The book sells for $25 (plus shipping).
My latest book, Unlocking Private Company Wealth, was released in late 2014, and is selling at much higher rate than the buy-sell agreement book. This new book deals with managing private company wealth in ways you likely have not thought about. This book sells for $25 (plus shipping). That makes $50 for the two books.
We are now offering an Ownership Transition Bundle, consisting of both books for only $35 (plus shipping). As they say on selling TV networks, “But wait, there’s more!”
In addition to both books, you will receive immediate downloads of our very popular checklists, the Buy-Sell Agreement Review Checklist, and the Promissory Note Checklist. The review checklist is by far my most downloaded resource, so this is quite a package!
If you are interested in ownership transition for closely held and private companies, the Ownership Transition Bundle will tell you a great deal about managing private company wealth in the process of thinking about ownership and management transitions.
The buy-sell book will tell you about the unexpected consequences for ownership transition, often quite adverse, when poorly written buy-sell agreements are triggered. The free resources are available to help discuss and plan for important aspects of transitions.
Buy it now: The Ownership Transition Bundle.
Baby Boomers own a disproportionate number of the private businesses in America. They are turning 65, or reaching the so-called “normal” retirement age at an astounding rate. Generation X is smaller than the Boomer generation by a significant amount and that means there are fewer of them to take the place of retiring Boomer business owners.
Following the smaller Generation X, the Millenials will exceed the Baby Boomers in numbers by 2016 or 1017. While they are the largest generation in the workforce today, they may not yet be likely purchasers of businesses from Boomers.
So what’s an aging business owner to do? Is the glass half empty and this situation is all bad?
In a business damages trial a number of years ago, the plaintiff was answering questions with a lot of conditional phrases, like if, and but, and however. At the conclusion of his cross-examination, the defendant’s attorney said the following: If “ifs” and “buts” were candy and nuts, every day would be Christmas! The judge immediately […]
Think of where you are now in your business life. This is the present, now, or your current status quo. Now think about where you want to be in the future with respect to ownership and management transition. The future time may not be clearly defined in your mind. But that future is your business end game. It is okay if the business end game is unclear, but it is not okay for it to stay unclear for much longer. You see, our business end games set us up for the rest of our lives, and that can be a very long time for most of us. Consider some of these questions to help begin the discussion about your business end game.
Owners of successful closely held and family businesses need to focus attention on the management of all of their wealth. For most owners, wealth comes from two primary sources: The value of your interests in closely held or family enterprises. This wealth is, by definition, illiquid, for there are no well-organized markets for the sale […]
May Day, May 1st, was Friday, on the calendar, at least. And I did something I don’t think I’ve ever done. I took the day off and treated it like a Saturday. The idea is not original, but what I can say about it is that I feel great. See what I did and ask yourself if would be a good idea for you too.
Last week, I spoke on Unlocking Private Company Wealth before three audiences in New York, Philadelphia, and Las Vegas. My two key takeaways from the trip were referrals to two resources Simon Sinek’s Ted Talk, “Start with Why” and Brian Moran and Michael Linnington’s book The 12 Week Year.
In the previous post, we introduced two businessmen – Martin and Steve. Their businesses are worth about $2 million each. Martin and Steve have taken two different paths in their treatment of the earnings of their businesses, and have widely different business end games and retirement prospects as a result. In this post, we discuss the concepts of “return on labor” and “return on capital” and why they are important concepts for business owners to understand when planning for their business end games.
Typically, I write about what I refer to as “successful closely held and family businesses” that have minimum values on the order of $5-10 million or more, and often, much more. But many small businesses don’t have and may never have had such levels of value. Today’s post focuses on two baby boomer small business owners, Martin and Steve, whose businesses are worth about $2 million each. Martin and Steve have taken two different paths in their treatment of the earnings of their businesses, and have widely different business end games and retirement prospects as a result.
