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The short answer: It depends. Are you visiting the owner or an underling?  Are you visiting a man or a woman? What kind of business are you visiting? Are you visiting the treasurer of a $30 Million lighting manufacturer or the local tavern? A business suit is not out of line for big companies with layers of management.  However, most business owners these days are extremely casual and men can ...

One of my subscribers has asked a couple of questions. Subscriber questions are rife with great ideas to write about so I will summarize it since everyone should hear it. The questions were twofold 1).how likely is it that the assets of a business are sufficient for a bank to provide a loan for 50%+ of the negotiated price. 2) How can I start the process with the banks before ...

What are the top 100 finance questions (and answers) you were always afraid to ask because somebody might write an equation proving you are a dummy? Here are a couple: Q: What is Net Income? A: The last line on the Profit and Loss Account Q: If dividends are real money is net income real money? A: No net income is not real money Ok who is the wise guy? ...

Whether Republican or Democrat, dealmakers can learn from the unfolding saga of Mitt Romney and his continuing exposure in the Media. His tenure at Bain Capital, a long time leveraged buyout firm is under close examination and the details of his history and performance are routinely reported. What can the average buyer learn from Mitt? A lot actually. Bain, the consulting firm turned LBO shop Bain Capital started its dealmaking ...

A buyer contacted me the other day indicating that when asking for information on a company he "met with an almost harsh reply from the broker" "We first need an offer." (A catch-22 as one cannot put an offer without truly doing due diligence). Well, this brings up several points and I will address a couple of them. I wrote back as follows: You cannot put out an offer unless ...

I get asked a lot about how to take over an existing business. What this translates to is rather simple: I want something for nothing. I have no problem with wanting something for nothing. It just takes some patience. And you may have to fail a few times before you pull it off. In general there are two ways to take over an existing business. You can either work you ...

A local business is defined as the following.  A store or a service company that serves the immediate township or vicinity of where you live. There has never been more buzz surrounding local businesses and I will explain why. First of all it is still an ugly climate and a bad recession so many main street businesses are failing and empty storefronts are popping up more than usual. And you ...