Valuing Small Businesses to Determine Their Earning Potential

When it comes to valuing small businesses, you need to do more than simply look at their tax records. You’ll also need to consider other factors like its location, the way it’s being managed, and its financial track record. If the management style and location are good, closely examining its financial history is a good indicator of the company’s earning potential.

When you’re keen to take over a business, you’ll need to know just how much income you can expect to gain. Looking at the company’s financial history will enable you to work out the amount the business actually makes as well as how much its owner is currently making for themselves when the business running costs are subtracted. The advice that you’ll find offered by consultants such as those at CBS-CBS.com includes the following four steps to work out the company’s earning potential.

1.Determining The SDE

The main earning metric used to value any small business is the SDE (Seller Discretionary Earnings). This is the company’s net income before any depreciation, taxes, interest expenses, amortization, and any other owner benefits. The majority of small business financial records tend to be compiled to minimize their tax burden. Therefore, those records are unlikely to fully reflect the true financial performance of the company. This means that the financials will need to be formally reconstructed or recast to determine an amount of income that more accurately reflects the company’s earnings.

2.Asking The Seller About Specifics

To obtain greater insight, it’s necessary to ask the business’s owner specific questions about the amount their business is currently making for them. This might include details about how the sales have been calculated, adjustments that have been made for tax purposes and breakdowns of operating expenses. You may worry about asking the seller for this kind of detail, but there is no reason for concern. Sellers should expect this information to be requested and, if they’re serious about wanting to sell, sharing their financial specifics should not be a problem.

3.Using Annual Gross Sales

A business’ annual gross sales may be worked out by examining its tax returns and financial statements. Usually, small business owners make between 10% and 20% of gross sales. When you determine the figure, remember that if you decide to buy the business you need to subtract the acquisition’s cost then add the costs involved in improving the business in the future.

4.Estimate SDE By Using The Business’s Selling Price

In general, if you examine the selling price of the business, you may be able to work out the SDE. So if, as an example, the asking price is $625,000, it’s safe to assume that the business owner’s SDE is around $250,000 to $312,500. If the business is losing money, don’t automatically assume that it isn’t worth buying the business. After all, you’re buying it for its future and existing earnings potential. It’s possible the business is making a loss because it is poorly managed, but its employees may be skilled, it may have a good reputation and a great location. If you buy the business then improve its management, it’s possible to boost potential earnings and create healthy profits over time.

Cut Costs Not Corners

At some point, you’re sure to need to cut costs in your business. Finding a way to maximize your profits is essential if you want your organization to be successful, and following through with your business plan is impossible if you’re weighed down with obsolete expenditures and wasteful spending.

Cutting costs is one thing, but you certainly don’t want to reduce the value you provide to clients and customers. Your business needs to stay effective, and so you need to take the right approach to cost-cutting. You need to find a way to maximize what you can get using the resources you have rather than trying to find a way to manage without the essentials. With this in mind, here are some strategies which could prove helpful.

Focus On Keeping It Simple

One problem that many businesses face is overextending themselves and putting out products that lack demand. Experts recommend that you list each product and process in place and ask whether they are contributing to the company’s primary goals. Focusing on what clients and customers want will help to improve your business’ main focus and make it more profitable.

Plan Ahead

It’s possible to get some excellent deals for your business when you plan ahead. Signing up ahead for services or purchasing in bulk can help to save money while also guarding against logistical errors which would mean paying extra for an urgent service.

Use Time-Saving Technology

The latest technology helps us to save money and time, so automation can often be well worth making an additional financial investment. For example, investing in online management systems and services can help to reduce the amount of time spent on endless paperwork.

Could Freelancers Be the Answer?

The remote and freelance economies are booming, so if you don’t actually need someone to be physically present in the office to carry out certain tasks, you may be better off finding an affordable freelance worker online. This could help you to get better value for money from your hire. It’ll also help you to reduce costs by only employing additional help when it’s actually required and for the precise number of hours necessary rather than having somebody constantly on staff.

