On Tuesday, November 18, 2014, Chris Mercer will conduct a 100-minute webinar on the topic of “Unlocking Private Company Wealth: A Tutorial for Business Advisers.” The webinar is being sponsored by Valuation Products and Services and begins at 12:00pm (Central). For more information on the content of the webinar, view the video from Chris. There is also a link to register.
On a recent business trip, I encountered a hidden up-charge on my restaurant bill. Here’s the story as well as the moral of the story.
The following appeared in a recent issue of the BV Wire from Business Valuation Resources. New resource for BV experts in an advisory role BV experts can act as advisors to help business owners understand value and help them see how they can tap into that value. A new book, Unlocking Private Company Wealth, by […]
On October 16, 2014, after the close of the market, Google announced that its earnings per share (EPS) were $6.35 per share versus “analysts’ expectations” of $6.53 per share. Revenue totaled $16.52 billion versus “expectations” of $16.57 billion. The shortfalls were 2.7% and 0.3%, respectively. More troubling, Google reported a slowdown in the total number […]
What does the recent announcement by Netflix, indicating that subscriber growth was lower than expectations for the third quarter of 2014 and the resulting devastation of market value have to say to owners and managers of closely held and family businesses?
Do you know what a Visible Expert is? Do you want to become one? A new book by Lee Fredericksen and two colleagues at Hinge Marketing provides insight into personal and firm growth in the various professionals services fields. There’s a little surprise in this post.
The father owns 100% of a privately held business. His son works in the business. There is life insurance on the father’s life. He believes he has a good transition plan but it’s really a hope and a prayer that things will work out. Read how things can work out with a little planning.
Corporate finance can be confusing if you are a private company. Much of what we think about comes, directly or indirectly, from corporate finance ideas and concepts developed around the public markets. This post looks at what is called the Modigliani-Miller theorem, makes a few observations, and then, attempts to relate them to closely held and family businesses, i.e., the private company world. We cannot blindly assume that all of the assumptions of the M-M theorem hold in the real world of private company finance. Capital structure influences the level of shareholder returns to equity over time. Dividend policy determines the current returns to owners over time. The combination of a reasonable capital structure, a reasonable dividend policy, and paying attention to the needs of various owners make real differences in the long-term success of many private companies.
Share repurchases are a tool frequently used by public companies to buoy their share prices. Buybacks are a form of returns to shareholders that do not carry the sting of taxes on dividends. What may not be generally known is the pervasiveness of the use of share repurchases by public companies. For example, in the […]
Meeting my goal of 50,000 steps over the Labor Day Weekend is a good thing. There is, however, a greater lesson. The focus of short-term goal setting is what many of us need from time to time to be rack through the clutter and clumsiness of daily life. Lots of your important but not urgent projects also cry out for intense focus at the right time. We just have to plow through the clutter of our daily lives and focus on what’s important. I’m not naive enough to believe that we will do that all the time. However, I know from infrequent periods of intense focus that the benefits far outweigh the costs. Have an important task that you know really needs to be done and you keep putting it off. Stop today. Set a short-term goal. Let your activity on that goal crowd out those things that always get in the way, and just do it.
