Tag: Authenticity

In the latest episode of the Fueling Deals podcast, I share some of the more newsworthy deals of 2018. In the last year, there were a plethora of corporate partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions between major companies. Big deals can teach us big lessons.

Whether we’re looking at a deal like Oracle’s acquisition of DataFox or AlienVault being purchased by AT&T, there are approaches being used on the billion-dollar level that can help the inorganic growth of your business, no matter how large or small.

As you consider how to take advantage or source inorganic growth opportunities for your company, studying the reasons for, types of and strategies underlying the deals that that the big guys do is a smart thing to do.

What can you take away from the biggest deals of 2018?

• Grow through strategic acquisition. Your company doesn’t have to be as large as Gannett or IBM to make a strategic move forward. Bringing on a company whose skillset will compliment that of your company can provide an accelerated path of growth.
• Partner to keep up/outpace a competitor. Walmart and Microsoft seemingly have their sights on Amazon when they partnered for the purpose of being more competitive in e-commerce. Who can your company collaborate or partner with to increase sales?
• Boost internal operations. The best deals can help you strengthen where your business needs some support. With AT&T’s purchase of AlienVault, they boosted their infrastructure and added value for their clients.

There are many differences between all these deals, and by evaluating them, you can use their proven strategies to grow your success.

Make sure to listen closely to this solocast to not only learn about some of the biggest deals that were made in 2018, but also to understand how to apply the philosophies to your own deal-making.

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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!

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In the latest “solocast” episode of the Fueling Deals podcast, I discuss some of the bigger, higher-profile and more newsworthy deals of 2018, and I highlight the lessons that can be drawn from these deals and brought into your business and its own deals, no matter how large or small your business may be.

By analyzing the inner workings, strategic motivations and structural differences of these deals, I believe we can take away some powerful lessons and information about the making of a deal. Through reviewing what the “big guys” are doing, we can apply their philosophies and successful strategies to our own businesses.

There are as many reasons for doing a deal with another business as there are types of deals that can be done. We can learn a great deal about the motivations behind these deals, what the deal partners expect to gain, and even when deals with competitors are appropriate and beneficial. Listen to the episode and apply these lessons to your own deal-making.

The Motivation Behind Deals

As we analyze 2018’s biggest deals, consider the motivation behind them. In some cases it is obvious; IBM’s acquisition of Red Hat positions the company to be the #1 hybrid cloud provider in a rapidly growing market. The benefits of the acquisition are clear, as the deal helps IBM cement its dominance in the market.

Other times, the advantages aren’t as obvious. Why would Apple partner with one of its primary competitors, Google, for the purposes of cloud-based web services? Apple and Google are rivals in many other areas, but this partnership makes sense for both companies as it helps pressure their other main rival, Amazon. Since both companies benefit from the deal, the partnership is worth pursuing despite their ongoing competition in other areas.

The Key Lessons

Even though we are talking about multi-million and billion-dollar deals between huge, dominant corporations, the lessons we can take away from our analysis of their deals can be scaled and applied to businesses of any size. Just like with Oracle’s acquisition of DataFox, you can turn to deals to become even stronger in the areas of your business in which you’re already succeeding. Or, like with AT&T’s purchase of AlienVault, you can acquire a company that will help you boost your internal operations.

There are many other reasons to consider deals as a powerful tool for inorganic growth. The recipe for a successful deal involves having a clear understanding of what your deal partner is bringing to the table, how it will benefit your organization, and whether the deal will be more cost-effective and timely than trying to grow organically in that same direction. It is for this reason that I believe there is much value to be found in analyzing the deals of others and looking into the deeper truths and the nuts and bolts of those deals.

Learn more about Finding the Right Deal by listening to my episode on Fueling Deals podcast.

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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 landscape of the wealth management field is ever-changing, and the changes in the industry have affected the deals as well. In my latest installment of the Fueling Deals podcast, I spoke with Mindy Diamond, CEO and founder of Diamond Consultants, specializing in recruiting and placing financial advisors, on this subject.

Through Mindy’s work in the wealth management field, she has helped facilitate numerous deals between buyers and sellers. She is a true expert at identifying potential deals for her clients, and she is also excellent at identifying weak points when the deal partners aren’t a good match.

On this episode of Fueling Deals, Mindy and I talk about what differentiates a good deal from a bad one. Mindy shares her strategies for identifying when a buyer is ready to buy, and her thoughts on the ever-evolving financial advisor field. Listen to our conversation and learn how a facilitator like Mindy can simplify the sometimes confusing process of finding and closing a deal.

A Complicated Process in a Changing Field

The work Mindy does helps grease the wheels for deal partners within the financial advisor industry. She has worked with big firms like Merrill Lynch, as well as independent, boutique, and specialty firms. One of the major changes Mindy has identified in recent years is the industry’s move to toward independence.