Use Expert Advisors

One way to ensure that you are maximizing your business potential and cutting costs without cutting corners is to bring in professional business analysts and consultants who can help you to pinpoint savings opportunities while also enabling you to get maximum profit from your company. Check out Corporate Business Solutions reviews to find out more about how we can help you.

Our expert team can work with you to identify potential pressure points and determine ways to circumvent them so your business can stay profitable while shaving off unnecessary expenditures. Since every one of them has extensive experience in the world of business so you can rest assured that they’ll be well-placed to ensure the best possible outcomes for your organization, whatever its nature or size.

Can Marketing Strategies Impact On Your Exit Strategy?

As a business owner, you’ve probably never put the terms “exit strategy” and “marketing plans” together before. Yet when you combine both of these things, the results can be especially impressive. If you implement one properly, the benefits to the other are significant. For example, marketing strategies have a key role to play in determining the value of your business once you’ve executed your exit strategy. Conversely, having an exit strategy that is well-defined can make it much easier to market and grow your business.

While both require their own unique approach, it’s possible to think about and implement both together. Marketers are able to take an appropriate approach to help the business grow if they already have their exit strategy firmly in mind. Also, strategists and exit planners are able to guide the marketing team with their exit plan in mind.

Therefore, if a business is to be truly successful, both concepts have to co-exist.

The Importance Of Marketing Strategies

Marketing strategies are the tactical blueprints which you’ll follow and which perfectly align with your business goals. The best marketing strategies are simple to implement but are also very diverse, using a wide variety of marketing platforms. Every marketing plan goal should be to put the business and brand in the most positive light so leads can be converted into new customers and profitable sales.

The Importance Of An Exit Strategy

All business owners build their business thinking that one day they may sell it onto an investor. Therefore, having an ultimate exit strategy in mind is important for the business to be successful. Focusing on gaining more new clients, increasing sales volumes and growing its bottom line is key. When investors start to look into the business, those figures translate into higher valuations and allow business owners to exit for the greatest possible price.

Planning A Marketing For Exit Strategy

Marketing for an exit strategy must be defined clearly so that the team knows what must happen at every stage. This means that clear goals must be put in place with specific numbers linked to every goal.

There are several questions that must be defined to put together an effective strategy. Who are your business’ ultimate customers? Which services and products do you sell that interest those customers? Why are they interested in those services and products? Are they ready to buy straight away?

The strategy you adopt needs to be tied closely to each lead that enters the sales funnel, and to every qualified lead that is pushed to the sales team. You could even ensure your marketing strategies are tied into your monthly sales figures and ROI. Above all, your team must know which of the goals are most vital and which are destined to have the largest impact on the final goal – executing your exit strategy.

Seeking Professional Advice

If you’re planning an exit strategy for your business, seeking professional advice is always wise. Corporate Business Solutions Consultants are available to offer you the help you seek, and as a team of experts in the field of business, you can depend on us to point you in the right direction for maximum profit.

Are You Focusing On The Wrong Numbers For Your Business?

If you’re considering how much your business is worth, it’s possible that you’re focusing on completely the wrong numbers. It’s true that a business’ value all boils down to one equation: the multiple of the profits that the acquirer would be willing to spend to buy your company. However, most business owners make the mistake of believing that the most effective way of improving their company’s value is to increase their profits. For this reason, they work on finding ways to increase the amount that they sell and, as they’re experts within their field, it’s only natural that clients and customers are keen to engage personally with them. That means spending a lot more time meeting clients face to face, speaking on the phone and traveling to increase their sales.

When a business owner adopts this model, it’s true that their company can grow slightly, Yet, the owner’s own life becomes considerably more challenging. Clients demand a lot more service and time. The business’ employees start to burn out. Soon, it begins to feel as if there aren’t sufficient hours in a day. Health starts to suffer, relationships become strained and revenue flatlines. All of this comes from working too hard and too much.

