Alex Shteriev

To grow a valuable business – one you can sell – you need to set up your company so that it is no longer reliant on you.
This can be easier said than done, especially when, like a PR consultant or plumber, what you are selling is your expertise.
To scale up a knowledge-based business, you first have to figure out how to impart your knowledge to your employees, so that they can deliver the goods. However it can be difficult to condense years of school and on-the-job learning into a few weeks of employee training. The more specialized your knowledge, the harder it is to hand over work to juniors.

Understanding financial and accounting statements can be a confusing and even overwhelming ordeal, and much of this has to do with the litany of financial jargon that seems like a Harvard MBA is needed to understand it. However, we have done the hard work for you by breaking down and explaining some of the key terms that every business owner should be familiar with.

Despite the harsh economic reality of the past few years, business owners in the micro-market are once again beginning to reassess their business growth strategies. Regardless of the industry, every business owner reaches the point when they begin to re-evaluate their business plan and examine avenues by which to grow their company. Networking opportunities exist for everyone in the business world, whether it is in trying to find new a job opportunity, trying to expand your network of clients, or trying to build relationships within your respective industry. Although it may not be the most conventional way of growing your business, we are in a new age of commerce where your network of contacts and clients is critical to the future prosperity of your company.

For the majority of small business owners in Canada, the process of selling your business is a unique experience. Most owners have poured a lifetime of work into building a successful company, giving little time or thought to the development of a succession plan.
In a 2011 TD Waterhouse Business Succession survey, over 75% of Canadian small-to-medium sized business owners surveyed said that they did not have a succession plan in place. Additionally, more than 40% of business owners recently surveyed by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business plan to leave their businesses in the next five years, and more than 70% within the next 10 years.
With the majority of baby boomers moving into their early retirement years, more and more business owners are faced with the reality of developing a succession plan. Succession planning is all about having a clearly defined exit strategy. Regardless of the time frame for the sale of your business, there are a number of important steps you can take to ensure that when the time comes it is a seamless process.

Time is rapidly catching up to more and more Canadians, and an aging population means a greater strain on the Canadian labour market, health-care system, and company pension policies.
Succession planning has become critical for small-to-medium business owners in Canada because having a clearly defined and prepared exit strategy will allow business owners to seamlessly transfer into the next phase of their lives. Whether that is retirement, or to pursue other business opportunities, it is clear that succession planning will continue to play an important role in the strategy of small-to-medium-size business owners.

Warren Buffett famously invests in businesses that have what he calls a protective “moat” around them – one that inoculates them from competition and allows them to control their pricing.

Big companies lock out their competitors by out-slugging them in capital infrastructure investments, but smaller businesses have to be smarter about how they defend their turf. Here are four ways to deepen and widen the protective moat around your business:

Confidentiality is at the heart of each of Beacon’s Business for Sale listings and at every step of our business brokerage process. It forms the basis of a trusting relationship between owners who have their businesses for sale and prospective buyers who recognize the importance of confidentiality. When large companies and corporations journey through Mergers and Acquisitions, this need is magnified tenfold and extreme measures are in place to ensure business-sensitive information is guarded.

If you plan on buying or selling a business, remember that a strong social network and online presence is an important aspect of a company’s goodwill, and, ultimately, increases the brand and business value.
Here at Beacon Corporation, Brokerage we have worked with clients and companies in a variety of industries with different degrees of social media utilization. There is one certain message being delivered in the digital age: come with us or stay behind! Below are some tips on how to take your social media network to the next level.