SMERGERS Blog
7 Must-Know Checks Before Purchasing a Restaurant
One investment is all it takes to make your dream of owning a restaurant a reality - buying an already-established one. But before you make an offer on the restaurant of your dreams, you need to be aware that there are still plenty of challenges associated with buying an existing one, just like when opening a new restaurant. Careful research and consideration must be taken before taking the leap and investing in your ambitions. Owning a restaurant can be one of the most rewarding experiences, and with the right preparation and dedication, you can make it happen!
The pandemic has engulfed a major part of 2020. The world started going into lockdown around the month of March and small and medium businesses across the world were the segment that has been affected the most. The industries that have evidently been affected include – real estate & construction, hotel, restaurant, and transportation. As the world ventures into a new year, here is a look at the pandemic’s effect on small businesses.
How To Exit From Your Startup Investment
A business exit strategy is a method used by investors such as venture capitalists and angel investors to receive a cash out of their investment. It gives them a way to reduce or liquidate stake in a business and if the business is successful make a substantial profit. It also helps to limit losses in case the business has not been successful. Some of the common exit strategies include initial public offerings (IPO), strategic acquisitions and management buyouts (MBO). The strategy chosen for exit would depend on numerous factors with each method offering its own advantages and disadvantages.
Personal Loan: Is It A Good Idea For Your Business?
The right financing for your business can come in many forms, as well as many sources. There’s crowdfunding, alternative lenders, bank loans, unsecured loans, secured loans, lines of credit, term loans, equity, debt, and many more.
At a particular point, you may want to settle for a straightforward and simple personal loan instead. However, the question is, can you use it for business purposes? Is personal loan better than a business loan?
5 Ways to Build Up Your E-commerce Business
While e-commerce may never eclipse in-store retail sales, e-commerce is a giant that continues to grow. Currently, about 14% of all retail sales are done online while by 2022, that number is expected to increase to 20%. That’s 1 in every 5 purchases will be made online!
Many people are choosing to jump onto the ecommerce ship for their new business or existing one. It’s simply another way to build up the business, attract new customers, and increase sales over time.
Entrepreneur's Guide to Raising Finance for Business Acquisition and Funding Initial Cash Flow
What’s in this guide: with nearly a decade's worth of experience in business financing, franchising, and business selling, we at SMERGERS have a tried and tested guide to help entrepreneurs raise finance for business acquisitions. This guide covers all three aspects of business financing, beginning with closing costs, varieties of financing options, and funding operational expenses.
In this post we explain the fundamentals of M&A, we describe specialists who are part of the M&A process, and we highlight 12 most common jargons used during an M&A transaction. M&A stands for Mergers and Acquisitions. M&A is a process where companies sell and buy each other. There can be instances where even individuals invest or buy small businesses. When an entrepreneur decides to sell his business, the reasons can be many. He may want to retire, relocate to a different city, focus on another business or simply move on from the business and receive a lucrative offer to buy a beach property.
Is your business set for profit or value? Modern day technology and fewer entry barriers in most industries have changed the business landscape around the world. Starting a business now is easier than ever before in human history. However, starting is just the first step. Convincing people to work for your business or product idea, convincing customers to buy your product and most importantly convincing investors to put money into your business are the most challenging aspects for a business owner. Once you have put a strong business foundation and created an interesting product people want to buy, you will need to raise funds to grow or sell your business. Convincing a buyer is as challenging as convincing investors to invest in your business.
Buying a business is generally cheaper than starting one. And what’s also important is that there are huge advantages that you get when buying a business rather than starting it from scratch. Entrepreneurship through acquisition, or buying a business gives you the added advantage of existing customer base, working marketing strategy, already hired employees, easy financing, avoiding delays of compliance and regulatory approvals, etc. But if you end up buying a business without proper due diligence it may cost you much more time, money and energy that what you would have spent starting one. Hence it is important to check the below listed aspects before you take the plunge.
How to Start a Business and Run it Profitably
In most countries, of all the registered companies only 60-70% of them are actively in business. Some businesses fail in their planning phase, some are declared dormant and some just run out of money. For most of the young entrepreneurs out there, this is a harsh reality. You might think that your idea is good, but if not executed properly, it can be one of the worst mistakes you do in your life. A bad business will have heavy consequences and will drain your financial resources and time.
