Morgan & Westfield - Deal Talk

Your business is growing, and you’re thinking of expanding into other markets or maybe adding a new product or service line, but you don’t yet have the capital—both financial or human—to do it.  Have you considered expanding through franchising?  This option is catching on with small business owners all over the country looking to develop or acquire great brands for long term success.  Pete Baldine, President of Accelerated Development at the Moran Family of Brands shares some of his 20+ years of franchising wisdom to help you determine if franchising may be the right option for you. 

Small Business Administration loans may be one of the best kept secrets for business owners or those interested in buying a company.  SBA program loans can provide businesses with several thousands to millions of dollars depending on individual needs. So what can you use the money for?  Can you qualify even if you’ve been turned down for other financing? How quickly can you receive funds? We’ll address these and a host of other questions in our chat with Mr. Thomas Meyer, Sr. Vice President and head of the SBA lending division at Bridgeview Bank Group in Chicago.

If someone walked up to you and made you an offer for your business that you couldn’t refuse, would you be ready to sell your company right away?  How about six months from now?  A year from now? Two years? How about five years from now?  The sales process takes time, but why are some business owners more prepared to sell sooner rather than later, and what do you have to do to be one of them? Listen to this edition of Deal Talk for sound advice from Jonathan Siebers, transactional business law attorney with the firm Rhoades McKee PC in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Just what exactly are you paying your CPA to do?  Sure, CPAs are great for keeping the IRS off your back, but they can--and should--do more than that. A competent CPA can help raise the value of your company and be one of the best partners you can have. According to a recent poll, most businesses change their CPAs two or three times.  Are you one of them?  Learn all about what your CPA should be doing to help your business. (Hint: proactivity has a lot to do with it.) Scott Shields, founding partner of Shields, Blice & Company CPAs in Fairlawn, Ohio joins Jeff Allen for a discussion on this issue.

From sole proprietors and partnerships to LLCs and S corps, the legal entity you choose for your business should provide your person with reasonable protection against financial and legal challenges, but understanding which entity to form for your organization can be complicated, and so can the paperwork that goes along with it, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Connecticut-based attorney Diana Bartolotta advises select small business owners, real estate developers and entrepreneurs on the differences between each of the corporate entities that are out there, the tax advantages of each — if any — and which entity may be right for their particular organization.

“Build it, and they will come” is an ideology best left for blockbuster baseball flicks, not for 99.9% of small businesses. On this edition of “Deal Talk,” you’ll learn about the most important benefits of a well-crafted PR campaign to your business, and the essential components no PR campaign should be without. Also, you’ll find out about the correlation between improved business valuations and intelligently executed PR when we welcome guest expert Debra Vilchis, chief operating officer at Fishman Public Relations in Chicago.   

To find out what makes a business attractive to a prospective buyer, you need to talk to the person who writes the check, or in this case, several checks. Robert Ritch, CEO of Secured Equity Group, is such a person. And as an owner — and seller — of multiple businesses, Ritch knows what it takes to build value and succeed at attracting the right buyers or investors to practically any business in any industry. From startups to seasoned companies, Ritch tells you which attributes are most important to investors in this edition of “Deal Talk.”

There are many reasons for declining values of small, privately held companies. On this edition of “Deal Talk,” we’ll talk with Russell Glazer, CPA and partner at Gettry Marcus in New York, about some of the most common ones, and why you should think twice before attempting any “quick fixes” to improve the value of your business. We’ll discuss smarter alternatives to those quick fixes, as well as how often you should have your business appraised, and the best approach to setting a value for your company.

Just when you thought you’ve made all the cuts you can make, believe it or not, there may be more that you can do to help your business save money.  Investors, business brokers and buyers themselves are on the lookout for profitable companies that are run efficiently and that have trimmed all unnecessary expenses and costs. The question is, what costs can you reduce — or cut further — to improve profitability? Our guest has some thoughts on this subject because he has made it his job to help business owners do just that. Welcome Mr. Vinil Ramchandran, president of AccuSolutions in Long Beach, California.

If you plan to retire within the next five years, this series is for you. As a business owner, there are steps you can take now to save you stress, time and money later on. Have you reviewed your exit plan? Is your team as effective and productive as it can be? Have you or your managers documented your operational systems and procedures? Do you know how much your business is worth … now?  Jennifer Martin, owner of Zest Business Consulting, kicks off this three-part series with the kind of information that has made her one of the most sought-after business consultants in America.

Business valuations — or business appraisals — are an important part of a successful transaction of any M&A deal, but valuations are also important for a number of other non-transactional purposes. In this edition of “Deal Talk,” you’ll learn about the other business and personal uses for business valuations. If you have business partners, are involved in forming a new entity, are married with a family or have special considerations, this show will be of special interest to you. Join Jeff Allen as he speaks with professional business valuation consultant Trisch Garthoeffner, CVA and owner of Anchor Business Valuations & Financial Services LLC. .

The last thing anyone wants to do is invest in a bad business, and yet bad investment decisions are made every day by well-meaning people who base their decisions on insufficient due diligence or an altogether lack of research. In this edition, we visit with Walter Zweifler of Zweifler Financial Research to discuss why it is important to remain objective when looking to acquire a business. Mr. Zweifler will also address how and why it is so important to thoroughly research your target business ahead of time. In addition, you will learn the importance of working to bridge the gap between the business seller’s price and the actual value of their company when negotiating the transaction.

Properly written buy-sell agreements are essential to the smooth transaction of any deal involving mergers and acquisitions. So why are most written so poorly, if at all? If the agreement in any way favors one party over the other, is based on an unreliable calculation method or excludes any pertinent information, the seller can find themselves in court. So how do you avoid litigation? What steps should you take to ensure that your buy-sell agreement is as iron-clad as possible? Those are just some of the questions we ask Michael Blake, CFA and director of Valuation Services at Habif, Arogeti & Wynne LLP in Atlanta, on this edition of “Deal Talk.”

In this episode, we talked to Mary Kay Liston who was named President of Five Star Painting when the Dwyer Group acquired it in 2015. Working with a team of talented franchise consultants, the company realized double-digit growth each year. Mary Kay’s career in franchising began in 2003 when she joined the Valpak Direct Marketing Systems. During her six years there, Mary Kay led the company’s largest operation and turned it from having a negative cash flow to a highly profitable entity. In just her second year as General Manager in Los Angeles she and her team of 100 associates received the coveted Chairman’s Cup, Valpak’s highest award for sales and operations excellence. She cultivated relationships with franchisees to foster best practices across the network.

Having tight financial records sounds like a no-brainer, but do you know how often a business appraiser, CPA or business attorney finds errors or omissions or just evidence of generally poor bookkeeping that could actually kill an M&A deal? Oftentimes owners are completely oblivious. T.J. Liles-Tims, a certified valuations analyst and co-founder of BVFF Partners LCC in Oklahoma City, talks about the importance of having properly prepared financial statements and working with someone who can help you uncover issues that could negatively impact the valuation of your company.