Tag: deals

Mergers and acquisitions aren’t the only types of deals that can help your business grow inorganically, and sometimes it can be helpful to think outside the box. Creative deal-making can supercharge your growth, if you can identify and capitalize on opportunities.

Damon Gersh is a master of recognizing and taking advantage of opportunities like this. Damon is the President and CEO of Maxons Restorations, Inc., an innovative leader in the property damage restoration industry. Damon is a winner of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the Fast Company Award for Leadership, and Inc. 500 and Inc. 5000 awards. Damon is also a Past President of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization New York City Chapter, the co-founder of the Gathering of Titans annual entrepreneurial conclave, and the co-founder and Past President of Restoration Affiliates, LLC.

In this week’s episode of the Fueling Deals Podcast, Damon and I talk about some of the innovative and creative deal-making strategies he has employed to turn his business into a leader of the restoration industry. Damon shares how having a passion for his work and aligning his values to his business decisions have helped him create some unique and powerful alliances with competitors in the industry, as well. I hope you are able to learn much from our conversation.

Finding Your Choke Point

One of the keys of Maxons Restorations’ success was when Damon identified and capitalized on the “choke point” of his industry. For the restoration field, this choke point is found in the availability of experienced and capable people who know how to clean up after major disasters. When the 9/11 attacks rocked New York City, Damon recognized that there would need to be intense cleanup efforts for a long time, and he locked down as much of the experienced crews in the city as he could with exclusivity agreements.

Doing so allowed Damon to ensure that the available talent in his field were working for him during the cleanup process, and his army of 1,600 employees were major players in Manhattan’s restoration efforts. This gained his company a significant amount of brand awareness and national recognition. Damon strategically used deals to strengthen his company while shutting out competitors.

Partnering With the Competition

Following the 9/11 cleanup, Damon recognized another opportunity to use deals to help position his company. He formed Restoration Affiliates as a partnership with major competitors from diverse geographic regions as a way to refer clients to other organizations working in areas where Maxons does not operate. Damon realized that the industry is stronger together and was able to unify many players in the industry under one umbrella, despite earlier similar efforts that had failed in the past.

While it may sound counterintuitive, strategic alliances with competitors can often be highly beneficial to all parties involved. Maxons gives and gets referrals through Restoration Affiliates, and they are able to partner on projects too big for competitors to handle alone. As Damon demonstrates, there are many possibilities for deals that can strengthen your company outside of standard mergers and acquisitions. The key is to be flexible in your thinking and recognize opportunities for such deals when they appear.

If you’d like to learn more about Damon Gersh and his company, Maxons Restorations, please visit www.maxons.com or call 1-800-3MAXONS. For more informative episodes of the Fueling Deals Podcast like this one, please visit us at 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!

Our economy has been moving in a positive direction for around ten years now, ever since it began recovering from the dramatic 2008 recession. Since the economy tends to run in cycles, there’s a not-insignificant chance that we may be headed for another downturn in the near future. What does this mean for doing deals? Is there anything we as investors and business leaders can do to prepare for an economic downturn?

As a matter of fact, a weak economy is an ideal time to do deals. A bear market creates new opportunities for deal-making that aren’t always available during periods of strong growth. A recession exposes hidden weaknesses in business that aren’t apparent during a bull market, and weaker or less prepared companies are often available to purchase at steep discounts. Now, it’s important to remember that nobody can tell you what’s in the tea leaves with any certainty, and trying to time the market can be a risky prospect. I’m not saying that a recession in the near future is a certainty, but there are many statistics and other indicators circulating that could potentially be predictive of clouds on the horizon. Readying yourself and your business now, while the weather is still nice, can help you be more prepared for new opportunities if a storm should roll in whether that is 6 months or 6 years from now.

For this episode of the Fueling Deals podcast, I talk about what key events take place when a good economy starts to turn in the other direction, and I offer strategies for preparing your business interests and investments to survive and even thrive during a recession. The key takeaway from this episode is that it is important to begin thinking about the kinds of opportunities a recession creates before it actually hits, and I hope this episode offers you some insights into how to do so.

