Article by www.entrepreneur.com

A report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics cites two primary reasons why businesses fail — lack of proper planning and poor leadership. In a way, both these factors are tied to the decisions made by the business owner. Poor decisions, like too much debt or unviable investments, can dramatically alter your company’s fortunes. In this article, we’ll take a look at some ways business owners can keep their financial books in the black through smart planning and earnest leadership.

1. Equity vs. debt.

One of the perennial dilemmas that business owners face while raising funds for their business is the choice between equity and debt. Raising funds by giving up equity might seem attractive to a risk-averse startup businessman. However, giving up too much equity dilutes your own stake in the company and can be a bad choice over the long term. Debt, on the other hand, can be repaid and lets you retain your control over the business. In other words, although raising debt can be painful in the short term, it protects your stake in the long term and can thus reap larger dividends.

2. When to choose debt over equity.

A number of startups in the web and tech space today do not have a clear monetization policy during the launch phase. Companies like Twitter went through several rounds of fundraising before they started making money. It is a good idea to give up equity in such instances since these businesses do not have a clear revenue stream in place to start repaying their debt. However, if you are a startup or a small business with an established revenue stream and a steady cash flow, there is no reason why you should choose equity over debt.

3. How much debt is too much?

There is a limit to how much debt a business can take. It is worthwhile to note that business income is not always going to be consistent. Market forces outside your control can grow or dent the demand in your product or service. It is hence a good idea to only take debt that can be paid back even if you stop making money for a month or two. A good business owner knows to maintain a fair balance between money raised through debt and cash infused through the sale of equity.

4. Keep low working capital.

Working capital is the cash necessary to simply keep the business operating. It is essentially the value of your current assets minus your current liabilities. Building your product requires capital infusion and without a paying customer, your product is a liability waiting to be liquidated. Businesses that offer lengthy credit periods to their customers require high working capital. On the other hand, if you demand upfront payment for your product or service, then the liquid assets in your system are higher than liabilities. You would hence require low working capital. Tweak your business processes, including credit periods, to bring down the working capital required to run your business.

5. Insist on recurring invoices.

Modern invoicing software applications let customers set up automatic invoicing on their purchases. There are two big pros with using recurring invoices for your clients. Firstly, it brings down the accounts receivables of your organization. Although it is customary to mark accounts receivables as an asset in your accounting books, it can be a liability for small businesses that do not have the resources and the means to get paid on time for their rendered services. Secondly, automated payments establish a level of consistency in your income statements. This helps your business plan with better demand planning and logistics management.

The tips provided above can help your organization bring down the owed debt without compromising too much on your business ownership. Also, by tweaking your credit practices, it is possible to set up a healthy business process that is better suited to take on the vagaries and fickleness in the market and ensure survival for the long term.

Article by www.entrepreneur.com

Article by entrepreneurmag.co.za

For any successful business, safeguarding its future through careful succession planning should be an important focus. This applies whether you’re running a large listed business, a family owned business, or a small to medium sized unlisted business. There are interesting parallels to heading a successful family and preserving long term family wealth.

This was borne out in our latest survey of over 150 ultra-high net worth individuals, many of whom run or have run successful businesses, often across jurisdictions and generations. Over two thirds of the respondents identified succession planning as their current primary concern in preparing financially for the future. This represents a shift from our 2017 report which identified capital preservation as the primary concern.

What is driving this change? According to our findings, the answer is the rapidly changing and uncertain socio-political and economic environments. Against this background, our respondents said they see a certain urgency in preparing the next generation of leaders to respond to future challenges and opportunities. This means a more sophisticated, better structured and increasingly democratic approach to leadership, greater emphasis on training and development of young people, and better communication and renewed emphasis on long-term planning. The risk of failing to prepare the next generation is now seen as the highest priority for long-term sustainability.

In the family business scenario, and given the rate of technological, social and political change, intergenerational relationships are also transforming. Nearly all respondents agree that the impact of societal change on a family business must be reflected in the way they prepare for the future. Traditional, informal approaches are thus being challenged as families look to more sophisticated governance and communication.

For many of our clients, a successful business is the principal source of wealth and frequently represents a substantial proportion of their assets. Below are some practical, actionable insights from the report that came out of the survey, Four Pillars of Capital: Practical Wisdom and Leadership for Changing Times.

Concern #1: Succession Planning

As mentioned, the survey showed a shift in the primary concern by respondents from capital preservation to succession planning. We found that 69% of respondents identified succession planning as one of their top three concerns for future financial planning, followed by capital preservation (62%) and tax planning (48%).

