Jim Blasingame

Business futurist, award-winning author, speaker and columnist

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Buying a Business

Your American Dream Could Have Been Started By Someone Else

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The American Dream has many components, but to me, the big three are liberty, business ownership, and home ownership. The order is intentional.

  1. Liberty is prime because it makes the other two possible. Freedom is from God, but liberty is a contract we give to each other.
  2. Business ownership in America has produced more self-determination than any other force in history, including from all of the associated jobs.
  3. Homeownership is available to all Americans who’ve claimed one of those jobs.

As much as the latter two are part of our liberty, business ownership is the most challenging. Blasingame’s 1st Law of Small Business states: “It’s easy to start a small business, but it’s not easy to operate and grow one.”

That paradox manifests in full measure when the entrepreneurial sap starts rising in the bark of a prospective business owner who decides to start from scratch. It’s a natural process to envision your new business and then set about creating it out of whole cloth. But that natural urge must be tempered with this rude truth: Someone else has probably already created something that looks a whole lot like what you’re thinking about creating. Consider these points before you become a startup. [Continue Reading]

I Know What I Was Feeling, But What Was I Thinking?

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“I know what I was feeling, but what was I thinking?”  

This title lyric of a country song by Dierks Bentley is about a boy letting a pretty girl get him into a whole lot of trouble on their first date. Of course, there’s often no accounting for the unintended consequences of affairs of the heart.

But when these words are in the head of a small business owner, it’s due to an ill-advised decision that causes the proverbial winged sack of money to fly away.

“I know what I was feeling, but what was I thinking?” is often the financial post mortem lament of the passionate but too impulsive start-up entrepreneur. Being passionate about starting a business is very important, [Continue Reading]

Buying A Business? Focus On These Four Factors

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Continuing my series on buying a business, consider these four critical factors when you’re on a small business acquisition quest.

Old sellers are the best sellers 

One of the best opportunities to acquire an existing business is when you can buy one from an owner who wants to retire from a business that’s still viable. Two good reasons are: they’re less likely to change their mind before the transaction is complete, and they’re more likely to finance a larger part of the sale price to get monthly income.

Notice I said, “still viable.” [Continue Reading]

Buying A Business? Consider These Principles First

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Recently I offered an article on how to “Buy Your American Dream” by buying a business from someone else. Let’s continue that theme with a few more principles to employ when considering this ownership option. Thanks to my friend, Russell Brown, and his book, Laws of the Business Buying and Selling Jungle for the inspiration.

Buyer beware – of himself.
In the securities industry, full disclosure is the coin of the realm. But in the marketplace, caveat emptor — let the buyer beware — is the fair warning standard. If a seller misleads or misrepresents something, legal redress may be available. But business purchases that don’t work out are born more from inept buyers than from seller malfeasance.

What’s a business worth?
Many metrics and factors are used to divine the value of a business, including strategic elements outside of the empirical. But primarily, you should focus on the business’s ability to generate earnings — net profits. With the exception of strategic factors, if the prospective business isn’t creating acceptable earnings and you don’t know how to change that, don’t buy the business. [Continue Reading]

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