Why a Bad Economy is Good for Deals

Here’s the thing, a strong, healthy economy full of growth can “artificially” prop up businesses and make them look healthier than they actually are. The real test of the health of a business comes when the market recedes. To use a metaphor, as the tide rolls out what’s underneath the water is exposed, and many businesses find that they aren’t on the stable foundation they thought they were. This can dramatically devalue weaker businesses, which in turn can create fantastic deal opportunities to purchase these businesses at a steep discount.

It’s said that there is a lot of money to be made in a recession. Ultimately, most of this money comes from deals, which is why some investors begin raising and saving capital during the tail end of a healthy economy so that they enter a recession fully prepared to take advantage of these new opportunities. It’s a viable strategy, although as I’ve said before it can be risky to try to time the market. Regardless, your first step should be to look to your own business and investments and ensure that they’re as healthy and stable as possible before you begin preparing for new opportunities.

Deals are Always Available, No Matter What the Economy Does

Even in a good economy, there are ample opportunities for great deals to be done, so I don’t want you to get the idea that you should wait for the market to begin turning before you look into deals. This episode of the Fueling Deals podcast is about getting you to stop and consider, to really think about the kinds of opportunities that may come open during a recession so that you can fully prepare to take advantage of them.

The fact of the matter is that the start of a recession is a very unstable time with lots of risk and lots of opportunities, and the only thing you can’t do during this turbulent period is trying to do business as usual. Build up your economic strengths so that you can weather the chaos, and then take advantage of other businesses’ weaknesses by doing deals at steep discounts. That’s the secret to making money during a recession and, while it’s easier said than done, careful preparation and planning can open up new opportunities for you to grow your wealth and the success of your business.

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!

Statistics say that around 70% of small business owners intend to eventually sell their business and use that money to fund retirement, lifestyle or next business. The scary fact is that somewhere around 90-95% of small businesses are “unsellable” in their current state, and so too many business owners have built a trap for themselves where they are never able to pull out and exit the business

That’s where Mike Finger comes in. Mike is the founder of Exit Oasis, a firm that specializes in helping business owners prepare their businesses to be more attractive to potential buyers. Mike is an expert in helping business owners extract themselves from the day-to-day operations of their companies. Mike has been there himself; after founding a business with his wife and growing it over the course of years, he was ready to make major changes in his life. But no buyer was interested in buying Mike out of the company he’d built, because he was too integral to its successful operation. Mike had to learn how to make his business more attractive and independent to make it more appealing to buyers, and now he teaches other business owners those same hard-won skills he learned.

For this episode of the Fueling Deals podcast, Mike and I discuss these important skills and the fact that the market does little to teach business owners how to exit. Mike shares strategies and tools that can help business owners turn their “unsellable” business into an irresistible one. Mike Finger is a true expert in developing exit strategies for business owners, and I hope you enjoy our informative and eye-opening conversation.

The Trap of Great Leadership

As Mike explains it, one of the biggest traps business owners can fall into is that the very same hard work, skills, long hours and dedication that can help them grow their business is the thing that makes the business less attractive to potential buyers. Think about it for a moment; can your business operate entirely without you? If you were to just stop going in, would your business continue to run at peak efficiency?

If a business cannot operate without its owner, why would another party be interested in buying that business from the owner? If the current owner is the business, there’s no real value to be found in the company after the deal is done. That’s the trap. The very things you’ve done for years to grow and strengthen your business are the things holding you back from being able to sell it. And, unfortunately, the market doesn’t do much to teach business owners how to extract themselves from the everyday operation of their business.

How to Ready Your Business for Sale

If you are hoping to sell your business, it’s important to begin making your business more attractive to potential buyers. You need to truly consider what your business is worth without you there to run it. Try to look at your business from an outside perspective. Where is the value your business can offer to a potential buyer? What advantages and drawbacks would a buyer find when evaluating the worth of your business? It isn’t just a matter of whether your business is profitable, it’s a question of whether a potential buyer would keep that profitability after buying you out.

