What’s the Business You’re Selling, Exactly?

Posted by on June 11, 2011 · Leave a Comment 

Starting a business is a BIG deal. Building it to become more than your hobby is even bigger again. In fact, building your business into an asset may result in it being possibly the largest asset you’ll ever own, or second maybe to your home, as discussed on Westpac’s Ruby Connection…

If trying to sell it is what you eventually want to do, then get strategic about WHAT it is you’ve got, how it is someone else could do it and therefore who that special someone might be that will love it as much as you once did. Think about it this way, would you put your home on the market without a little thinking and TLC-driven renovation first? so…

What is the “story” of your Business?
Why did you start it? Who was involved? Are they still with you? What happened to them? How is it legally structured ie Pty Ltd, partnership, sole-trader? Why the Business name? Is it registered? Any trademarks/patents? How long has it been going? Does it look today like you envisaged when you started? Is there still a need for what your Business does? And why? Why should someone love it like you once did?
The evolutionary history, as well as its current story, is all-important.

What does your Business sell?
List everything; not just the features, but the benefits to your consumers as well. Why do your consumers buy from you? Did your Business always do what it currently does? If not, what did it start out doing? What happened? Why did you stop? Why the change of direction? Why the current choice? What other options are open in your market that you haven’t done yet? Who else does what you do?

What financial records does your Business have? (eg: Tax Returns and BAS)
Profit – that’s what a buyer wants to know about. To “prove” that requires “real” paperwork, not just what you can pull out of a financial software package. ATO tax returns and submitted BAS’s, Certificates of Currency for insurances, and reports of any forecasting done is what they’re after. This paperwork is very important to a prospective buyer because that’s what they will base a lot of their “valuation” decisions on. These records provide evidence that your Business is a worthy asset.

Starting with the end in mind TODAY, regardless of how old your business is, means you can start to, slowly but surely, gather and assemble the answers to each one of these questions, to be able to convey to a potential buyer WHAT it is they are buying…

Next… Who?

Twitt

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“Mummy, what’s a job?” – The future of employment

Posted by on June 5, 2011 · Leave a Comment 

or Daddy?…There was a time in history when no one had a job as we think of it. It was only in the last century that the modern concept of a “job” as work exchanged for wages and benefits was invented.

In the past three decades the social and economic fabric that created this employment system has frayed and now is rending before our eyes. Around the world floods of young people face economies in which there may never be a sufficient number of jobs by the standard definition. In older industrialised nations the ability of employers to pay both good wages and benefits is increasingly challenged. Employment has gone completely global. The acceleration of technology has meant that fewer people are required for many tasks.

So what will become of employment in the next twenty to fifty years? Any quick search will offer lists of exotic-sounding jobs of the future – gene pharmers, space tour guides, body part makers, Hollywood holographers, and the like. Such lists are entertaining. They may even be accurate. But they miss the deeper story of the future of employment.
read on

In the future, people will work “stints” rather than “jobs”, writes Glen Hiemstra for HumanResourcesMagazine.com

Twitt

Filed under entrepreneur trends (past & present!), entrepreneurial mothers, MEinc, single parent l single mother · Tagged with , ,

Facebook’s new small business marketing strategies…

Posted by on May 29, 2011 · Leave a Comment 

Facebook has started a serious courtship of the small business community, launching several new products over the last few weeks. My Business Marketing Editor Natalie Apostolou explains what the site’s plans mean for your marketing dollar… read on

Twitt

Filed under build a Mother of a Business, entrepreneurial mothers, so you think you're in business, WWW and online strategies · Tagged with , ,

Change? It’s Only Just Begun!

Posted by on May 26, 2011 · Leave a Comment 

You’re probably familiar with eBay and PayPal. They’re businesses that have transformed and challenged traditional retailing because they enable individuals to trade online, bypassing normal supply chains. We’re now on the edge of another wave of transformational change of how business and work are done.

Robert Gottliebsen at Business Spectator recently interviewed Matt Barrie from which connects workers with businesses on a global basis. Businesses post jobs that workers bid for. Payment occurs online when jobs are finished. It’s mainly small business people doing work for small business people. But it brings the power of ‘big’ to the little businessperson’s business. The interview is here:

At that link we last covered zaarly and uber which also empower self-employed people to do big things. I know of many other transformational business service models. It’s the replication of a trend we’re seeing in IT, for example, where contracting is rising. Forget about industrial relations, human resource management and jobs for life! This is about stock exchanges for jobs, fast moving, with people making their own choices.

Government isn’t coping. This is reflected in comments from Peter Strong of the Council of Small Business Australia. He referred to the recent budget as a ‘big business budget’ in a TV interview. This big business view is probably why the administration of paid parental leave, for example, is looking so complex for small business people and why a Commonwealth Bank survey found small business drowning in red tape.

Government will fail when it tries to force its administrative convenience onto this global business realignment. So watch out politicians! An analysis of voting trends amongst self-employed people showed a strong willingness to swing their votes.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/45026.html

Very, very interesting indeed… a sign of things to come… just wonder how the government will view it/legislate for or against it??? Time will tell.