How To Sell an E-Commerce Business
As an entrepreneur you’ve have spent a lot of time, money and other resources to build and grow your ecommerce business, that you want to sell now. But, how do you proceed with the sale? Pointers below will help you to prep-up for the sale of your eCommerce site.
How to Start a Franchise Business
Entrepreneurs with surplus funds often like to start a franchise business. It may not be their primary source of income but it can lend them a great deal of profitability because the business model is already proven successful and is led by a strong existing and recognised brand.
How to Franchise your Business
If you’re a small business owner, a franchise can be one of the best ways to build your business. Many entrepreneurs dream about exponentially growing their business and making their brand a household name, but typically lack the growth capital required to get to such a stage. Franchising your business ensures a low cost scaling model, though it requires diligence and a laser focussed execution strategy.
Tax Implications of Selling a Business
As an entrepreneur, the eventual exit from the business, however successful, can be made sour unless the tax structure of the sale is optimized. Many business owners have paid over 40% of the sale amount to the Government as taxes, merely due to bad financial planning. In this article, we’ll attempt to decipher some of the less understood points about the taxes incurred while selling your business.
How to Sell Your Business Quickly?
Every business owner has to exit their business at some point – be it for personal or professional reasons. Though selling the business can be a challenge, attempting to sell it quickly poses a unique set of problems. The aim of this article is to educate small business owners on how to sell your business fast.
Though every sale transaction is unique, a well-run business generally takes around 90-180 days to be sold. Most business owners prefer a quick sale, but it makes the acquirers nervous as they like to have enough time to do their due diligence.
How Can I Buy a Business?
For those who’re ready to take the entrepreneurial leap, starting a business from scratch might not be the only option. When you build a business from ground up, there’re many challenges in the same including initial set up, finding early customers, hiring key employees, managing cash flow, etc. These issues are negated when you choose to buy a business which has a proven track record of customers, internal processes, revenue and profit. If you’re asking yourself ‘How can I buy a business?’ this article is for you
Business Brokers - Who they are and what do they do?
Selling a business is never an easy task so you can always enlist the services of a broker to sell your business. They are intermediaries between a business owner who’s selling their business and an acquirer who want to purchase it. They play an important role in sale of businesses in providing expertise needed to get the sale done, a trait most small business owners lack. Also, selling a business takes time, so working with a broker allows the business owner to focus on operating the business while the broker does the leg work required to complete the sale.
How Much is a Business Worth?
"Price is what you pay. Value is what you get" - Warren Buffett
Calculating how much a business is worth is a complex financial subject which is difficult to cover in one article. In this article, let us look at the basics of valuation and what are the typical methods and drivers for valuation of a business. To begin with, it is first important to understand the reason behind why one would like to value a business
How to Find Companies For Sale
Buying an existing business from an owner who’s retiring, relocating or cashing out is a great way to become an entrepreneur. Buying is particularly interesting as most of the legwork is already done by the existing business owner. Plus, you don’t have to go through the long process of figuring out a business model that works, monetization techniques, etc. and go straight to expansion and growing profits.
How to Sell Part of Your Business
For business owners, a great way to retain their business but still get some liquid cash is through selling a part of the business. That’s right – selling a business doesn’t mean you have to sell it completely. You can always sell a portion of it while holding onto the rest. The cash can be used for further growth of operations or get some liquidity. Selling a part of your business might be a better option for you and the business, if you plan and execute the strategy well. Let’s start by exploring the use cases for selling a part of the business.
How to Sell a Running Business?
Different entrepreneurs have different motivations for starting and running a business. Some do it to escape the monotony of working for a corporate outfit, while others do it to pursue a passion. Whatever the reason an entrepreneur has for pursuing a business, eventually he/she would think of selling the business to realize its full potential. There are several reasons why one would want to sell the business. It could be retirement, absence of succession planning, no legal heir, mental fatigue for the entrepreneur or simply, to cash out for the right offer. In this article, we’ll explore different steps one has to take before putting up a running business for sale.
If you’re a business owner with a great firm and are wondering why you aren’t able to attract buyers/investors, perhaps you’re committing some of these classic mistakes (with easy fixes) we’ve seen hundreds of businesses commit.
