Author: coreykupfer

Cindy Watson is the founder of Watson Labour Law and more recently, the creator of Women on Purpose and pioneer of the Art of Feminine Negotiation Program. She is keeping the momentum flowing with a scheduled book release this year where she will be launching The Art of Feminine Negotiation: How to Get What You Want From the Board Room to the Bedroom.

One of the things that prompted Watson to pursue this journey of Women on Purpose and the Art of Negotiation was her experience growing up in a rental apartment complex in a tough neighborhood. When she was young, Watson developed a strong passion for creativity and the arts. The only problem was since she came from a family of low financial status, there was a lot more pressure for Watson to capitalize on her strong academic performance and pursue a traditional career path that would guarantee a higher income.

Climbing the Ranks

Now she is based professionally in Toronto as a practicing lawyer, with her own firm close to the town she grew up in. Law is the first field she ever started a business in and Watson claims that “sometimes ‘not knowing’ is the greatest gift we can have.” Although she knew essentially nothing about running a company, her blissful ignorance allowed her to leave a job she was unhappy with to start her own firm. Looking back it seems like a preposterous idea, but that leap of faith ended up serving as a foundation for many great accomplishments to come.

Luckily, everything fell into place because Watson was able to own her value. A lot of people coming from the background she has are either really driven or feel like they’re not enough. Factors like, background, gender, class, race and other things can have a significant impact on what people can accomplish, but most people don’t realize that they can form a conscious decision to fight the circumstances. Women, and particularly women of color have so much more in terms of generations of conditioning, and they are set off with a distinct disadvantage even as early as kindergarten.

Step Into the Arena

When women step into their natural, feminine, intuitive negotiation styles, they can be more effective negotiators than professionals who use typical, masculine negotiation tactics. It can be a real advantage since most people don’t expect women to be good negotiators, especially when considering the expectation that negotiating is all about the bark and the bite. This connotation causes a lot of women to believe that they cannot be good negotiators because they lack the strength to be aggressive and assertive. But assertiveness is only one factor in negotiation among other key components like rapport building, empathy, flexibility, intuition, trustworthiness, and the list goes on.

It is not a question of capability, it is a question of mindset because most of the key successful negotiation attributes are traits that are traditionally considered to be feminine. There is no benefit to overcompensating so you can fit into a perceived “man’s world,” and luckily we are starting to see a generational shift in our society where this is changing. There are two types of negotiations: One will be the start of an ongoing relationship, and the other is a one-off situation that affects your reputation and karma because it is a small world. Real power is being able to use restraint when you don’t have to use it and that is the mark of a mature and experienced negotiator.

In this episode of the Fueling Deals podcast, Cindy Watson joins host Corey Kupfer to tell her story and talk about some of the negotiation wisdom she brings to female professionals through her conferences and book.

Click here to listen to the episode, and make sure to visit fuelingdeals.com for more informative episodes on growing your business inorganically through deals.

Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author and professional speaker who is passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.

If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal- Ready Assessment today!

When Dennis Miller was growing up, he dreamt of coaching a college football team to The Rose Bowl, but you might say it’s because nonprofit consultation and training wasn’t necessarily a booming industry at the time. Fifteen years ago, he started a business doing exactly that and lives out his coaching dream in the medical field instead of on the turf.

Dennis wanted to do something new but he wasn’t sure what it was until he was approached by someone from the regional American Cancer Society who asked him a lot of ‘how-to’ questions about building his board and brand etc. Miller had twenty-five years of experience in the healthcare industry and eventually oversaw two large medical centers where he further developed this skill set. A light bulb went off after that conversation and his new endeavor as a consultant began.

The Nonprofit Search Group

Dennis Miller’s company, The Nonprofit Search Group, specializes in executive recruitment for nonprofit organizations that are seeking presidents, CEOs, and other candidates for high profile positions. Miller has a lot of experience as a CEO with his first title at only thirty-seven years old, so he acts as a coach for clients across a wide array of industries to help them facilitate and achieve their strategic vision. On Miller’s end, this is primarily accomplished by increasing performance on the board level and C-level so that they can have a bigger impact on their community.