From Ken Phillips (Exec. Dir.) and the team at Independent Contractors of Australia

Twitt

Filed under aCE talentNET, build a Mother of a Business, entrepreneur trends (past & present!), entrepreneurial mothers, EXIT execution, political offerings, so you think you're in business · Tagged with , , ,

Succession Planning ‘Low Priority’…

Posted by on May 2, 2011 · Leave a Comment 

Two in five employers in Australia fail to use succession planning strategies, an industry survey has revealed, reports HRLeader.

The 2011 XpertHR survey looked into succession planning practices throughout Australia, with almost half of respondents stating that they had not undertaken such strategies to help aid internal recruitment processes.

While 23 per cent of organisations use a formal process to implement succession planning, a further third of respondents said that they used an ‘informal’ approach, with the remaining participants completely refraining from implementing processes.

Questioning almost 150 employers, the survey found that the main reasons behind the failure to use succession planning were:

  • it was not a business priority;
  • their organisation lacked the resources or HR expertise needed to run the process;
  • staff turnover was low and
  • the size or nature of the workforce made it irrelevant.

That wouldn’t be you by any chance now would it?

Twitt

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Four Reasons Any Action Is Better than None…

Posted by on April 30, 2011 · Leave a Comment 

It’s well-known that busy people get the most done. Their secret is simple: They never stop moving… writes Rosabeth Moss Kanter for Bloomberg Businessweek.

Of course, sitting still can be a good thing if it involves renewal, reflection, and focused attention (or having meals with the family). But sitting still can be a bad thing if it involves procrastination, indecision, and passivity…

…Small wins matter. Small wins pave the way for bigger wins. A nudge in the right direction, as Cass Sunstein and the new behavioral economists tell us, can lead to major tipping points (per Malcolm Gladwell) when you achieve critical mass. As I saw in my study of business turnarounds and sports teams, confidence — the expectation of a positive outcome that motivates high levels of effort — is built on one win at a time. Read on…

Not a truer word spoken! :) Actions speak Louder than Words.
What more can I say but DO something, anything, get moving…

Twitt

Filed under business ideas & thinking, entrepreneurial mothers, SELL your Mother of a Business, single parent l single mother, so you think you're in business · Tagged with , ,

Trends in Business Networking…

Posted by on April 22, 2011 · Leave a Comment 

When Dr Ivan Misner, Founder and Chairman of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organisation, wrote his first book on business networking in the late 1980s, there were virtually no books or materials on the subject.

When he did media interviews, the most common question was: “Isn’t networking just a fad?” After 25 years, he doesn’t get asked that question anymore. This is a field of study that is coming into its own.

When he did my research for his first book, he could find almost nothing in the library on the topic. Today,  type the words “business networking” into Google and got 150 million hits! Times are changing and so is networking.

Read about his three “trends” in business networking, as reported in mybusiness.com.au,  that he foresees over the next several years. They relate to

  • integration,
  • education
  • association
Twitt

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Carole Middleton: The Entrepreneurial Mum Who Raised A Princess

Posted by on April 21, 2011 · 1 Comment 

With thanks to www.workingmother.com…

Behind many major events, there is often a working mother making things happen. In the case of the upcoming royal wedding that woman is Carole Middleton, Kate Middleton’s entrepreneurial mum.

The elder Middleton was a stay at home mom when she launched Party Pieces in 1987 in the UK. Kate was 5 at the time and Carole landed on the idea for the business when she was unable to find affordable party bag presents for her children’s parties. The business grew to the point where her husband Michael quit his job as a flight dispatcher to help run it.

Now of course Carole is in the news for her royal connections, but that doesn’t mean her achievements as a working mother are any less admirable. The business now boasts 30 employees and visits to the company website surged 163% when William and Kate announced their engagement.

Read more about Carole Middleton in a recent Newsweek article.

Twitt

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Ready to SELL your Mother of a Business?…

Posted by on April 18, 2011 · Leave a Comment 

“Beware The Business Sale Tsunami” says Michael Fingland for Business Essentials. Isn’t it about time you started to seriously think about what you’re doing with your Mother of a Business, and why you’re doing it?

If selling it as part of your “Super” is on your radar, then it’s time for you to seriously look  at what you’ve got to sell. If you don’t like what you see, then best contact me on sell@theentrepreneurialmother.com and we can work through it together…

As the baby-boomer generation reaches retirement age, many thousands will be putting their businesses up for sale, or trying to persuade the next generation to take them on. Michael Fingland, of Vantage Performance, says there’ll be a veritable tsunami of businesses up for sale over the next five years – it will be a real buyers’ market.

Will you be ready?

This is definitely a path the entrepreneurial mother will be reviewing, and revisiting, with some regulatory over the coming months…

Twitt

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The Micropreneur Manifesto: How to Stay Solo, Bleed Passion, and Build Products that Matter…

Posted by on April 15, 2011 · Leave a Comment 

By Rob Walling for ChangeThis.com.

Single founders creating products for niche markets are known by another name: micropreneurs.

Micropreneurs may write software. They might design themes for a blogging platform. They may produce exquisite wedding invitations, or how-to books. Micropreneurs are agile, inspired, independent, knowledge seekers who can’t live with the 9-to-5 status quo.

If this resonates with you, read on. This manifesto attempts to distill the key points you’ll need as you begin your micropreneur journey.

I learned every one of them the hard way…

Again, whilst I’m not fussed on yet another version of the entrepreneur tag, Rob offers plenty of good stuff to assist in alleviating start-up pain that we have all experienced in some form or other. Enjoy!

Twitt

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