The Exit Planning lnstitute's Northeast Ohio Chapter partnered with Grant Thornton, PNC Bank, and the Ohio Employee Ownership Center at Kent State University in 2013* to conduct a survey of business owners. The goal of the survey was to ask business owners a set of questions around a broader and larger issue: how effectively [...]
Doctors in the developing world measure their progress not by the aggregate number of children who die in childbirth, but by the infant mortality rate – a ratio of the number of births to deaths. Similarly, baseball’s leadoff batters measure their “on-base percentage” – the number of times they get on base – as a [...]
You know gross margin impacts your profit, but have you considered the impact it has on the value of your company? When assessing your company’s value, acquirers and investors will often scrutinize your gross profit margin. Gross profit margin is the difference between a company’s revenue and its cost of goods sold. In other [...]
Specializing in one product or service allows you to focus on delivering that thing better than everyone else. It enables you to hire (or train) specialists in your field, improving the quality of your work, which leads to happier customers. And satisfied customers buy again and refer their friends. That’s why specialists often grow faster [...]
Are you ready to transition your business? At some point, every business owner will confront the fact that it’s time to selling the company to outsiders or transferring it to insiders. While succession is always on the horizon, a majority of business owners are not only unaware of their company’s value, but they also have [...]
As a business owner, a vital component of your strategic plan is your exit strategy. When it comes time to part ways with your business, many owners face the same dilemma: Who is the best person to sell the business to? While there are several options, owners typically consider selling the business to an employee. [...]
You have toiled for years, or even decades, with plans of hitting the golf course several times per week, traveling the world or moving to a different climate to enjoy your retirement. You may imagine a future spent sleeping in, reading books, catching up on your favorite television show and cooking delicious meals with your [...]
Retirement is not far away—especially for members of the Baby Boomer generation. This may be a threatening reality, as working for or owning a business is an inextricable part of many Americans’ lives. With more than 60 percent of privately held small businesses owned by Baby Boomers, there is expected to be a massive exodus [...]
At some point, you will leave your business—with or without a well-defined plan. Planning for succession is oftentimes left until the very last moment, as business owners struggle to create a detailed strategy in advance. In fact, only 13 percent of business owners have any succession plan at all. It is a crucial part of [...]