There are several stages to the process but they centre around analysing where spending can be cut and where spending needs to increase in order to gain ‘quick wins’.  These enhance how your business looks on paper and help you optimise the business’ strength in order to fetch the highest possible sale price.  Profitability is important when selling a business. Therefore, do what it takes to show that your business can make money for the prospective buyer, and you never know, you may even reap the benefits in the short-term as well. Once you are confident that the value of your business has been maximised, the next step is to seek the help of a solicitor or an accountant who can advise on the most appropriate valuation technique to use for your business. Marketing the business as up for sale is the next step and listing your business in a ‘businesses for sale’ publication can be an effective way to target genuine prospective buyers saving you time and money.

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The drop in sign-ups is partly due to prospective sellers concerns about the lack of buyers with access to funds. And fewer buyers means lower transaction values.

Carl Cusano of the New York Business Brokers Association offers the following advice to sellers: “If you’re serious about selling, you have to consider seller financing because the banks aren’t handing money out as they were in years past.”

Cusano added that business brokers were feeling the pinch across the US and he knew several that were about to go to the wall.

Businesses for sale website bizbuysell.com have reported a 20% reduction in the number of completed transactions in the last quarter of 2008.

Across the pond in the United Kingdom, Business-sale.com, the leading provider of information on medium to large businesses for sale, also reports a downturn in transactions as reported by buyers.

Information director, Robert Moore, said that it is hard to get a real fix on the industry figures because so many deals are private and there is a reticence to divulging transaction details in the UK.

But Moore said, “this is a remarkable period of opportunity for many entrepreneurs. There are low interest rates and low inflation forecasts. Hundreds of businesses are going under because they simply cannot service their debt commitments, even though their underlying fundamental business is sound. Smart operators with cash are mopping up, buying these distressed business and either paying off the debtors or using a pre-pack administration order to create a clean company.

“They are left with some great businesses producing returns far in excess of what is achievable on the stock market or in bonds or other savings accounts.

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Here are my resolutions:

Update the business plan and forecasts
Transfer the plan from Excel to one of the cool new web-based, multi-user business plan wikis like planhq.com
Re-evalulate short, medium and long term personal and business objectives. Make sure they synchronise!
Trim unnecessary expenses
Really focus on our competitive advantage
Buy a business - there are are some real opportunities in distressed business sales right now

What are yours?

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1. Get and stay out of your comfort zone.
I believe that not much happens of any significance when we’re in our comfort zone. I hear people say, “But I’m concerned about security.” My response to that is simple: “Security is for cadavers.” 

2. Never give up.
 Almost nothing works the first time it’s attempted. Just because what you’re doing does not seem to be working, doesn’t mean it won’t work. It just means that it might not work the way you’re doing it. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and you wouldn’t have an opportunity. 

3. When you’re ready to quit, you’re closer than you think.
 There’s an old Chinese saying that I just love, and I believe it is so true. It goes like this: “The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed.” 

4. With regard to whatever worries you, not only accept the worst thing that could happen, but make it a point to quantify what the worst thing could be.
 Very seldom will the worst consequence be anywhere near as bad as a cloud of “undefined consequences.” My father would tell me early on, when I was struggling and losing my shirt trying to get Parsons Technology going, “Well, Robert, if it doesn’t work, they can’t eat you.” 

5. Focus on what you want to have happen. 
Remember that old saying, “As you think, so shall you be.” 

6. Take things a day at a time.
No matter how difficult your situation is, you can get through it if you don’t look too far into the future, and focus on the present moment. You can get through anything one day at a time. 

7. Always be moving forward. 
Never stop investing. Never stop improving. Never stop doing something new. The moment you stop improving your organization, it starts to die. Make it your goal to be better each and every day, in some small way. Remember the Japanese concept of Kaizen. Small daily improvements eventually result in huge advantages. 

8. Be quick to decide. 
Remember what General George S. Patton said: “A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow.” 

9. Measure everything of significance.
 I swear this is true. Anything that is measured and watched, improves. 

10. Anything that is not managed will deteriorate.
you want to uncover problems you don’t know about, take a few moments and look closely at the areas you haven’t examined for a while. I guarantee you problems will be there. 