Mike and his team at Exit Oasis are experts at helping business owners answer these complex questions, and they can help simplify the process of readying a business for sale. Having a guide to help you through the process can certainly make things easier by eliminating much of the complexity for you. They can show you how to document and illustrate the value of your company, and they can help you see potential pain points that might frighten buyers away. No matter how many deals you do over the course of your time as a business owner, selling your interest in the business may be the most important deal of all.

If you’d like to learn more about Mike Finger and Exit Oasis, please visit www.exitoasis.com where you can find free tools and resources as well as other valuable information on readying your business for sale. For more informative episodes of Fueling Deals like this one, 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!

As you know, not every deal is a good deal. Some deals fall apart during the negotiating process, while others go through but bring problems and challenges you weren’t expecting. How do you know which deals are worth doing for your business, and which you should avoid? How do you ensure that your company benefits from the deal without unexpected side effects?

On the most recent episode of the Fueling Deals podcast, my guest was Chris Wilkerson. Chris is the Founder and CEO of High Bar Capital, a group which specializes in funding, acquisition and management of high-quality businesses in niche markets. Their stated goal is to grow businesses while increasing their value. Chris has extensive experience with deals, having previously worked in business development at Ventro, a B2B marketplace. Throughout his career, Chris has seen and experienced both good deals and bad deals, and his firsthand experience has given him some valuable insights.

During our conversation, Chris shared his work at High Bar Capital and discussed how they typically control a majority stake in between three and five businesses at any given time, and he shared the important criteria he uses to evaluate a deal. He offered examples of some of the deals that didn’t go the way he wanted them to, and he highlighted the important lessons he learned along the way.

Understanding Your Deal Partner

One of the stories Chris shared during our conversation was about a deal that he had sunk plenty of time, attention and work into, only to have it fall apart and his deal partner walk away from the table. As it turns out, Chris didn’t understand his deal partner as well as he thought. He didn’t know who the actual decision-makers at the other company were and didn’t know what they ultimately hoped to gain from the deal, and as a result they backed out. It took months for Chris to repair the relationship and try again.

The lesson here is that it is important to understand who you are dealing with and what they are expecting from you. Chris learned this lesson, and it helped him in future deals. Do your research, make sure the person or people you are dealing with are empowered to make decisions on the other company’s behalf, and take the time to ask questions and truly understand what they hope to achieve from their deal with you. That way, you can offer products or services that are core to their operations and you can ensure that your offer proves irresistible, without any unexpected surprises.

White Label Deals

There are countless types of deals you can do with another company to inorganically fuel your growth, but during our conversation Chris brought up “white label” deals. These deals, also called “private label” deals, are when you offer a product or service to another company but allow them to package or rebrand it as their own work, and they can be beneficial for both parties.

You know how most grocery stores sell their own store brand of common products like peanut butter or soft drinks? These are private label deals in action. The grocery store chain probably isn’t in the business of manufacturing their own products, so they have worked out a deal with another company to manufacture products that the grocery store chain can sell under their own label. Often, the manufacturer of that rebranded product already has a product under their own name on the shelf right next to it, selling at a higher price point. These kinds of deals benefit both companies; the manufacturing company is selling a large quantity of product, and the other company is able to offer an “in house” brand option without having to go to the expense of setting up a manufacturing facility.

This is a great example of just one of the many types of deals you can use to fuel the growth of your business. The world of deals goes far beyond just mergers and acquisitions, as you can see, and I hope it opens your eyes to the limitless possibilities deals can bring your company. For more informative episodes of Fueling Deals like this one, 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!

For this episode of the Fueling Deals podcast, I wanted to discuss a subject that has been on my mind a lot recently. The recent college admissions scandal that has involved several prominent celebrities and been in the news so much really got me thinking about the importance of character. Character means sticking to your morals and values, doing the honest thing even if it is the hard thing, and sometimes sacrificing what is profitable in favor of what is right.

I know this subject is outside of the normal scope of my Fueling Deals topics, but I do think there is a business-related value to be derived from maintaining alignment with your character. In this “solocast” episode, I share a few of the stories that have been on my mind recently, both on a personal level and from newsworthy events. I discuss how character can be a guiding principle that helps you avoid deals you shouldn’t get caught up in, and I share why there can be a tangible, valuable benefit to making the hard choices.

