What If You Could Cash Out Of Your Business And Maintain Ownership?

by Scott Ford, founder and CEO of Cornerstone Wealth Management Group and author of “The Sustainable Edge: 15 Minutes a Week to a Richer Entrepreneurial Life“

Is your business your largest asset? A 2014 CNBC study revealed that most small business owners have 70% of their wealth invested in their businesses, with 20% of owners having over 80% tied up in their firm. What if you could take considerable cash from your business to live your life the way you want to now, instead of waiting for retirement?

An E-Recap transaction may allow you to take significant resources without crippling your business or giving up management control. The process includes a third party investor providing cash to help facilitate an ownership restructuring. There are costs and risks associated with the transaction, which should be considered along with the benefits to the firm and its owners.

In my new book, “The Sustainable Edge: 15 Minutes a Week to a Richer Entrepreneurial Life“, Ron Carson and I study what it means for entrepreneurs to find true fulfillment. We’ve witnessed so many “successful” business leaders towards the end of their careers feeling empty and unfulfilled. Finding real balance means having the resources and time to live life on your terms throughout your career before your family and health suffer.

By cashing out of your business, you can take some chips off the table, diversify your family’s wealth, and find the time to pursue what is most important to you. This process doesn’t require selling your firm or compromising the future of your business and employees. It’s possible to step away from your firm and actually improve its long-term value.

Why Cash Out Now?

Many small business owners have achieved financial certainty, by earning enough to meet their needs or even financial independence. But a large majority are unable to achieve true financial freedom without taking assets from their businesses. Financial freedom allows entrepreneurs to find balance in their lives, with their families, and to contribute to the causes they care about most.

What’s more, cashing out of your business allows you to lower your overall financial risk by diversifying your wealth1. By removing assets from your business, you potentially lower your exposure to events such as economic downturns, industry changes, lawsuits, and tax changes. The proceeds can potentially compound free of business risk, however, investing does involve risk including loss of principal.

Many business owners who choose to cash out of their businesses do so because they are nearing retirement age and their appetite for risk has decreased. Often, they aim to spend less time running their firm and more time enjoying their families and passions. While many do not wish to fully retire, they seek to transfer management to younger partners and step aside from day-to-day operations.

Finding Liquidity for the Exit of One Partner.

The E-Recap transaction can be an effective solution for a firm with one partner who wants to exit with cash and another who wants to continue running the firm. By introducing a new source of capital, the exiting owner can sell his share of the business, while allowing the remaining owner to continue running the firm without disruption.

Maintaining Operational Control and Ownership.

The E-Recap program is designed to allow business owners to get cash out of their businesses while keeping majority ownership and operational control. Business owners who seek liquidity but also want to retain ownership of their firm may benefit from this transaction.

Who Should Consider an E-Recap Transaction?

Business owners who are considering selling their firm within five years should understand the unique benefits of an E-Recap, including the ability to:

• Take significant cash out of a business
• Maintain operational and ownership control
• Step away from day-to-day operations
• Accelerate growth

As entrepreneurs, we often lose sight of what true success means for us. In “The Sustainable Edge“, we review how being busy with balance can help you find real fulfillment. Being busy with balance allows us to find sustainable growth in both our business and personal endeavors. Having the resources to be truly financially free and the time to put towards our families and passions can unlock lasting satisfaction.

 

 

Scott Ford, founder and CEO of Cornerstone Wealth Management Group, is ranked in the top 1 percent of all LPL registered financial advisors. Scott is the author of “Financial Jiu-Jitsu: A Fighter’s Guide to Conquering Your Finances“, “The Widow’s Wealth Map: Six Steps to Beginning Again” and “The Sustainable Edge: 15 Minutes a Week to a Richer Entrepreneurial Life“. Scott be found on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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The Best Cities In America For Startups

So you want to start a business. While there are some cities in America which are well-known for startups, some of them won’t be the best for everyone. These cities (which will go unnamed here, but are in California and Texas) may be famous for startups, but they are highly competitive and increasingly saturated with businesses just like the ones you want to start. If you don’t wish to start a business that has to fight for its life from the very start, you might want to consider a city which doesn’t have a 20 year reputation for startups.

By starting on the ground floor in a city that’s just seeing this sector emerge, you’ll have a bigger piece of the pie as time goes on, with a lot less opposition as you go. Here are a few suggestions:

Baltimore.