If this feels all-too-familiar, it’s time to look at which numbers really matter for your business.

Which Numbers Matter?

When you spend too much effort and time on increasing profits, the company’s overall value can actually diminish. So, what’s the solution? Remember that we said above that the important equation is a multiple of the profits that your business’ acquirer would be willing to spend to buy your company? You need to instead focus your efforts on driving that multiple. By doing this, your company’s value can actually grow, improving your profits and redeeming your freedom.

So, what is driving your multiple? Here, we take a closer look at some of the key factors that you should be concentrating on.

Your Differentiated Market Position

Buyers only purchase what they can’t easily create for themselves. Therefore, you can expect your business to be worth more to a potential purchaser if you’ve got a monopoly over what you’re selling, or you’re one of just a handful of companies with a license to supply the specific service or product within your market.

Plenty Of Runways

Although most business owners think that having a larger market share is something they should be striving towards, in the eyes of business acquirers, this may actually reduce the company’s value since most opportunities have already been stopped up.

Recurring Revenue

Buyers will need to know how well the business will cope if you leave. If there is plenty of recurring revenue, this will assure them that even when you’ve left the company the business will continue to thrive.

Well-Kept Financials

The profitability and size of your business matters to potential investors and the quality of bookkeeping is something that will be extremely significant to anyone who wants to buy your company.

Seeking Professional Advice

If you’re seeking an effective exit strategy to leave your business, it’s important to get help from a team of professional consultants. Visit CBS-CBS.com to find out more about how our expert team can give you the help and advice you need.

Tax Planning Trends Your Business Needs to Be Aware Of

Over the past few years, we’ve seen some major changes in the tax legislation landscape. The complexity and frequency of those changes have meant that businesses have had an increasing need to focus more resources on staying compliant. Worldwide, more than 40 governments have changed hands in a short space of time, and tax legislation has been harnessed in numerous ways by those new leaders. There seems to be no sign of a slow-down any time soon, and it’s becoming clear that tax enforcement will probably just get stronger in the months and years to come. It couldn’t be more important to be aware of the key trends which are currently at the top of global tax authorities’ agendas, so here, we’ll take a closer look at four of them.

Digital Tax

Globally, there has been an ongoing attempt to switch to more digital forms in order to report taxes. This is already having an effect on companies around the world. Not only is there a new format to consider but the level of detail which is required is also more extensive. Increased scrutiny through auditing is also becoming more widespread. This means that businesses are increasingly required to invest more money into expertise and new technology. You need to ensure that you’ve planned your annual budget accordingly to take into account this extra investment and taken the time to source suitably experienced professionals to help you with your strategic tax planning needs such as Corporate Business Solutions Consultants.

Changes in Rates and Rules

In the USA as well as in other parts of the world, tax reforms are well underway. Companies that trade across international borders are going to increasingly need to assess what impact this is going to have on their operations. GST and VAT laws are in the process of being amended around the globe to ensure overseas digital suppliers have liability for their remittance and collection, and many jurisdictions and countries are planning to expand their GST and VAT to digital services across borders.

Greater Transparency

Tax authorities around the world are now focusing on TP (transfer pricing) thanks to political and public pressure, as well as the transparency that is afforded by CbCR (country by country reporting). As transfer pricing is moving from a location-dependent model into the digital environment, businesses that deploy it must generate new strategies, especially as detected of transfer pricing risk is going to be facilitated by technology.

Tax Incentives

Although the goal is to provide businesses with a level playing field, tax incentives remain a mainstay since governments must attract overseas investors to certain sectors. In recent times, tax breaks have focused on R&D on both a corporate and personal tax level. However, there are signs which suggest this trend could be reversing since the figures internationally year on year is down.