Deals in the Nonprofit Space

There are plenty of deals that go on in the nonprofit space, and Dennis Miller encounters these regularly. How you ask? One example would be Miller stepping outside of his label as a recruiter. If one of his clients is looking for a CEO because they are struggling financially, Dennis might recommend that they consider a merger to become an affiliate of another organization with a stronger financial standing. Then he helps facilitate this deal with the two organizations, and continues his search for a CEO. This puts all three parties in a stronger position to succeed, and it is a pure means of inorganic growth.

Mergers and Acquisitions, affiliate agreements, strategic alliances, and arrangements between for-profit and nonprofit organizations are some of the most common deals you see in this space. The reality is, “no margin, no mission.” A lot of nonprofits are starting to recognize the importance of operating more like a for-profit business, because although everyone means well you have to bill and collect to have the means to make a difference. There is a stereotype for nonprofits but it takes real business skills to make one of these organizations successful. Nonprofit is your tax status, not your business.

Down, Not Out

Take it from someone who went from being homeless to one of the youngest, top hospital executives. Dennis Miller was not a good student and he grew up with a lot of hardship and adversity in his household. He couldn’t get into a college and after facing a massive downward spiral, he eventually self-admitted himself to a psychiatric hospital. When he finally started to get on his feet, Dennis’s dad had a bad day and threw him out of the house where he ended up at a dead-end job, living in a boarding house.

After writing every college in the state, Dennis Miller committed to Rutgers, graduated top of his class in two years, then went to Columbia. Miller’s perseverance and determination to charge through obstacles are at the core of his business practices and clients have told him that “you can see our future before we can.” In this episode of Fueling Deals, Dennis Miller shares his story and talks about nonprofits as a business. Click here to listen to the episode.

Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author and professional speaker who is passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.

If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal- Ready Assessment today!

As a kid, Peter Dolch always wanted to be a Sci-Fi author. But, as summer approached and he prepared to start his first book, Peter’s father told him that he needed to make money instead. Dolch had no idea that starting his first business that summer would redirect his energy, and lay the foundation for a career of 25 years in managing and launching technology-based startups. Today, Peter Dolch still serves as the Managing Partner for one of his first endeavors—Thaumaturgix, Inc. (Tgix)— a boutique software development and infrastructure company that was twice ranked in the Inc. 500 Fastest-Growing Private Companies List. But, more rewarding than growing Thaumaturgix was the opportunity to help others get on their feet.

During that twenty-five year period, Dolch found inspiration by helping launch over fifty startups, a couple of which were incubated in his office. This inspired him to step back from active engagement with large client projects so he could focus on early-stage startups as a mentor and strategist, sometimes playing a more active role. By offering all of these services, Peter was able to gain equity in the companies he worked with, but it took careful evaluation to put himself in a position where these equity deals were lucrative. Incubating companies was a way for them to try and monetize underused resources while creating new opportunities to grow Tgix inorganically.

Finding the Right Fit

CheetahMail was one of the deals that paid off, and once it was ready for sale they agreed to an exit plan of $36M. However, not all of Peter’s deals work out this way. Regardless of his efforts to critically vet startups based on what Tgix could offer and how the startup’s mission aligned with Dolch’s goals and resources, things happened that were beyond his control. Dolch learned a lot from those failures, but the biggest takeaway is that there are a lot of external factors out of your control that doesn’t necessarily reflect your business decisions. Nevertheless, Peter has defied the odds of startup success because when you are investing your own money and resources you have ultimate control over the deployment of your funds.

Now Peter Dolch is also the Managing Partner at AEON Foundry where he continues his work with budding entrepreneurs in New York City. This position brings new challenges since the outside funding brings more expectations for returns from investors and the dilemma of having capital deployed versus making good business decisions. Peter has a methodical approach to finding new business opportunities, and an open line of communication between him and his veteran investors maintains a productive dialogue where decisions can be made with more efficiency.