11. Pay attention to your competitors, but pay more attention to what you’re doing. 
When you look at your competitors, remember that everything looks perfect at a distance. Even the planet Earth, if you get far enough into space, looks like a peaceful place. 

12. Never let anybody push you around. 
In our society, with our laws and even playing field, you have just as much right to what you’re doing as anyone else, provided that what you’re doing is legal. 

13. Never expect life to be fair. 
Life isn’t fair. You make your own breaks. You’ll be doing good if the only meaning fair has to you, is something that you pay when you get on a bus (i.e., fare). 

14. Solve your own problems. 
You’ll find that by coming up with your own solutions, you’ll develop a competitive edge. Masura Ibuka, the co-founder of SONY, said it best: “You never succeed in technology, business, or anything by following the others.” There’s also an old Asian saying that I remind myself of frequently. It goes like this: “A wise man keeps his own counsel.” 

15. Don’t take yourself too seriously. 
Lighten up. Often, at least half of what we accomplish is due to luck. None of us are in control as much as we like to think we are. 

16. There’s always a reason to smile. 
Find it. After all, you’re really lucky just to be alive. Life is short. More and more, I agree with my little brother. He always reminds me: “We’re not here for a long time, we’re here for a good time!”  

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Sorry it’s been a while since my last post. A few personal issues cropped up and I took some time off the day-to-day activities of my businesses to sort them out and then take an extended holiday down to New Zealand.

Let me tell you, that country is wild!

The air is clean, the people are super-friendly and hospitable, and the beaches and mountains are just awesome.  A few years ago, I skied at Mount Hutt in the South Island; it was a real sunny day, and the deep blue sky met the Pacific Ocean off the East Coast. It is quite surreal snow skiing with a surf beach as a backdrop. One day after skiing the morning at Mt Hutt, we hopped in the 4wd and motored down to Longbeach, about 50km away, for an afternoon surf.  Unbelievable.

This year I called my old mate John-Michel who runs Ahipara.com, a luxury travel company, to see what fun he could rustle up, to give my head a good rush and clear out all the unnecessary flotsam and jetsam.

He suggested diving up at the Poor Knight islands, only a couple of hours drive from Auckland. Caves, pinnacles, coral and so many sharks and rays!  After a couple of days diving in glorious fall weather, followed by a few relaxing days at the Ocean’s Resort on the harbour, we sped for some seriously world class game fishing. What can I say?   

All the demons were purged and I am back in my London office fully charged and invigorated. The guys in LA and in London have been doing such a good job without me, I am going to do this more often!

The moral of this story is that too often we forget to get away from it all. The benefits of a ‘recharged you’ upon return from a vacation (preferably abroad – outside your comfort zone) far outweigh any possible advantages in staying around when clearly your body and mind need some top-class R&R.

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Here’s a rundown on some of the tips offered by Jason.

* Buy cheap tables and expensive chairs. Tables are often a rip-off.
* Fire anyone who doesn’t love working at your business.
* Buy everyone a second computer monitor, they save time.
* Buy an expensive coffee machine to prevent people leaving the office and spending money at Starbucks
* Get a fridge in, stock it full of sodas
* Use Macintosh computers and don’t buy more than a couple of copies of Microsoft Office. Most people can use Google Docs.
* Buy your hardest working staff extra computers for home use
* Don’t bother investing in a phone system; people use email, IRC, chat or mobiles.
* Outsource all Human Resources and Accounting functions
* Allow and encourage flexible working hours
* Use Google mail, don’t bother with stuff like Exchange servers
* Recruiters? Dump ‘em. Save money by doing your own using LinkedIn and FaceBook.
* Same with PR agencies on fat retainers. Use good freelancers on a project basis.

While I don’t necessarily agree with all these suggestions, I’m sharing this wavelength. Everyone starting up or running their own small business ought to sit down and come up with their own list, particular to their organisation. But start-ups have really got to pay particular attention to their costs and to the people they hire, otherwise it’s going to be much tougher to get to that break-even point. If start-up employees aren’t prepared to give their absolute all and ‘share the vision’, then maybe they would be better off somewhere else.

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