With these four key tax planning trends in mind, it’s important to ensure that you have taken appropriate advice from experts in the field. Tax legislation can be a minefield, and you need to ensure that you’ve maximized your opportunities to benefit and mitigated your potential for risk.

2019’s Coming to An End – It’s Time for Your Business Annual Review

Often, people plan their business goals for the year ahead, however, not everybody takes the time to review what’s happened for their business over the past year. There’s a lot to learn about business through research, attending courses and talking to leaders in your field. Yet it’s your own experiences that teach you about the challenges your business is likely to face and how you can best overcome them. An annual business review helps you to determine how well the year went for your company so you can use that knowledge to plan for the year to come.

How Do I Carry Out My Annual Business Review?

It’s isn’t as difficult as you might imagine reviewing your company’s progress during the year. There are just a few questions to answer that allow you to reflect on your challenges and progress:

Did your business make as much progress as you expected this year?

Were your business goals for this year met?

What did your business achieve?  It’s important to note all achievements, large or small. Something as impressive as having exceeded revenue targets, or something as apparently insignificant as keeping the website up to date.

How were those things achieved? You should think about all the strategies that you used. This will help you to learn what works well for you so you can use those strategies again in the future.

What did you fail to achieve? Did you set yourself goals at the beginning of the year that remain unmet? Why is that the case? When you know what has prevented you from meeting your goals you can learn how to avoid making those mistakes in the future.

What was your company’s greatest success this year? How did it achieve this success? What can you learn from this that can be applied to projects in the future?

Which were the biggest frustrations you faced? What went wrong for the business this year? How can those issues be avoided or mitigated next year? You may need some extra help with the elements of running your business and Corporate Business Solutions can assist with this.

Noting the Key Business Information for The Year

Once you’ve answered the questions above, it’s time to note the following key information for your business this year. When you have metrics that you compare year after year, you can quantify the impact that your hard work is having on your company’s overall success. Some of the metrics you should be recorded on an annual basis include:

  • How many customers did you have this year?
  • How many people visited your website?
  • How many people subscribed to your email?
  • How many new followers do you have on social media this year?
  • What was your company’s total revenue for the year?
  • What were your business’ total costs?
  • What were your profits this year?

Once you start noting this information down every year, you will be able to determine the differences between one year and the next. You’ll also be able to correlate your successes and failures with your differing business strategies. This will inform your business planning for the year to come.

A Guide to Business Planning for The Year to Come

2019 is almost at an end, and it’s time for business owners to start planning for their next calendar year. There’s no better opportunity to review your progress and your strategies to see how they can be honed and improved over the twelve months to come. This expert guide will help you to ensure you get the most out of your 2020 business planning.

Setting the Scene

The first step to effective annual business planning is to know what your company’s long-term goals are. Not just for the next few months or even years, but for the next decade and beyond. When you begin with your longer-term plans, you’ll be able to better connect the work you’re carrying out today with the impact that it will have on your business’ future, keeping you inspired and focused over the months to come. What must you achieve over the following year to move a step closer to those long-term goals? Break those goals down into smaller steps and start following them over the course of the next year.

Start Planning for Next Year

Once you know your overall business landscape you can begin to plan what you’re planning to achieve this year. It’s vital to decide what the focus of your operations will be in the short-term so you’ll be able to bring a few key projects to fruition rather than dividing your attention between countless half-finished projects. Once you’ve established annual goals, they need to be broken down into sections that can be reviewed on a quarterly basis. Knowing what you need to achieve in each quarter helps to give you sufficient time to keep momentum, make meaningful progress and adapt to changing situations.

Your Quarterly Business Plans

For each quarter, there are three areas that you need to consider to ensure that you set relevant milestones that will help you to move one step closer to your overall long-term goals.