That’s right. Baltimore. This city doesn’t have the best reputation among people who don’t know much about it. Crime and unrest have become synonymous with this old American city. But for people who have never been there, there are many amazing features which are attractive to startups. For one, neighborhoods like Remington are drawing businesses from all over the country, with innovating startup spaces designed for beginners and established entities alike. Downtown, there are loads of executive suites and established business districts. Finally, as the city recovers from 40 consecutive years of decline, the living is cheap. Real estate is affordable, and Washington D.C., New York, and Philadelphia are nearby. Think about it. Lots of entrepreneurs have recently moved to Baltimore.

Detroit.

For many of the reasons that Baltimore is suggested, Detroit offers a lot to entrepreneurs and startups. With lots of tax credits in Detroit, intended to help attract new citizens and businesses, there are a lot of ways to make a new business more affordable to start here. What’s more, starting a business in Detroit offers a lot of marketing possibilities, as the recovery of the city is emblematic of the recovery of many aspects of America itself. All the affordability and savings opportunities of Baltimore apply to Detroit as well. To move to Detroit today, as a business person, is to become part of a growing and vibrant community of business minds. See for yourself.

Buffalo.

Like the above options, Buffalo is recovering. Featuring all of the affordable real estate and business-friendly culture, the city is making it easier to set up shop in Buffalo as a way of drawing in the best and the brightest, if not the most well-financed. Young business owners in Buffalo are finding it easy to live comfortable lives when they’re not at the office, affording impressive houses for well less than the national average.

These three American cities may not be as glamorous as cities that are thriving and established, but they are on their way to heights unseen in recent decades. By involving yourself today in their business culture, you’ll be setting yourself up for lots of success and your business grows.

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5 Ways To Generate More B2B Leads

Even though there is no certain formula for writing that perfect cold email, there are some points that will help you get a better chance of receiving a response.

The below 5 ways can help you whether you want write better sales emails, find a podcast guest or pitch a local reporter in order to get some press:

1. Star, chain, hook.

With the star being the big idea and the chain the series of facts, benefits and reasons you can then hook the reader with a call to action. Introduce the idea with an attention grabbing opening then support this idea with a series of facts and benefits to make the offer seem credible therefore transforming the attention to interest. At this stage you can then hook the reader to take the step you have wanted them to take all along. The Lead Roster can be of great help in writing great cold emails, ending with a convinced reader who will follow what you want them to.

2. Perfect the subject line.

Even with a perfect email, it means nothing if no one opens it. As a start, you need a very compelling subject line that will attract the reader to open the email. With a poorly written subject line, many emails end up in the trash unopened. After figuring out what you want to say, boil it down to between five and seven words. These few words should speak to the interest of your recipient and put forward what you want to say in clear terms. A great way to grab attention is to put the person’s name in the subject line.

3. Make it clear why you are reaching out.

Make a good introduction and why you are reaching out to the recipient. Do not copy paste one email to many recipients, it is annoying. Let them know what specifically drew you to them and what they have that interest you particularly. Show them that you did your homework on them and they will be interested to take the action at the end of the email.

4. Using social proof and point to results.

Just by adding some high level stats and a little social proof you will have taken your cold email from an average to the top of the game. Little things like mentioning an interview with a colleague or someone the recipient knows. Use case studies or some local customer reference. This also works if you mention an interview with someone they consider a competitor or peer. And if you have some proof of numbers to back up your claims, the better for you.

5. Keep it short, simple and with a human touch.

Do not make things worse for the already full inbox of your recipient. Just write like a human with a natural flow progressing from the introduction to the hooking stage. And with practice you will get better at writing cold emails that brings tonnes of leads right back to your business or campaign.

Even though there is no exact formula, these tips can move you up the level in professionalism and tuning leads into customers.

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How A Company Can Recover After Workplace Violence

by Rob Wilson, CEO of Employco USA

A few days ago a gunman killed three people and injured 18 others in a small Kansas town. The shootings largely took place inside Excel Industries. As the country reels from yet another mass shooting, others are wondering if their office is safe or if their company is at all prepared for a violent attack. Following on the heels of the San Bernardino shooting and the WDBJ-TV shooting which occurred on live television, workplace violence is now becoming a hot button topic for people across the country.

The reality is that workplace violence is a growing concern for many people. People deserve the right to feel safe at their workplaces, and when acts of senseless violence like this occur, it robs us of a sense of security.

Here are some steps that an employer should take in the event of workplace violence:

1. Put emergency guidelines in your handbook.

Make sure that your employee handbook offers procedures on how to handle the unthinkable. We have everything from fire drills to tornado drills, we should also have steps in place for how to handle a mass shooting. If possible, you can even discuss these steps with a local law enforcement officer to help ensure that the best procedures are given to your employees.

