We discuss how to successfully acquire a business in a seller’s market & get to the front of the line when a great seller opportunity becomes available.
Business Growth Articles and Tools
Contribution Margin Formula
Contribution margin is an important method of not only understanding how profitable a business is, but also how its products and services contribute to the bottom line. It’s important to understand that contribution margin is different from profit margin, since profit margin measures the total amount of sales revenue minus costs. Instead, contribution margin measures the profitability of each individual product or service after subtracting variable costs.
5 Steps to Deal with your Difficult Employees
Entrepreneurship offers the most even-tempered humans many challenges. One suchDifficult Employees challenge is managing difficult employees who are forever causing havoc. You know who they are. And so does your spouse! One of my favorite clients refers to her difficult employees as her “high-maintenance employees.”
Mezzanine Debt: Growth and Acquisition Capital
As markets recover post-recession, business owners are presented with growth opportunities. However, a business owner may not have access to the capital needed to execute on a growth strategy. Where does a business owner turn?
Non-Solicitation Agreement | How to Keep Your Best Employees
If you’ve grown a valuable business, there is no doubt your employees are a big part of your success. You also know that hiring, training, and managing a great team of productive employees is a difficult task. And keeping your best employees is yet another accomplishment! But the painful truth is your competition would be very pleased to hire away your best employees.
Three Keys to an Effective Performance Management System
For most companies, the end of the year is a time when employees and leaders go through the annual review process. This process is designed to rate performance for the year and, if applicable, apply a merit increase. Many companies consider this their performance management system. A true performance management system however is much more involved.
When Should You Have Intellectual Property Licensing Agreements?
An intellectual property rights owner (licensor) authorizes certain rights to another (licensee) in exchange for an agreed payment in the form of either a fee or a royalty, or some combination of both.
IRS Code Section 409A and its Impact on Stock Options
Gone are the days when companies could choose the exercise price and option terms for stock options without...
Contract Provisions Checklist
Entering into a new contract is an exciting time for any company. The agreement is signed with the hope that it will grow the business and result in a long, mutually beneficial relationship with the other side. While such optimism is warranted, the importance of entering into a legally sound contract is critical to the protection of your business.
Optimizing For More Conversions (and maybe) Less Visitors
Search optimization is all about getting more visitors to your website, right? Not really. If you think...
What Does Gross Revenue Mean to Your Profitability?
Profitability is directly related to a company’s gross revenue, particularly as it relates to its varied customer types. What does gross revenue mean to your company’s profitability? Everything. Let’s back up to review the concepts we’ve covered in previous posts so we may explore gross revenue further.
Do You Recall the Laughter of Your Childhood?
Recently I took my nine year old daughter and a carload of her friends to our town’s Volunteer Fireman’s Carnival for an evening of ferris wheels, funnel cakes, and laughter–of course! It was a Friday night after a long week. Truly, I would have benefited from a simple dinner at home to unwind from the week. Sound familiar? However, I intuitively knew that the laughter of those children was most important and desperately needed…so off we went.
The Importance of an Employee Handbook: Small Business Edition
One of the most common questions I get from small business owners is, “when do I need an employee handbook?” In a perfect world, an employee handbook would be part of the startup protocol, but that usually isn’t the case. In the midst of building a website, working on business development and actually putting together a sellable product, writing policies and procedures is not top of mind.