  • Focus – what must you achieve by the quarter’s end? What research must be carried out and what must be learned to achieve this? Who can assist you with this? Could you benefit from using professional business analysis and consulting services such as those provided by CBS-CBS.com?
  • Revenue – what are your revenue targets over this quarter? Where will you gain this revenue from? How many customers are you going to need? Do you need to remove or add any revenue streams?
  • Marketing – what’s your marketing strategy for the next quarter? What is your target audience? Which platforms are you planning to use? How much of your time will you be devoted to this? Draw up your quarter-long marketing plan, divided into weeks and months. Make sure you’ve included all of the techniques and strategies that you’ve found helpful over the past year, and pre-empt anything which prevented you from achieving any of your goals over the last year.

Most of all, you need to believe in yourself. You can reach the goals that you set for yourself!

Ten Top Tips for Increasing Your Productivity

The key to making your business more successful is to improve your productivity. Achieving more in less time is the best way to ensure higher revenue and greater profits. However, while it might sound simple to say “be more productive”, it isn’t always easy to know how to achieve that goal. Here are ten expert tips that should help you get started.

  1. Plan to Check Your Emails

Rather than leaving your email notifications on 24/7, try switching them off. Constantly having to stop the task you’re working on to respond to a notification makes it difficult to concentrate and delays your progress. Instead, try to schedule certain times of the day when you’ll check your emails and reply to any which need a response.

  1. Plan Your Day to Suit Your Working Style

You know best what works for you, so plan your day around your individual working style. For example, if you’re more focused in the morning, plan to do the hardest tasks before lunch. When you plan your schedule around your energy cycles and personality you can get more done in the most efficient way.

  1. Try Batching

Batching is a great productivity technique that helps you to maximize your concentration by focusing on similar tasks at the same time. For example, if you’re writing a newsletter, why not write them for the next few months as well to save you time in the long-run. If you’re already in the flow, it makes sense to stick with the task in hand.

  1. Establish A Routine

If you do certain activities at a regular time, it removes the time-consuming decision-making process which is involved with determining what you should do next and when you should fit in specific tasks.

  1. Outsource to An Expert

You can hugely increase your productivity by outsourcing tasks that you find time-consuming to those who specialize in them. Not every business owner is an expert in every field, so it makes sense to use professionals who offer those services and who can carry them out to the highest level. For example, check out our Corporate Business Solutions reviews to find out how outsourcing to experts can be extremely helpful to small and medium-sized businesses.

  1. Stop Checking Your Phone

Evidence shows that we check our phone an average of thirty times during a standard working day. That means that you’re losing up to two and a half hours of every business day, not to mention interrupting your flow and disturbing your concentration on the task in hand. Put down your phone in a drawer and leave it until you hear it ring!

  1. Try The “Pomodoro” Method

The Pomodoro method involves setting an alarm and focusing on a single task until the alarm sounds. Plan 25 minutes for each task and focus on it until you hear the alarm go off. This helps you to avoid getting distracted by other things you need to do and helps you to stay productive. Take a five-minute break in between each 25-minute session.

  1. Lot Your Activities on A Timesheet

It might sound ridiculous, but if you log your activities on a timesheet over the course of a week, you’ll be surprised to see exactly how you’re using your time. Once you know what you’re actually doing, you can make an informed decision about where optimizations can be made.

  1. Harness the Power of Technology

There are lots of helpful apps, pieces of software and technological solutions that can save you time, effort and energy when running your business. Identify your pain points then find an appropriate technological solution to improve your productivity.

  1. Improve Your Processes

Take the time to write down all your processes and the way in which you carry out certain tasks. Are you tackling things in the best way? Are you doing more than you need to? Could you automate any step of the process? Once you’ve carried out a review, you can see where improvements can be made and action them.

To Sell or Not To Sell – That is the Question

You may not realize it, but selling your business does not have to be a solely financial decision. Although, you do need to make sure that any sale you make is as financially advantageous as possible.