Our Recommendation: Planning for the long-term is crucial in any business. Discuss strategic planning for future ownership with your Board, your mentor, your family and or key business stakeholders, which could include raising external finance or planning for an exit. Develop a purpose or planned vision for your business.

Partner with an independent professional to help advise and implement suitable and practical strategies to support governance and succession.

Concern #2: Leadership Selection

We asked families how they selected their leaders and how this should change in the future. One of the most interesting results of the survey is that 28% of families interviewed still currently operate on the basis of primogeniture (the right of succession belonging to the first-born child). When asked about their intentions for the future, however, the figure is now around a third of that at 10%. There is a growing preference for wider consultation for the selection of new leaders, possibly including a formal process. Currently only 13% use a committee to select the leader, however at least a third (33%) expect leadership to be selected this way in future.

Our Recommendation: Our experience tells us that having a clear leadership structure and process will provide the best chance of managing unforeseen risks – both internal and external – pursuing opportunities and ensuring that the business prospers. Most business owners need to employ leaders who can keep pace with the modern world and are able to adapt to a fast-changing environment. This means more broadly-based preparation than in the past.

The counterweight is that there is greater need for leadership responsibilities to be shared with others who have both the knowledge and stature to debate the key areas of risk and ensure the interests of all stakeholders are properly protected. Having an experienced mentor to help think through ideas and handle challenging relationships is invaluable.

Concern #3: Failure to prepare the Next Generation

Respondents identified that the top risks to long-term family wealth relate to family disputes (68%) and lack of planning (67%) as well as the failure to appropriately engage or train the next generation. This happens in businesses too, whether or not they are family businesses. Partners in a business can fall out, leaving the business and its employees to an uncertain future and often resulting in detrimental impact to the value of the business.

Our Recommendation: Increasingly, we suggest that families and business owners should engage in ongoing, regular and transparent communication with all company stakeholders, regardless of their responsibility or position within the firm. Employees should be given an opportunity to contribute towards defining the company’s core values and owners should invest in continuous development training programmes for their younger, more inexperienced employees.

Article by entrepreneurmag.co.za

Article by entrepreneurmag.co..za

Many startup founders and small businesses dream of receiving an offer to becoming the next billion dollar business. Whether its because they are ready to move onto another project, or they are ready to expand and are looking to leverage the financial power of a bigger partner, selling a business is a big move for any business. For many business owners, getting an offer from a buyer is certainly exciting, but before you jump into anything, remember that there are important steps to take before you sign the paperwork that will move a successful transaction forward.

Some entrepreneurs are ‘starters’, they like to start a business, get it off the ground and then flog it. Others are ‘growers’, they look for existing businesses and have the ability to grow them beyond their original value. Both will probably get to the same end point: Selling the business.

But entrepreneurs are often misled when it comes to the sale. They have put everything into the business and it is worth a huge amount to them because of it. But buyers are seldom willing to match the price, because what is being sold, and what is being bought, are not the same thing. Sellers see the emotional and financial investments they’ve put in; the buyer mostly looks at one thing: Profit.

Prepare for the challenges of selling

Once you get to market you will soon realise that there are, unfortunately, fewer buyers than you’d like. Unlike listed companies, you can’t sell shares easily and quickly on a public platform. Instead, you need to find an interested individual or business, many of whom just aren’t buying what you’re selling.

Some of them are, but that doesn’t guarantee a sale. Most SMEs must put their faith in a cash deal, since banks will never finance anyone wanting to buy them. In reality, this means that you may have a genuinely interested buyer for your business, who won’t be able to get finance for it from the bank. So, after a few months, you’re back to square one. After a few rounds of this cycle many entrepreneurs will just sell out of desperation, forgetting what the business could actually be worth.

Selling a business can be very emotionally draining and this will be compounded by many people who will waste your time and mess you around. You spent a large portion of your life building this, but others will not see it the same way you do. Ensure that you prepare and mitigate against all of those issues, and have the stomach for the fight.

Always keep the end in mind

If you are looking at exiting your business, it is crucial to allow enough time to prepare yourself for it. Maybe you’re simply tired of your business and you just want to get out, but, because the business is not in a great state at the moment, you’re too fed up to care, and you simply don’t have the energy to fix the issues.

You’re at risk of letting your business go for next to nothing. All the hard work for hardly any reward.

If you have the end in mind, and prepare for it, it can be a very different, more lucrative story. A successful transaction will mostly boil down to having a solid business with great systems in place that is making decent money and the starting point for these transactions will be financial information. You need to have proper financial records for your business and you need to be able to show the potential buyer how much the business is making and how it is making it. It sounds so elementary, yet most entrepreneurs don’t have financial information when they want to sell their businesses. If you think you may want to sell in the future, make sure you’re keeping solid records now.