At AEON Foundry, Peter has very clear expectations set out with his investors and he is upfront about the fact that the money will be locked up longer than typical capital. But he explains the binary nature of these startup investments, where the business are either going to do really well or flame out. In the long run, with the right investment choices, you’re likely to benefit significantly more from the exit of one or two of the successes than what you lose on the ones that don’t make it.

Angel Investors

Peter also discusses the angel groups he works with and what they do. There are numerous ways for entrepreneurs to go out and get funding, but angel groups try to streamline this process by holding events like accelerators, incubators, pitch events, etc. With these opportunities popping up constantly in Manhattan, investors can focus on a specific vertical that fits their investment strategy. Dolch prefers to work with other people who he can depend upon to do their due diligence, which is why he joined the New York Angels. If an opportunity comes through New York Angels, there is a rigorous vetting process followed by a presentation to the broader angel community.

If you are thinking about investing in similar opportunities, it is important to identify whether or not the company is able to use the cash to achieve an inflection point that dramatically alters the valuation, or positions it to do so. Even if a company has a successful business, there might be an opportunity for them to grow faster – so do your due diligence, and find a deal that resonates with, and is authentic to, you.

Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author and professional speaker who is passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.

If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal- Ready Assessment today!

The U.S. economy is still rising, and business leaders across the country have experienced a decade of increased confidence and optimism. The unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been in half a century, and the GDP has seen a steady increase for the last ten years as well. During periods of expansion, a myriad of new business opportunities arise, but the majority of entrepreneurs who focus only on organic growth can only take full advantage if they are willing to step outside of their comfort zones and devise a new plan the includes learning how to do good deals in strong markets.

In this week’s episode of Fueling Deals, I lay out a strategy for using inorganic growth to rapidly expand your business in an up-economy. Inorganic growth requires foresight and planning because even with a strong market, there can be major hurdles to finding the right opportunity. Without knowing what to look for, you may fall victim to the pitfalls and challenges – like losing deal discipline – of doing business in a strong economy. That is why I am discussing the special indicators and gaps that I look for when identifying the most lucrative deals under these circumstances.

Identifying Opportunity in a Strong Economy

Consumer confidence, unemployment, availability of capital, and the stock market are all great indicators of where you stand in the business cycle. But, it is difficult to bet on the market, which is why I want you to look to do deals in every phase of the economy. In a previous blog and my last Fueling Deals solocast, I laid out thing to consider for doing deals in a down economy, so this time we take a look at the opposite end of the spectrum in this week’s episode of Fueling Deals.

In an up-market, the availability of capital, cost of capital, and relaxation of investment criteria provide a strong base for crafting a deal-based growth strategy. These circumstances shift the balance toward the entrepreneur and businesses getting the investment due to fundamental supply and demand but also due to the pressure investors often have to deploy capital and get returns.

More money with fewer restrictions can be extremely lucrative, but I must stress the importance of defining strict criteria for your deals to avoid getting into trouble. If you identify opportunities that allow for shortened pathways to fruition, a good economy will only accelerate that process whether it is M&A, joint-venture, strategic alliance or anything else. If, however, you unconsciously bath in the available capital without considering its contingencies and requirements or you take too much money too soon, you can easily make a bad deal.

Deals rooted in synergy and recognizing additional efficiencies and opportunities in a target company will play out faster when the market is up, but if you overpay in any market, it is a bad deal. You need to know your objectives and the upsides going into it, and if the deal is fundamentally sound, you will have enough cushion to ride it out even when a recession hits. I hope the insights in this episode will help you compose a plan of attack for business growth in a strong economy.

For more informative episodes of Fueling Deals that can help you grow your business rapidly and inorganically through deals, please visit www.fuelingdeals.com.

Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author and professional speaker who is passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.

If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal- Ready Assessment today!