Not only does this create more possibilities and avenues for deal-making, it has also served to complicate the process. There are many more things to consider when structuring a deal now than there were ten years ago. Finding the right partner is critical, but it can be a challenge with the buffet of options available.

Looking to the Heart of a Deal

One of the most important aspects of finding the right deal is self-awareness. The buyer needs to understand specifically what it is looking to get out of the deal, what needs can be met and what challenges can be addressed through acquisition. The buyer needs to also understand what differentiates it in the industry and makes it a more attractive proposition for the seller than its competitors.

It is also important to look at the bigger picture. A deal can have immediate benefits but sour over time. By looking past the instant gratification, you can get a better sense of how your deal will affect you in the long term. That long-term approach is an important aspect of the evaluation process, and an experienced consultant like Mindy can help you with that process.

Learn more about Finding the Right Deal by listening to my episode on Fueling Deals podcast.

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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!

For certain businesses, it is essential to raise capital to get to the next level. One of the key ways that this can be accomplished is through investors. If you don’t structure your deals with investors properly, it can turn a strong move towards growth into a significant liability. During my latest interview on the Fueling Deals podcast, I spoke with Joel Block to gain more insight into finding, pitching and structuring deals with investors to raise capital.

Joel is the CEO of Bullseye Capital as well as a venture capitalist and expert in raising capital and creating investment funds. Joel’s experience in navigating the hedge fund world is one of the many benefits he brings his clients and speaking engagement attendees. He is the master of teaching companies to “draw the shortest line to the money”.

On this episode of Fueling Deals, Joel and I discuss why so many businesses struggle to obtain capital investments, how to structure your offer so that investors can easily understand it, and how to use new tax rules to your favor to completely avoid taxes on your capital gains and 1031 exchange deals. Listen and learn how to get money from others and keep more of your own money.

Terms Matter

If you’re looking for a large source of unsecured equity for your business, there are some things you need to keep in mind. Asking for large amounts of money is a different creature from smaller investments or loans against collateral, and the strategies you employ must adapt to these differences. It’s important to know how to speak the investors’ language and inspire confidence in what you’re doing (and offering).

It is also vitally necessary to understand the terms of the deal you’re offering the investor, whether the terms were drawn up by your attorney or not. If you don’t understand the deal, how can you give good answers to a potential investor’s questions and alleviate their concerns? You don’t need to be fluent in legalese, but you should be able to explain what you’re offering in exchange for their risk.

Simplicity and Shelter

The terms of the deal you’re offering should be simple enough for a layman to understand. Your goal isn’t to convince your investor’s attorney, your goal is to convince your investor to take the risk. Structuring your deal so that it can be easily explained will go a long way in portraying both confidence and knowledge of what you’re offering.

Additionally, Joel shares some incredible information on opportunity zone tax shelters brought to us courtesy of the 2017 tax code changes. Joel explains them as the most potentially powerful tax shelter ever, and he shares how to take advantage of these new rules (as well as their requirements).

Learn more about Raising Capital and Avoiding Taxes by listening to my episode on Fueling Deals podcast.

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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!

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Using social media influencers may not be the first strategy that comes to your mind when you think about getting more deals. However, in my most recent podcast episode, Influencer and Sponsorship Deals, Ramon Ray, a bestselling author and four-time entrepreneur, gave us some great insight into how influencers can be a big asset to your marketing strategy.

Ramon’s career has been about helping entrepreneurs grow and scale their businesses. He also has personal and first-hand experience in the areas of marketing, sales, technology and personal branding. He has spoken before the United States Congress, invited by the Office of the President of the United States to speak at the White House on personal branding and produced many events including the “Smart Hustle Small Business Conference”, “Small Business Summit”, “Small Business Technology Tour”, “Small Biz Big Things” and more.

On this episode of Fueling Deals, Ramon and I talk about influencer and sponsorship deals, why they make sense for businesses of all kinds, and how they can have a powerful return on investment. Ramon shares his own experiences of closing a deal to sell his business, and he details his experience of setting up a business partnership and how it was structured. Listen to our conversation and learn why deals aren’t just mergers and acquisitions, they can be smaller arrangements… with huge results.

Why Influencers?

Social media influencers are a relatively new phenomenon, so why would you turn to one for your marketing? The answer is simple. An influencer already has an established relationship with his or her audience and has already done the work of building trust and growing their community. You can tap into that ready-made market for far less money than you would spend working with a traditional celebrity.
Social media influencers are also a great way to tailor your marketing efforts. You already know the kind of content the social media influencer is making, and you know who their target audience is. Finding and working with an influencer whose audience is your exact demographic can reap rewards you wouldn’t find with traditional marketing methods, and for far less money.