A Public Conversation About Character

The celebrity college admission scandal, in particular, has sparked a national conversation about character, morals, and values. On social media, people are calling out the people involved in the scandal for their actions, as well as defending their behavior. The story has brought about a great deal of discussion of what is and is not acceptable behavior for people trying to give themselves an advantage, and I think this conversation is an important one that our society needs to have. Whether it’s the world of business, celebrity or politics, it seems that scandals are appearing in the news more and more these days.

In some regards, I feel that the importance of character has taken a backseat in our society. People are doing morally questionable things today without social repercussions, things that would have been considered dishonest in times past. When an athlete gets bumped and “oversells” being injured to score a penalty against their opponent, we shrug our shoulders. We tell ourselves, “that’s just how the game is played.” In some ways, society has become too accepting of people doing whatever it takes to get an advantage. But at what cost?

Standing Up for What’s Right

I believe that we would all be better off if we collectively held ourselves to a higher moral standard. Sometimes, that little advantage isn’t worth the cost it takes on our character. Maybe a shady deal would be profitable, but if our values don’t align with our deal partner it can also have negative repercussions on our trustworthiness and business reputation. Doing the right thing and doing the easy thing aren’t always the same, and sacrificing your character for the sake of taking a shortcut or avoiding the hard work seldom pays off.

Conversely, maintaining alignment with your character and sticking to your values can build social currency that can be worth more than money. Doing your due diligence and vetting a deal partner can help ensure that you will be happy with the non-monetary outcomes of the deal. Or, it will warn you of potential dangers you might not have considered and may warn you away from the deal entirely. As much as I advocate for the power of inorganic growth through deals, there’s a reason for all those cautionary tales about making deals with the Devil. Sometimes, the best outcome is to just get up and walk away from the table.

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!

Mergers & Acquisitions

The great thing about M&A deals is the opportunity they present to combine two talented, experienced teams of professionals into one group. The danger of mergers and acquisitions comes from combining two teams with differing cultures, attitudes, goals and egos into one group. Just as the right mix of people can be an explosive catalyst for your business, the wrong mix can see everything blow up in your face.

Not long ago, I invited David Shriner-Cahn to join me on the Fueling Deals podcast. David is the host of Smashing the Plateau, a highly regarded podcast with more than 400 episodes of wisdom that entrepreneurs and business professionals can draw from to help their business break through to the next level of success. David’s podcast has been featured in Forbes Magazine’s “Three Podcasts to Power Up Your Ultra-Lean Business,” and has appeared on the list of Inc. Magazine’s “5 Entrepreneurs That Will Change the Way You Communicate.”

During our discussion, David and I talk about the important things to keep in mind before a merger or acquisition, and the key steps that need to be taken after the deal is complete. There are a lot of critical considerations to keep in mind when trying to successfully integrate two established teams, and David offers guidance to help you navigate the delicate period of time after a merger or acquisition has been completed.

Before You Sign

As you know, the purpose of this podcast is to help you expand your business with inorganic growth through deals. But this kind of growth comes with its own challenges for which you need to prepare well in advance. It’s important to know what you’re getting into and ensure that your company culture and that of your merger or acquisition partner will integrate smoothly.

You also need to go into the deal with a game plan to address communication needs, help your two teams get to know and trust each other, and establish a clear hierarchy of roles within the new post-merge organization. If you take the time to prepare in advance of the deal, you can help guarantee a much smoother transition once the deal is complete.

After You Merge

The biggest difficulties you’ll face once the deal is complete stems from fear. Mergers can be disrupting and chaotic and, if your team is afraid of the future, it makes things so much more challenging. Addressing those fears with clarity and sincerity is key.

One-on-one conversations, open and frequent lines of communication, and trust and interaction between the C-suite and the ground-level employees is vital. By recognizing, addressing, and alleviating fears on a continual basis, you can accelerate the integration of your teams and strengthen the resulting culture after the merger or acquisition.

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!

