John Bowen was the CEO of Reinhardt Werba Bowen (RWB), a financial services company that was acquired by Assante Capital in 1998 for $25M. While the exit was ultimately a happy one, it started inauspiciously. Why? Because John was the object of a “fishing trip” from a competitor. What’s a “fishing trip”? Sometimes a firm […]
In this occasional series we will share profiles of our team here at Apex so you can get to know the men and women that make us best qualified to help you buy or sell a business. Jay has been in the industry for just about a decade. He has owned both a promotional products […]
Derek Sivers sold his company, CD Baby, for $22M. For years he’d made tens of millions of dollars for independent musicians by giving them a platform by which they could sell to their fans. Some time after, he wrote a very short book about the experience, Anything You Want, which is packed with lessons and […]
Dr. Phil Carson (a different Dr. Phil than the one most people know) is the owner of Carson Natural Health. Before he began that business, he helped create a pharmacy business. He didn’t have anything to invest in that pharmacy business as he’d been wiped out in 2008-2009, so he earned his equity via sweat. […]
As your business grows over the years, things change. You may come to find that the reasons you started the business aren’t the same reasons you’re running it now. Or even the reasons you aspire to in the years to come. If you can’t easily answer “Why are you still running your business?”, it may […]
Selling a business is fraught with all sorts of challenges. One of the most important ones is how to deal with employees. If handled thoughtfully, they can make the transition almost effortless. If handled poorly, you could end up with a deal that doesn’t close. Do you tell them or not? Keeping a sale confidential […]
Marty Neumeier’s short slide-presentation book, ZAG, at 192 pages, is one of the shortest books we’ve covered in our Book Club series. Don’t let the smaller size fool you, however. Neumeier covers a plethora of information about being the best brand possible. We’ve picked a few key ideas from ZAG to share in this article. […]
Sold to a Competitor Andrew Yang was the CEO of Manhattan GMAT when he sold to a competitor, Kaplan, in 2009. At the time of the sale, the company was doing $11M annually. Andrew stayed on post-acquisition and added an additional $6M a year in revenue before departing to start a non-profit. What is […]
Whether you’re building your business to sell one day or thinking about buying a business for the first time, you need to make sure you have a quality banking relationship established. Some people think of a bank as simply someplace they keep their money or where they go when they need something. In reality, banks […]
One of the most important steps in getting a business ready for sale is preparing for a valuation. An important step in this process is making sure that the proper Cash Flow adjustments, or “add-backs,” have been made to your annual Net Profit. While we see lots of questionable cash flow adjustments. This article will […]
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