In this post, we will examine another partial liquidity alternative for owners of closely held and family businesses, a leveraged share repurchase. This post will address conceptual issues. In the next post, we will develop an example leveraged repurchase transaction to illustrate these concepts and how they really work.
In this post, we discuss using a leveraged Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) as a means of obtaining partial liquidity from a business.
Personal branding is something we all do, whether consciously or not. Personal branding is part of selling, whether you are selling a product or service, or whether you are selling yourself and your services and abilities within your own organization. Personal branding is something that builds momentum when you pay attention to the basics on a daily basis. Personal branding is, well, personal. No one can or will do it for you. This post talks about the importance of personal branding along with my “good life” habits.
Marshall Goldsmith, the author and executive coach, wrote a little (in size only) book entitled Succession: Are You Ready? (Cambridge, Harvard Business Press, 2009). In it, he talks about letting go and moving on. His words should be taken to heart by many, if not most of us: “Almost all of the leaders who I have met assure me that they will be different. They confidently assert that they will have no problems letting go. You are probably delusional enough to believe that you too will be different. Take my word for it: while your desire for uniqueness may be theoretically possible, it is statistically unlikely. How business owners address this question is vital to the success of business transitions, and it is one that too often receives scant attention.” Are you ready to let go?
Everyone talks about goals at the end of each year. That’s good. We all should have them. The end of one year and the beginning of another is always a time to think about the future and goals. However, absent an appropriate context, forward-thinking can be useless. That context for me is in thankfulness for all of my life’s many blessings. Every reader of this blog is blessed in many ways. I hope you and I will always be thankful for our blessings. Then, we can talk about goals.
This post will focus on seven critical things you need to know about your company’s dividend policy. In summary: 1) Every company has a dividend policy; 2) Dividend policy influences return on business investment; 3) Dividend policy is a starting point for portfolio diversification; 4) Special dividends enhance personal liquidity and diversification; 5) Dividend policy does matter for private companies; 6) Dividend policy focuses management attention on financial performance; and 7) Boards of directors need to establish thoughtful dividend policies
This is a two-part series on the topic of dividends. We begin with an initial discussion of what dividends are, and then in the next post, we will talk about the “7 Critical Things to Know About Your Company’s Dividend Policy.”
After being involved with many business transactions over many years, I’ve realized that there are at least seven ways that potential investors look at a business. Not every investor will look from every perspective. There are, of course, financial buyers and strategic buyers, and their perspectives will likely not be the same and not all perspectives will be relevant for every company. However, these various perspectives are worth discussing for your consideration.
Ownership and management transitions for business owners are key topics of this blog. Sometimes, however, when I talk to business owners, they tend to believe that their businesses will be immune to the processes I’m talking about. After all, a few of us are going to live together, right? To put the concept of business ownership into perspective, this post discusses 10 reasons that business ownership changes hands. The list is not all-inclusive, but perhaps, as you read down the list, you will begin to see that this ownership transition thing could actually happen to you.
My blogging activity recently has been a bit slow. I haven’t learned the art, if that is what it is, of blogging during intense periods of work. This post is offered as a form of apology for my absence from ChrisMercer.net. I was in Tokyo earlier this month and spoke on the topic of “The […]
