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American Business Brokers & Advisors Founder & President MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS SUCCESSION & BUSINESS ADVISORY BUSINESS VALUATIONS
FEBRUARY 2022
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PERSONAL SERVICE ALWAYS PREVAILS WHEN SELLING A BUSINESS
Of all the things we’ve seen change over the years, customer service has changed the most. As customers, we are no longer receiving the same level of service that we’re used to. The pandemic has resulted in disruptions within the workplace that left many businesses with a shortage of employees, which accelerated the already rapid decline in quality customer service. A recent situation made me realize just how important customer service and relationships are to me. I had been communicating with a business owner who owned a chain of convenience stores for more than four years. I eventually received an email from the business owner’s partner saying that they were considering retirement and asked me to contact them. During our initial conversation, the partner shared that they would be interviewing two other merger and acquisition advisors before deciding who should represent them on the sale of their convenience stores. This is where it gets interesting, since there are only a handful of people who specialize in mergers and acquisitions in the convenience store space around the country. We all know each other, and we all know who the buyers are, so there isn’t too much of a difference between us aside from our personalities and marketing style. The first company felt that they were doing the business owner a favor by talking to them. They did not extend any advice or help, but instead gave the impression that this was too small of a transaction and they had no interest in working with them. The second mergers and acquisitions company talked with the business owner and did a desktop review of the
business. He told the business owner how much their fee was and the projected selling price of their stores.
I believe in treating people the way I want to be treated, so I asked to meet with the owners of the company. Both myself and the other mergers and acquisitions company are both based over 1,000 miles away from the business owner; in order to meet with them in person, I was going to have to travel quite a distance. I was provided with financial information about the stores prior to our meeting. Instead of doing a desktop review of the business, I went and visited the stores to experience them firsthand. Valuing a convenience store is both a science and an art. Seeing the actual business will give you a greater understanding of what it’s worth. My meeting with the business owners went well, as they were very knowledgeable about the business. Additionally, they were friendly and serious about moving forward with the sale. I wish I could work with people like that every day. In short, I got the opportunity to represent these fine people in the sale of their convenience stores. I was able to obtain a purchase price that was above what the other company had quoted them. Was it because of the quality of the stores? Yes, seeing the stores firsthand played a role, but I was also fully engaged with the owners. During the sale process, they dealt exclusively with me and not a junior executive of my company. I was there for any meetings between the buyer and seller or their attorneys. I was available and on call 24 hours a day until we got the deal closed because this is the way I work. I know what it feels like to be a seller who doesn’t understand the sales process and wanted someone to be there when I had questions that needed answers. Selling one’s business is one of the hardest things a person can do. It’s a serious and life-changing experience. To learn more about the process of preparing your business for sale, send me an email at Terry@TerryMonroe.com. If you mention “M&A ADVISOR” and your mailing address, I will send you a FREE copy of my book “Hidden Wealth: The Secret to Getting Top Dollar for Your Business,” which is affiliated with FORBESBOOKS. –Terry Monroe
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QUALITY SLEEP PROMOTES HEALTHY AGING
The Importance of a Good Night’s Rest
Sleep is an essential part of our lives, but it becomes even more important as we get older, as it’s a necessity for healthy aging and staying energized. Ideally, everyone should sleep between 7.5–9 hours a night, but as we get older, this becomes much harder to achieve. Health complaints, minor disturbances, and a decrease in melatonin levels make it difficult for seniors to get a full night of sleep, which can cause irritability and fatigue.
In order to combat these disturbances, here are a few things you can do to ensure you get enough sleep during the night.
BUILD AN ACTIVE DAILY ROUTINE.
REGULATE YOUR SLEEP SCHEDULE.
Outdoor exercise and general movement every day is good for your body, but being outside and absorbing sunlight can balance and optimize your melatonin levels, which can help you fall asleep easier. On top of exercise, try weaving protein-rich snacks and meals into your routine. Foods like light meat and nuts can improve sleep quality, and dairy foods contain tryptophan, which is a sleep-promoting chemical.