2. Offer grief counseling if appropriate.

For workers in Harvey County, heading back to work on this Monday morning is probably frightening and a bit unreal. It can be hard to forget the aftermath of last week’s tragedy and switch back into work mode. For those companies in the nearby area that are most affected, a grief counselor can really be an invaluable resource.

3. Consider offering a limited work schedule.

Where possible, allow employees to personalize their own schedules in the week following a tragedy. Maybe it is advisable for some staff to work from home, or for the workday to be short and limited. Look for ways to cut stress from employees’ plates, such as by letting them commute to work a little later so that they miss the heavy traffic and clean-up that could be required due to the shooting.

4. Try to find a silver lining.

The holiday season is an especially hard time to grapple with grief and terror, but it also offers many opportunities to make the world a better place. Try to bring cheer and a sense of office camaraderie to your workplace again by hosting a toy drive for a local charity or by inviting your staff to pitch in at a local homeless shelter. You can also remember victims through offering donations to the family.

5. Keep political talk of out of the office — and off social media.

This is an important time to remind staff that the office is not the place for political debate, and neither is their social media pages if they interact with clients and other coworkers on these sites. It’s not the time to post gun control memes or the time to debate how the President should handle terrorism. Focus on healing and unity, not on divisive debates.

Lastly, ask employees to follow the “see something, say something” motto. Ask your employees to keep their eyes and ears open for anything that might be a sign of trouble. Have an open door policy and let employees know that they will not be penalized for sharing their fears, even if that fear turns out to be unfounded. We all need to responsible for keeping our workplaces violence-free.

 

Rob Wilson is CEO of Employco USA, a human resource outsourcing company offering human resource related solutions for small to mid-sized businesses.

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Five Mistakes Organizations (Unknowingly) Make That Drive Customers Away

Image credit: Customer satisfaction from Shutterstock

 

by Joseph Michelli, author of “Driven to Delight: Delivering World-Class Customer Experience the Mercedes-Benz Way“

Loyal customers are hard to come by these days. We all know this. After struggling through years of turmoil and uncertainty, the last thing most leaders would purposely do is take customers for granted. And yet, if your company is like many, all your fervent efforts to attract and retain them are falling curiously flat. It’s not that they’re storming angrily out the door. It’s that their experience with your company is less of an enthusiastic Wow! and more of a tepid Eh. What are you doing wrong?

Companies have great intentions. They want to delight customers; they really do. In fact, they’ll often undertake these big service initiatives only to see their efforts fizzle quickly or never take root.

Problem is, their great intentions are at odds with their culture. When that’s the case, they’re doomed to make certain, predictable mistakes. The mistakes are inevitable — and what’s worse, companies don’t even know they’re making them.

Here are five big mistakes your organization may be making without realizing it:

You’re chasing new customers at the expense of existing ones.

In other words, you’re directing too much money toward acquisition and hardly any toward retention. The ratio is lopsided. Consider car dealers that spend huge amounts on commercials that scream at people to come in, promising cruise ship vacations, etc. What they’re not spending it on is employee training to make sure that once these customers are in the door they’ll come back.

I’ve noticed companies that are good acquirers of customers often are not good retainers of customers. The key to business, I think, is being great at both and at using those you’ve retained to help with your acquisition curve. I see a lot of brands missing the message here. The cost of acquisition is so much higher than the cost of retention, so why not invest more in the cost — in the tools of retention — to maximize that multiplier?

You make your customers work too hard.

Businesses must now compete in an increasingly Uber-ized society. Uber customers simply pull out their phone, push the app, a car pulls up and takes them where they need to go, they are dropped off, no cash is exchanged, and they are done. As people begin to expect this kind of service, business leaders are being forced to find ways to make their customer’s entire experience as effortless, frictionless, and yet as personal as possible.

There are companies now that will actually gas up your car for you at the touch of a button — and they wash your windows and leave a little note on the windshield. You can just leave work and go straight home to your kids because you’re already gassed up.

Never forget how complex life is for customers. From that starting point, pick apart your deliverable and figure out how to maximize its ease. Customers leave because we don’t think through the degree of effort it requires to do business with us. We don’t provide technology solutions. We don’t simplify every touchpoint. When it’s not almost effortless, customers leave. Wouldn’t you?

You hire the wrong people out of desperation.

When we hire from a place of being frantic and rushed, we end up with low performers. We hire too quickly because we want to fill a shift, and we get employees who handle customer interaction, but who lack the emotional intelligence to connect authentically with another human being.