If your business’s financials are messy, start cleaning them up at least twelve months before trying to sell your business. Remove all your personal expenses from the business and ensure that all transactions are properly recorded, and that your taxes are up to date and accurate. Work with your accountant to prepare a sales pack with all your financial information, including details of your clients, employees, suppliers, what your strong and weak points are and how the business could grow in the future. It’s at this stage that you can pick up on issues and resolve them before taking your business to the market, making it a much more attractive product.

With some (more) hard work, you will be in a great position to sell your business, you will have serious buyers and the valuation that you deserve for all your hard work.

That being said, here are 4 essential steps that will help you avoid potential setbacks and increase the chances of a fair and satisfying transaction while you are selling your business.

1. Preparation is everything

Since you’re already a business owner, you most likely already know the importance of preparation. When it comes to selling your business it’s always wise to conjure up all that you have learned along the way and apply that to the process of making a sale.

Some of the key documents that buyers expect to see are:

• Corporate records
• Records of any important contracts
• Information concerning stocks and investments that would affect the relationship with the buyer.

Preparation also entails that you are forward about any setbacks or issues you had in the past that currently affect company operations. Being open about what failed in your business model will help buyers feel confident in their decision working with you, in addition to understanding what to potentially avoid in the future.

2. Setting up the right environment for buyers

Your business may have received endless praise from the press and has made the “most up and coming list” time and time again that doesn’t mean you are ready to sell. Good press will very likely attract buyers, but if you haven’t created the right environment to continue along with a merger and acquisition, those investors and businesses that were one so eager to scoop you up may not stick around that long. To ensure a productive environment for selling your business  it pays to be open to new ideas, while also maintaining a professional setting from which trust can build.

3. Make sure your finances are in order

Financial records are vital when making a sale. Not only to they provide a clear outline of your businesses progress in numbers, they are also key to making sure you get what you want out of the final sale in the end; investments and any and all financial commitments. Ensuring that both parties are satisfied.

4. Hire a merger and acquisitions advisor

Even the most experienced business owners can benefit from the expertise of a mergers and acquisitions advisor. Trained specifically to help owners assess their the value of the business by reviewing it’s strengths and weaknesses on both a macro and micro economic level.

Some of the key ways that an M&A consultant can help you streamline the selling process are as follows:

• Professional who specialise in mergers and acquisitions are highly skilled at preparing for due diligence, helping you to navigate and organise the necessary documents and information that is needed by all prospective buyers
• If you are in the unique situation that you have more than one buyer interested in acquiring your business, an M&A consultant can help you assess which one will be the right relationship for you, especially if you will still be activity participating in daily business operations.

Again, experienced business owners may know everything there is to know about running a company, but that doesn’t mean they know how to appeal to buyers. Not only do you have to be in tune with your own company’s needs, but it’s essential that you understand what buyers and investors expect from a sale.

At the end of the day, even if you think you’ve found the perfect buyer, taking a few extra steps to ensure that a potential buyout will meet both parties needs and is overall good for the business can be done by being fully prepared and and working alongside an expert that will help to point you in the right direction. Successfully taking your business won’t happen overnight, in fact most transactions take about six to twelve months to complete, so it pays to be prepared every step of the way.

Article by entrepreneurmag.co..za

The year is nearly done and we hope that it has been a successful one for your company and that you are excited about 2019. To prepare for the new year ahead, there are a few must-dos you need to look at that will ensure you don’t overlook anything and keep you and your company on track in the upcoming year.

Take Account of Your Accounts

Make sure to follow up on all outstanding accounts. If you have many accounts payable that are overdue by 90 days or more, consider hiring a collection agency to help. Write off bad debt and then close your books for the year.

Make sure that all expenses are entered into your accounting system and that things are recorded and classified properly to avoid any possible upsets in the next financial year.

Stay Up to Date on Your Tax Records

For sole proprietors and simple partnership businesses, the biggest benefit of staying up to date on tax records is that you know where you stand financially. You can make the maximum contributions to ensure you qualify for the maximum allowable tax deductions in areas such as retirement funds and charities. Accurate financial statements guarantee preparedness when compiling your tax returns for the next tax season.

Performance Reviews

There are four areas of review you should look at within your company at the end of every year.

Firstly, you would need to review your company’s performance. This means assessing how your company did with regards to revenue, gross margin and profit, maintenance of expenses as well as the strategies your company has used internally over the course of this past year. It is important to review such strategies as it equips you for the upcoming year and its challenges.

Make sure to focus on what goals you had that went further than just financial performance. Did you achieve everything on your company goal list? Did the company expand? Did you launch a new product? If not, what can you change to make sure 2019 is more successful?