In this episode of the Fueling Deals podcast, I take you through the very important (and sometimes challenging) step of finding the right deal for your business. It is important to go into this step with a clear understanding of your goals and expectations, so that you can be certain the deal you are considering will fit your needs.

There are many options for locating a potential deal, and many companies turn to both business brokers and investment bankers to help facilitate these connections. However, other options include networking within your industry, reaching out to influencers for sponsorships or brand deals, and even talking to other professionals in your day-to-day life such as your attorney. The options for finding a deal are almost as varied as the types of deals themselves.

For this episode, I highlight some of the key things to keep in mind as you’re looking to procure a deal, to ensure that you go into this important step in the process fully informed, aware of your options, and aware of potential pitfalls and challenges you might face.

Being Prepared Before You Begin

Before you ever get started searching for a deal, you need to ask yourself a few key questions. What are you hoping to accomplish from this deal? Accelerated growth? Marketing possibilities? An exit from your business? Access to new customers or clients? Knowing what you want from a deal is necessary to be certain that any potential deal you find will fit your business needs.

Additionally, once you are clear on your needs and goals, you also need to do research to ensure that your deal will be fair to all parties involved, and so that you understand any associated fees, costs or drawbacks that may come with the deal. Analyze other deals completed by similar businesses in your area or industry. It is even worthwhile to reach out to your competitors to ask them about their experience with similar deals.

By taking these important early steps, you can better evaluate potential deals to ensure that they meet your criteria, and you can more confidently complete the deal knowing what to expect from the process. Understand the benefits and risks of a potential deal and be clear on whether it satisfies your current business needs, and you will be able to move to the next step in the process in a much stronger position.

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 true key to success is found in being smart with your money and being smart with your opportunities. Being smart with your money means that you’ll have the financial standing to take opportunities when they are presented. And choosing the right opportunities can open new doors you never dreamed of.

I recently invited renowned author and financial expert David Bach to join me as a guest on the Fueling Deals podcast. David is the nine-time New York Times bestselling author of the Finish Rich series of books beginning with his phenomenal series debut Smart Women Finish Rich, as well as the Automatic Millionaire series. David’s newest book, The Latte Factor, is aimed at today’s young people in an effort to show them that the American Dream can be alive and well for them… if they’re prepared to start working and saving for it now.

In our conversation, David and I talk about how he started developing his Finish Rich system, and why he feels passionately about showing people a smarter way to interact with their money. David discusses how an important licensing deal led to the remarkable ongoing success of his program, and he shares why he learned early on to protect himself from bad actors.

Doing Deals Smartly

After David had developed his Smart Women Finish Rich program, he sought to do licensing deals for its content to generate royalties. The licensing deal David was able to complete created many new opportunities for him and helped create the landscape where his program could flourish and grow. However, David was cautious about being exploited during the development of his program, and he took the time to obtain the relevant trademarks and legal protections for his system before he began shopping it around.

This highlights the importance of protecting yourself legally. Before you start looking into any kind of potential deal, you should consider what legal protections you will need in the event that someone tries to take advantage. And, as David made clear, before you sign any agreement, it is critical that you have a trusted legal expert look the paperwork over. Smart business and legal support leads to good deals.

David then gave insight about how he has leveraged his intellectual property, brand and value into equity positions in companies.

Teaching the Next Generation

David’s new book, The Latte Factor, is aimed at today’s millennials and younger. David wanted to show them that, despite the many financial challenges they may face, there is a clear path to the American Dream available to them if they start planning for it early. As a passionate teacher, David has long believed that it is important to learn to manage your money smartly, as early as you can.

This lesson was something David learned for himself early in his career, when he was shown how a little money saved each day would add up to a huge retirement account. This was a key lesson for David, as were still earlier lessons he learned from his financially astute grandmother who was a self-made millionaire. The remarkable thing about David Bach is that he recognized the value of these lessons at a very young age, and now he works to pass those same lessons on to the next generation. David truly believes that it is never too early to start saving for retirement, and he also believes that anyone can achieve their goals with enough diligence, hard work and willingness to learn.

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!