This is why it often makes sense to get help from the experts at CBS-CBS.com when you are considering the prospect of a sale. They can help you with knowing the value of your business and understanding if selling is the right decision. The question is, why might you be considering the sale of your business? Here are three potential reasons for the sale of a business, not all of which are financially based.

The value of the business

Working with a professional partner is an excellent way of understanding the value of your business. Some of the main factors that contribute to the value of a business are:

  • Projected revenue.
  • Industry fluctuations.
  • Availability of businesses on the market.

If your business has a high value, and you can secure a substantial amount of liquidity, it may be time to sell. This is because it’s important to recognize that you may not always be in such a financially advantageous situation.

Lack of appetite for business risk

For many business owners, there comes a time when the risk of running a business is tiring rather than exhilarating. This can mean that they become risk-averse and are less willing to innovate and change. This means that business growth is likely to be stifled. It could even mean that the business begins to fail.

If you are a business owner who recognizes themselves in this description, it may be a good idea to sell your business. This is especially the case if your business is in a good position at present. If this is the case, you should be able to make a good sale and get out of the business before your risk aversion starts to have an adverse effect.

The chance of a new opportunity

Becoming tired of the risk of running a business, is almost the exact opposite of another potential reason for selling. Many entrepreneurs feel that they need a new challenge, even when their current business is successful.

This could be because they lack the motivation to continue to innovate in the same field, or because they simply want to experience something new and be challenged by mitigating new risks. If you are a business owner who feels as though they need the challenge of a completely new direction, it may be a good idea to sell. You can then use any profits that you make to help get your new enterprise off the ground.

Businesses are bought and sold every day; for many different reasons. If you are thinking of putting your business on the market, you will have your own personal reasons for doing so. Whatever the reason, it’s important to consider the sale carefully and seek assistance from the experts if you need help with valuing your business.

Why Business Taxes Do Not Need to be Taxing

Taxes cause nightmares for many business owners. This is because they can be so complicated to understand. Completing taxes is also frustrating for many small business owners because it involves time spent away from other business-related activities.

If you are a small business owner who recognizes this situation, you may want to take a look at Corporate Business Solutions Reviews and find a professional who can help with your taxes. You may also want to take some time to get a better understanding of taxes yourself. Here is some basic information to get you started, and to help make completing your taxes less taxing.

Understanding business tax

Corporate or business tax is charged on the profits that a company makes. These taxes are due at different times of the year, depending on which type of tax is due. For instance, partnerships and S-corporations pay federal taxes which are due on March 15. In the case of Individual taxes and C-corporation taxes, they are due to be paid on April 15.

It’s possible to get a 6-month grace period which extends the deadline for these taxes. It’s also possible for taxes to be paid in installments, with an amount due every quarter.

Paying tax as a small business

It’s important to know that most small business owners pay tax at the personal tax rate, both personally and for the business. This is because around three-quarters of small businesses in the US are not corporations.

Another piece of information that small business owners should know is that they are entitled to a Qualified Business Income Deduction. This means that they are entitled to a 20% deduction of QBI which is the net amount of items of income, gain, deduction and loss that qualify.

Other taxes that a business needs to pay

There are other taxes that a business is responsible for paying. One of the main taxes is payroll tax which amounts to 7.65% of the gross payroll of a business. Other applicable taxes include:

  • Capital gains tax which is payable on business investments and the sale of assets.
  • Property tax which relates to buildings that are owned by the business.
  • Tax on dividends from business investments.

You can see that there are several different tax considerations that business owners need to be aware of.

The benefits of getting help with taxes

While getting a better understanding of taxes, is good for any business owner, it may still be a good idea to get help with taxes. This is because completing tax returns can take time away from other business activities.

It’s also worth remembering that accountants and tax professionals have high levels of experience and expertise. This means they can ensure that a business gets the benefits of any potential tax advantages.

If you are a small business owner, you should be able to see the advantage of this. You should also remember that the best way of making tax less taxing is to get an expert to help you with it.