Second, you would need to review the company’s external relationships. Often, your company will establish relationships with vendors, partners and/or customers, the end of the year is ideal to review these relationships that are vital to your success. But don’t forget that your vendors, partners and/or customers may be doing the same and you need to establish if the relationship you have with them is beneficial, not only to you, but to them as well. Business is only continuous if the relationship is mutually beneficial.

Thirdly, the end of the year is often used to review employee performance. Yes, we know, how can you only assess performance once a year?! Well, we feel strongly that employee performance reviews should be done more frequently, however, it is appropriate to assess performance at the end of the year, rather than at the beginning. You should measure their accomplishments against their goals to accurately review their performance.

Finally, you’ll want to take a step back and review your own performance. How did you do with regards to your personal and business goals this year? How will you take your personal performance to the next level in the new year? Should you hire a business coach? Have you completed the training you signed up for at the beginning of the year? This review will help you better yourself for your company in the new year and help you establish a plan for success in 2019.

With all of this in mind, remember you can contact The Finance Team which will provide you with a part time or interim Financial Manager that can assist you with the year end rush to keep your house in order. We hope our tips and tricks will benefit you, your employees, your clients and your company in 2019!

Article by entrepreneurmag.co.za

For years we’ve been told how unhealthy stress can be and how important it is to manage our stress. Turns out, everything we thought we knew about stress might actually be wrong.

As a high-performing entrepreneur, there are few things more irritating than being told to work less and manage your stress. You’re building a business, which by its very nature requires a lot of time and is stressful.

Here’s the good news. Health psychologist and author of the best-selling book The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It, Kelly McGonigal, has one mission: To help people be happier and healthier. For many years this meant sharing the message that stress makes you sick. It increases the risk of everything from the common cold to cardiovascular disease. Basically, she turned stress into the enemy.

But thanks to some ground-breaking studies, Kelly changed her mind. As it turns out, stress doesn’t kill you. Thinking that stress will kill you is the real killer.

Don’t view stress as harmful

Kelly’s opinion of stress started shifting after a ground-breaking study in the US tracked 30 000 adults for eight years. At the start of the study, participants were asked how much stress they had experienced in the last year, and if they believed stress was harmful to their health. They then used public death records to find out who died.

Here’s the bad news: People who experienced a lot of stress in the previous year had a 43% higher chance of dying. But  that was only true for the people who also believed that stress is harmful.

People who experienced a lot of stress but did not view stress as harmful to their health were no more likely to die than people with absolutely no stress in their lives. In fact, the focus group who had experienced stress but didn’t view it as harmful actually had the lowest risk of dying of anyone in the study.

Change your response to stress

Other studies have revealed that changing your mind about stress can change your body’s response to it. You can make stress good for you. In one Harvard study, participants were placed in a stressful situation but told that the stress response was good and would help them cope with the situation. Briefed that all the physical signs of stress were helping them to stay focused and perform at their peak — including a heightened heart rate — the participants had a different physiological reaction to someone who believes their stress response is bad.

In a typical stress response, your heart rate goes up and your blood vessels constrict. Constricted vessels are a factor in cardiovascular disease; chronic stress is sometimes associated with heart attacks. It’s not healthy to be in this state all the time.

But in the study, when participants viewed their stress response as helpful, their blood vessels stayed relaxed. Their heart was still pounding, but their cardiovascular profile looked more like what happens in moments of joy and courage. Over a lifetime of stressful experiences, this one biological change could be the difference between a stress-induced heart attack at 50 and living well into your 90s.

Stress also releases oxytocin, which fine-tunes your brain’s social instincts. It primes you to do things that strengthen relationships by making you crave physical contact with your friends and family, enhancing your empathy, and making you more willing to help and support people you care about. So, when oxytocin is released in the stress response, it’s motivating you to seek support.

How will knowing this side of stress make you healthier? Oxytocin also acts on your body. One of its main roles is to protect your cardiovascular system from the effects of stress. It’s a natural anti-inflammatory that also helps your blood vessels stay relaxed during stress. It even helps heart cells regenerate and heal from any stress-induced damage.

Pulling it all together

The harmful effects of stress on your health are not inevitable. How you think and act can transform your experience of stress. When you view your stress response as helpful, you create the biology of courage. And when you choose to connect with others under stress, you can create resilience.

Stress gives us access to our hearts, from the compassionate heart that finds joy and meaning in connecting with others, and to the pounding physical heart, working so hard to give us strength and energy. When you view stress this way, you’re not just getting better at it, you’re actually making a profound statement that you trust yourself to handle life’s challenges and that you don’t have to face them alone.

Article by entrepreneurmag.co.za