The Variety in Deals

As I have stressed before, deals aren’t just about mega-mergers and acquisitions. Working with smaller deals can provide significant benefit to your business as well. Influencer and sponsorship deals can be a powerful tool to connect your business with a premade audience, expose your products or services to new people who are more likely to be interested, and allow you to connect to your customers and build brand trust.

And that’s just one of the many types of deals at your disposal. If you haven’t done a deal before, just remember: everyone started with one deal. Perhaps working with an Instagram or YouTube star or, more applicable to some businesses, a LinkedIn Influencer is a great first deal to help give you a sense of how powerful deals can be in growing and scaling your business.

Learn more about Influencers and Sponsorship Deals by listening to my episode on Fueling Deals podcast.

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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!

I’ve been working in the business of deals and negotiations for more than 30 years, both as a successful entrepreneur and as an attorney. My goal is to help you strategize, plan for, find, and complete deals that will help your company grow more rapidly and strategically. This is called “inorganic growth”, and it differs from the traditional often slow, organic growth you’re probably familiar with.

On this episode of Fueling Deals, I discuss the key concepts and important terms you need to be aware of before you consider a merger or acquisition. I outline and define the various types of other deals available to businesses of all sizes, and I discuss how each has its own benefits, drawbacks, and pitfalls to avoid. Listen and learn the difference between angel investment, private equity and venture capital, and find out how inorganic growth can fuel your business.

Deals for Everyone

No matter how big or small your business, you can benefit from deals with other companies.

There’s a type of deal for almost every situation and new opportunity. The point of my podcast is to expand your understanding of what options are available to you and give you the knowledge you need to make informed choices.

As I highlight in the episode, deals are about more than just mergers and acquisitions. Maybe you need to generate capital for your business and would consider an equity investment. Maybe you’re looking to add new talent to your team and you are in a position to acqui-hire them. Maybe there is a client vendor or industry partner with which you can enter into a strategic alliance. The multitude of options mean that you have a tremendous number of tools available to you to help you scale your business.

Definitions Matter

The business of deals has a lot of lingo. In this episode, I take the time to explain what these keywords mean in layman’s terms. I even go a step further, breaking out concepts like joint ventures into the two different types (company joint ventures and contractual joint ventures) and explain the difference.

At its simplest definition, a deal is just an agreement that (ideally) benefits both parties.

Deals can be a great way to lean into the strengths of your business, or shore up its weaknesses. I hope this episode helps you better understand the dynamic growth opportunities available to your company and gives you the confidence to take action and do deals that help you achieve your dreams and objectives.

Learn more about The Language of Deals by listening to my episode on Fueling Deals podcast.

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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!

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In the latest episode of the Fueling Deals podcast, I interviewed David DeVoe about the ins and outs of different types of deals and how each one has its advantages and disadvantages.

David’s work with DeVoe & Company makes him a true expert on the pros and cons of deals. Through the extraordinary depth and breadth of experience his team brings to their clients, they work to smooth the process and transition of deals and to maximize the benefits their clients reap.

On this episode of Fueling Deals, David and I discuss services his company provides; everything from succession planning to governance, investment banking, and valuation services. One particular and interesting area of David’s work is in serving as an objective third party to help companies facilitate their deals in a way that benefits everyone involved – the buyer, seller, clients and employees. Listen to our conversation and learn from David’s impressive insights.

Telling the Right Story

As David explains, it is critical to have all of your ducks in a row when courting buyers. This means identifying areas where you are weak, cleaning up your records, making sure contracts are signed with all your clients, and doing the necessary background work to tell the right story.

If you are a seller, look at things from the buyer’s perspective. And tell the right story. Be clear and communicative, respond to requests for information, and be honest. Trust is a big component in any deal, and so it is important to take steps to foster trust with your prospective buyers.

Buy, Sell or Merge?

As a buyer, it is vitally important to understand the needs and capabilities of your organization. One of the functions DeVoe & Company serves for their clients is to help identify if an organization is even in a strong enough position to consider buying another firm. You need to make sure you have enough capital to complete the deal you’re looking for, and you need to be certain the seller will be a good fit for your organization.

Additionally, it’s important to be sure you’re buying another firm for the right reasons. Does the acquisition address a specific need or problem, or would you be better served by merging with another firm? Or would you possibly even be better off selling? Maybe the problems you’re trying to address can be taken care of through other strategies rather than a merger or acquisition? These questions are important, and David and his team at DeVoe & Company help their clients find the answers they need.

Listen to the full interview in David’s episode on the podcast, Greasing the Wheels of Deals.

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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!