Frequently we get pressure from our existing teams, who say, Please, send us a body, and then, seemingly hours later, they’re saying, Please get rid of this body. Somebody can be standing at the front desk or on the phone but if they’re a drag on the service we’re trying to provide, it’s worse than having nobody there at all. We need to hire a little more slowly, be a little more cautious than we have in the past.

You’re not training for authenticity.

Companies have to strive, first of all, to hire people who truly do care about customers. But that’s just the beginning. They should also be training employees to connect on a human level. This is not about scripting but about helping employees realize what customers really want and need, and then empowering them to provide it.

While it’s essential to practice disciplined hiring in the search for people with emotional intelligence, those capabilities have to be awakened and reinforced through the training process. You need to immerse them in your brand so they really understand what it’s like to be the customer — to ‘get’ unspoken needs. You need to collect and share stories of customer delight. You need to touch the hearts of team members as well as their minds. When you do, they’ll genuinely want to serve the customer.

You end transactions at the money exchange.

Too many businesses close the deal and politely say goodbye. The message customers get is, “Okay, we gave you your product or service, you gave us the money, now we’re done.” There is an enormous space here for employees to invite reengagement with the customer at the end of a transaction — to really show appreciation, to show gratitude, to show an eagerness to serve them again.

Godiva does a great job of reengaging the customer. Their employees will put the chocolate in a lovely bag, actually walk around the counter and hand it to a customer, and often they’ll say, ‘Hey, we’ve got another product coming out that you may enjoy.’ If the chocolate has been purchased for a gift or special event, the associate will say, ‘We’re looking forward to hearing how this was received when you come back in.’

They’re creating an invitation to return, and that’s incredibly powerful. They pull the customer back in for a continuation of the conversation. This is what happens when brands really get it, and where other brands follow a robotic script to say, Thanks, have a nice day. If I’m the customer in the second case, there’s no reason for me to ever shop with you again; today’s need is fulfilled and the relationship is over.

When customers have the luxury of abundant choices, businesses must constantly look in the mirror to see where they can improve. We all make mistakes from time to time. But if your culture isn’t built on a sincere desire to delight the customer — no, not a desire, an obsession — those mistakes are likely to be unforgiveable ones. And the real tragedy is you’ll never even realize you’re making them.

 

Joseph A. Michelli, PhD, CSP, is an internationally sought-after speaker, organizational consultant, and New York Times number-one best-selling author. He is a globally recognized thought leader in customer experience design. He is author of “Driven to Delight” and “The New Gold Standard“.

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Personal Finance Getting A Failing Grade In US Schools Across The Nation And May Contribute To A Difficult Financial Future

Some staunch proponents continue to insist that our children need to be taught the birds and bees in our schools, but you rarely hear a fiscal conservative make their case for financial lessons. New studies released give our schools a failing grade when it comes to teaching children about personal finance. Believing that we were all born with fiscal responsibility and the knowledge of budgeting and saving, learning to be financially secure is being trumped by being encouraged to abstain from intercourse or to wear a condom.

Personal finance is not something that comes naturally for everyone. We all know that kid who, if given a dollar, will hide it away for years. Most of us, however, will find that dollar burning a hole in our pocket. Without the right teaching and guidance, there is no reason to hold onto that dollar. We are entering a time in our history where children no longer understand the importance of saving for their financial future, extending themselves too much, or moderation in general. Not teaching them to take control of their financial future, we may be failing them in the worst way possible.

Over the past two years, there has been a sharp decline in high schools who are requiring students take an economics class to graduate. Personal finance is also something that isn’t being fostered or encouraged either. Nationwide, The Council for Economic Education has found that only twenty states currently have any mandate about economics and personal finance at a secondary level. That is two less than just one year ago. Likewise, only 16 states require that students know the basics of economics when tested to complete their high school degree.

The only saving grace may be that there is more education being taught in the lower grades. As many as 21 states have lessons incorporated in their k-12 programs. Teaching them young may help, but likely, by the time they are in a position to manage their own loans and financial affairs, much that was taught before will be nothing more than a forgotten memory. In addition, with no standardization of what personal finance actually entails, or how it is even defined, those statistics are shaky at best.

Since not every child is going to have to know the complexity of economics, it is unrealistic that they should have a grasp of things in the economy that may not relate to them. Since, however, no one can survive in America without things like a bank account or a credit card, the fundamentals of them should be taught in the mainstream school system. With growing debt rising among our youth populations, and credit card companies targeting them for revolving credit card allowances, it is imperative that we do something to help them with their financial security for the future by giving them the tools needed to do the basics of their own financials.

