Tag: deals

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Authentic Deal-Making

Why Deals Are Essential To Every Business

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Business team during a brainstorming in a meeting

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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Authentic Deal-Making

The Differences In Deals

During-Brainstorming-1
Business team during a brainstorming in a meeting

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!

Categories
Authentic Conversations About Difference Authentic Leadership

Is Fear Changing the Way You Do Business?

During-Brainstorming-4
Business team during a brainstorming in a meeting

Are your fears and insecurities holding you back in business? Do you find yourself playing small and waiting for external validation before you can make your next move? If you are waiting for some sign that you are doing the right thing, then you need to take a deep breath and a step back.

Your mindset has a huge impact on the long-term success of your business. For me, I keep my mindset positive and focused with a physical reminder. I wear a bracelet with a token that has the word “freedom” engraved on it. I have not taken this off since I bought it three years ago from myintent.org. Freedom is my single highest value in life and it applies to multiple areas including everything from freedom for all people from oppression to freedom for me to create the life I want to live (it’s why I’m an entrepreneur), and the topic of this blog – freedom from fear or, at times, the freedom to face fear and have the courage to push through it.

There are some freedoms you need to work to attain. For example, I have freedom from the fear of financial insecurity not just because I run two successful businesses but, also, because I have done a lot of work related to my relationship with money and staying in abundance instead of scarcity. There are some freedoms you are given. For me that includes having freedom from fear of oppression for my sexuality, skin tone and gender because I am a cisgender straight white male but not necessarily culturally as there is still anti-Semitism and I am Jewish. I have worked and continue to work on breaking through fear in all areas of my life and am committed to using my financial stability and experience to help lift up others from a place of fear because I know what it feels like to be afraid and to come through it.

About six years ago, I was on an Entrepreneurs Organization forum retreat, and one of the things we did was rappel off cliffs. There I was hundreds of feet up with my peers, and I am there despite that I am afraid of heights. Not just afraid and uneasy; heights are a real phobia for me. I was there because every few years I force myself to do something that literally terrifies me as I refuse to be held back by fear.

After, mistakenly, waiting for several of my forum-mates to go first and letting the tension and fear build to almost unbearable levels, it was my turn. The first time I leaned back off the cliff and had to trust the rope would hold me as I went down that mountain, I was absolutely terrified. Anyone who can literally lean back off a cliff and not pass out from the fear has conquered a part of themselves that was limiting them but if you do it with something you have a phobia about, well … . I have done other things to push myself outside of my comfort zone. I’ve done ropes courses, zip lines and even jumped out of a perfectly good plane skydiving. I have even climbed a couple of hundred feet to a tiny platform and bungee jumped. Why do I keep putting myself in a position where I am frightened? Because I want to do something that breaks through those feelings of fear and then be able to call upon that in other parts of my life.

When I say break through the fear, I want you to understand that I’m still always afraid. The act of taking on my fear with a physical test, and then conquering that physical test, shows me that I can trust myself to not let my fear hold me back.

You may have fears around shifting the way you work being out of the office more, trusting others, delegating more, or of your own failure or success.. I’m going to encourage you to break through those fears. Because you can live the life you were meant to lead. I mean, I have done it, other people have done it. Why not you? There are situations in your life where you’ve had a fear of something and then you’ve done something to break through that fear and overcome it so call upon those times and apply that same courage in other parts of your life.

I use those times when I’m afraid of something in business and think back to those moments when I worked through my fears, leaning back off that cliff, leaping off that platform attached only to a bungee or jumping out of that plane. It gives me another level of confidence and not just on an intellectual level; there’s something visceral about it. If I can do those things, I can do anything.

If there’s any fear that comes up around making shifts in your business just listen, face the fear, visualize the freedom and use the experiences where you have had fears in the past and broke through them. Use the work you did on a physical challenge, for example, or other situation as the motivation to get the courage to make a change. When you do your level of success, satisfaction and happiness in business and life will increase exponentially!

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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!