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What’s So Magic About Age 65?

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?

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If, But, and Yes, But … No Way to Sell Anything

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 […]

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Interim Time Between Your Current Status Quo and Your Business End Game

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.

May 18th will be a fun day at the 2015 NYSCPA Business Valuation Conference.  I’ll be talking on a panel with Peter Mahler, Justice Scheinkman, and Sam Rosenfarb on New York Statutory Fair Value Issues, or corporate divorce.  Peter is the author of the New York Corporate Divorce Blog,  Justice Scheinkman will bring the voice of an experienced jurist the panel, and Sam will be the referee.

I’ll also be speaking on the same day about Unlocking Private Company Wealth.  As a bonus, I’ll get to have dinner the night before with my son, Zeno, who lives in New York City.

Date: May 18, 2015
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Event: New York Society of CPAs Business Valuation Conference
Public: Public
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Time to Manage Your Private Company Wealth

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 […]

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My First Saturday This Week

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.

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Understanding Return on Labor vs. Return on Capital: The Two Small Business Owners

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.

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Two Small Business Owners and Widely Disparate 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.

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Not-So-Favorable Reasons Why Businesses Change Hands

In our prior post, we discussed favorable reasons why businesses change hands. In this post, we take a look at the other side of the coin – the not-so-favorable reasons why businesses change hands. Unfortunately, many businesses sell or change hands under less favorable, even downright unfavorable, circumstances. The list of unfavorable circumstances that cause a business transfer is longer than the list of favorable reasons. Let’s take a look at some of these not-so-favorable reasons.