To many, it seems like a simple concept, you borrow money, you pay it back. If, however, you don’t understand the concept of payments, how much you will eventually owe, or things like interest rates, then you aren’t likely to do well once you graduate and are out on your own. A good example would be the mortgage crisis of late 2009. Many lost their homes because they didn’t have a grasp of the fact that they were living beyond their means, and were overextending themselves. When a lender said that it was doable, they likely thought it was.

Not many students understand the importance of a credit score or what it does for your financial future. If schools don’t give them the tools to know how to navigate their finances for the future, shame on them. You can’t expect kids to know things they have not been taught, and we are leaving huge gaps in their education by not including those things they are going to need.

It isn’t just about simple math; it is about complex questions such as interest, payment schedules, and revolving credit balances that will likely trip our kids up. If we want them to have a secure future, we need to give them the tools they need to succeed. That starts with teaching them financial basics.

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Why Intranets Create Workplace Productivity

by Christopher Pyle, President & CEO for Champion Solutions Group

In the business world, companies are always looking for ways to help boost the productivity of its employees. Business owners, executives, departmental managers, etc. all want to get more from their employees without compromising morale. The bigger questions is how do you make them more happy? When you think of a happy work environment, it’s about being collaborative, sharing ideas, having the same goals, giving employee recognition, and having overall clarity of purpose. A great way to accomplish this and be more productive is having a company Intranet. Providing your staff with an Intranet Portal to access important company information can be an effective and inexpensive way to make a big impact in the way your employees work. But, it can’t be just any Intranet.

The Intranet platform should allow companies to think with one mind and speak with one voice regarding corporate and departmental goals, marketing, and social messaging. All of these capabilities drive results and employee satisfaction. Here are some of the top features of a company Intranet that will help employees be more productive:

Search Directory (By person, department and skill set).

Whether you are part of a small, medium or large business, it can be quite time consuming to search for the right person in a department or other location of your business. Or perhaps, you are trying locate a person by a certain skill set. Either way, your Intranet portal should have a search feature that gives employees the ability to find a person by name, location, department, as well as by a specific skill set quickly. For example, maybe you are looking for someone that can assist with Excel or PowerPoint. If those skill sets are listed on an employee profile, they will show up in the results for those keywords. After they locate that person, they should be able to Instant Message, phone and email that person from the portal.

Events Calendar.

Many companies would like to share, in a common place, upcoming company and marketing events.  The ability to share marketing and/or corporate event calendars is a must. Marketing might get frustrated that they share events on their website(s), but no one is going there to see what is coming up. Same goes with their corporate communication and HR counterparts.  To have one place for upcoming company events is key. For example, a sales team would see value in having quick access to the marketing calendar so they can see what may be coming up in their area to promote with their customers.

Social.

An overall theme throughout our discussions with customers is that they wanted their intranets to be social, meaning they want  the ability to Like, Follow, Share and give “SHOUT OUTS” and recognitions to and with their peers.  They want the ability to know whose birthday it is, whose work anniversaries are coming up, and recognize a job well done.   Having your social site on the Intranet enables employees to see the activity in your social feeds without having to go to each site such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.

Department Requests & Workflows.

Having an Intranet that is self-service is very important. With employees residing in different locations (ie. mobile workers, branch offices, etc.) and working in various departments, having a departmental workflow will greatly improve your teams productivity. Provide your team with a way to request something from a department by category and have the requests get routed to the appropriate department.  The user who brought up the request should be updated to the progress of their request throughout the process. Managers by department can see open, in progress, and closed requests by category and person. We have found that by improving processes by automating cross-departmental workflows, eliminates unnecessary steps so you can deliver your product or service faster and more effectively. Some use case examples include simple internal processes like needing a new lightbulb for your office or needing marketing folders put together, to complex workflows such as the onboarding and off-boarding of employees. Having a departmental workflow request will also drive the adoption of your intranet site. 

Device Responsive for the “on the go” worker.

The world is mobile. So, employees need to be able to work off of their devices, not just their desktop. Having an Intranet site that is fully device responsive is key to staying productive on the go. Being able to access what they need, when they need it will boost productivity

In short, all of the important information employees need should be at their fingertips to help them be more productive. When employees see their co-workers using the Intranet, it will encourage further adoption for a more productive work environment.

 

 

Christopher Pyle, President & CEO for Champion Solutions Group, began his career with Champion as a sales representative in 1986. Over the years, Pyle has become the driving force behind the organization’s development of key strategic alliances and solution portfolio. It’s his vision and innovativeness that catapulted Champion up the ranks to become a $100 million organization and one of the most respected solution providers amongst top technology manufacturers including IBM, Microsoft, VMware, and NetApp.

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