by Ryan Tansom | Jan 25, 2017 | Blog Post
Do your customers pay you right away!?
Recently I spoke at a conference and I said to the audience: “raise your hand if your customers use you as a bank”. You can probably guess just how many people in the room had their hands in the air!
Customers end up using you as a bank because you let them.
Not only does this impact normal day to day operations but it increases your need for capital to cover the expenses during the time it takes your customers to pay. This can be a nuisance, but what really hits home is how this directly affects the value of you business and how much money you take home when you sell!
It doesn’t matter how small or big you are – it’s all about communication and expectations. These are driven by priority, and if you don’t prioritize this it will negatively affect how much money you get at the end of the day.
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by Ryan Tansom | Jan 17, 2017 | Blog Post
Headline: How to survive in the wild west: M&As debunked
While you might not see a mergers and acquisitions advisor ride into town on horseback, you’ve still got to find a way to identify the cowboys. The trouble is, so many of the people you may turn to for help selling your business will call themselves a ‘M&A advisor’, but their skills could be wildly different to one another. Read on for an explanation of the two ends of the M&A scale, and for our advice on how to make the right choice for your business….
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by Ryan Tansom | Jan 10, 2017 | Blog Post
Handing over a family business is a notoriously difficult way of cashing in your chips, but it really doesn’t have to be. Keep reading to learn a very simple methodology that we’ve seen work time and again.
Stand firm: keep your profits
So many business owners assume they have to fold right at the beginning of any family succession plan, i.e. as soon as the planning starts they relinquish control of their business, they lose the share of the annual profit they’d been drawing for every year they owned the business. But why does this need to be the case?
Play your cards right and you can incentivize your children to buy you out with profits they’ve made for YOUR company. That way, everybody wins: you keep the income and cash flow you are used to, and then anything the company makes above and beyond that will be used to gradually buy your share of the company.
You kids are buying their way into the business with their own sweat equity! (more…)
by Ryan Tansom | Jan 3, 2017 | Blog Post
Flow is an absolutely fundamental part of both business and life after business. You might not call it flow, but you sure as hell miss it when it’s gone.
The definition of flow
In lay man’s terms, ‘flow’ simply means ‘being in the zone’. One of the main reasons entrepreneurs find it difficult to let go is the constant high feeling they get when day-to-day business puts them in a flow state…. it can be seriously addictive.
The man credited with pioneering flow as a scientific concept is a psychologist called Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. This is his definition:
“Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.” (more…)
by Ryan Tansom | Dec 27, 2016 | Blog Post
Entrepreneurship is a journey. Sounds obvious, right? I think most would agree if you asked them, however, the majority of entrepreneurs don’t act like it is. They are permanently stuck in the first half doing the fun stuff, but the game is really won and lost in the second half.
Bo Burlingham gives a great analogy in my podcast interview comparing entrepreneurship to a construction project. Entrepreneurs tend to focus only on growth (the building phase) and in turn fail to see the whole picture. Every project must be completed. Smaller details need to be managed and fine tuned before the project can truly be labeled “finished”.
No one wants to move into a building that is only full of 2x4s and insulation. Everyone expects there to be toilets, light switches, carpet etc. before they would even consider buying it. The true art is finishing a project and making everything come together. (more…)
by Ryan Tansom | Dec 21, 2016 | Blog Post
We all know how important trust is in our everyday lives, but not enough companies really understand the power and impact it has in business. You may think your employees are trustworthy… but do you show how much you trust them via the responsibility you give them? Or are you like most of us business owners and THINK about the trust you have in your employees but fail to communicate and act upon that trust?
Not only is trust a crucial trait of all top leaders and a vital part of profitable businesses… it can be one of the most important factors in successfully transitioning your company to next-level management or a new buyer. Trust, or lack thereof, can completely dictate the outcome of your exit plan. (more…)