Keeping the same schedule for sleeping can reap immediate benefits. You will notice increased alertness during waking hours as well as enhanced memory and attention span. You may also start to feel tired around the same time every day, ensuring that you will actually go to sleep right on schedule. It can take time and patience to adjust to new habits to improve sleep, especially for the elderly. It won’t happen overnight, but the benefits that come with a better night’s sleep will have you feeling younger and healthier than ever before. If anything, you will feel more engaged and happier throughout your daily life. 2. NEGOTIATING THE DEAL You can’t negotiate for yourself and get the best results. There is a reason why celebrities, athletes, and politicians hire professional negotiators to work for them. This is something I had to learn firsthand. 3. FINDING BUYERS When you specialize in a certain industry, we all tend to know who the top buyers are at the present time. This is a top priority, but surprisingly, it’s not the No. 1 response from the survey. 4. LIMITING DISTRACTIONS A business owner needs to do what they do best, which is running their business. On the other side, the business owner needs to let me do what I do best. Trying to run your business efficiently while also selling your business at the same time is a recipe for disaster. 5. ESTABLISHING CREDIBILITY THAT THE OWNER IS SERIOUS ABOUT SELLING By using an M&A advisor, the prospective buyer knows all parties are serious about selling the business. They would not have created the marketing materials needed to facilitate the sale of the business or engaged a professional in the process of selling the business if they weren’t serious. Send me an email at Terry@TerryMonroe.com to learn more about the process of preparing your business for sale. I will send you a FREE copy of my book “Hidden Wealth: The Secret to Getting Top Dollar for Your Business” if you mention “M&A ADVISOR” and give your mailing address.
ELIMINATE UNHEALTHY SUBSTANCES.
Limit your intake of caffeine and sugar throughout the day — especially right before bed — for better rest. It’s also best not to drink anything about an hour before bed, so you don’t wake up in the middle of the night to use the restroom and disrupt your sleep.
5 REASONS TO HIRE A M&A ADVISOR
I’m often asked why a business owner should hire me to represent them in the selling of their business. I’ve always had my own opinions on the matter, but they were recently verified by a survey that I came across. Over 80 former business owners were asked where a merger & acquisitions (M&A)
advisor adds the most value. People often think that the top answer is “finding a buyer for the business,” but that’s simply not the case. Here are five areas where an M&A advisor adds more value. 1. MANAGING THE SALES PROCESS When I present a business owner with an offer, they often look at me and say, “This is great, but what do we do now?” Having done this countless times, I sometimes forget that they don’t know what the process is to get the sale completed.
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WORD SEARCH Take a Break!
Are you planning on selling your business in the next 1–2 years? If so, you need to start planning now. But where do you even start? Selling a business is a massive undertaking. With so many things to consider, some confusion is understandable, but if you don’t get the right kind of help, you could end up selling your business for far less than top dollar and leave tens of thousands of dollars on the negotiating table. These are the kinds of cautionary tales that market maker and four-time author Terry Monroe shares in “Hidden Wealth: The Secret to Getting Top Dollar for Your Business.” While we’d like to hope we’re accomplished and savvy enough to sell our business without any help, the uncomfortable truth is that tons of successful business owners have lost out on millions of dollars in selling their businesses — all because they didn’t know exactly what they were doing. Sometimes, contemplating the financial implications of selling your business and dealing with the strain and grief that comes with doing so are worse than actually selling the business. So, what then? Well, in Terry Monroe’s “Hidden Wealth,” you’ll Get the Wisdom of Other Business Owners’ Mistakes FROM TERRY MONROE’S ‘HIDDEN WEALTH’
also learn how to realistically assess your situation, deal wisely with the business that you’ve built over the years, and maximize the money you’ll receive when you decide to sell. It has been said that we learn from our failures, not our successes, but the true sign of a successful individual is to learn from someone else’s failures and not your own. “Hidden Wealth” seeks to do just that: give every business owner access to the lessons learned from the mistakes of other business owners so they can avoid the setbacks and reap all the rewards. Find out how you can get a copy today by emailing Terry@terrymonroe.com .
BEADS CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL FOOTBALL
HISTORY LUNAR PINK PRESIDENTS
SWEETHEART TIGER VALENTINE VIOLET
SUDOKU (SOLUTION ON PG. 4)
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gathered by Convince & Convert found 71% of B2B respondents reviewed a blog during their buying journey, 65% of them prioritized credible content from industry influencers more than the previous year, and content marketing cost 41% less than paid search and generated three times more leads per dollar than other channels. All five of these B2B marketing strategies were hot in 2021, and if you had a positive experience with one or more of them, do yourself a favor and keep that strategy in place for 2022. Do the same with any other trends that worked for you, and you’ll have a head start on next year’s playbook.
4. LEVERAGING AI
The importance of artificial intelligence (AI) for B2B marketing became crystal clear recently when a Salesforce study reported that 80% of business buyers expect the companies they reach out to will talk to them “in real time,” regardless of the hour. This statistic highlights how important chatbots and other AI solutions are for customer conversion.
5. REACHING CUSTOMERS WITH CONTENT
Content marketing through blog posts and newsletters was touted as a vital piece of every B2B brand’s marketing puzzle this year. Statistics
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Sudoku Solution
Quality Sleep Can Promote Healthy Aging Why You Should Hire a M&A Advisor Secret To Getting Top Dollar
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Make 2021’s B2B Marketing Trends Work in 2022
If something trendy is truly awesome, it sticks around and becomes part of the culture. At one time, people thought cellphones, texting, and computers were just trendy, but decades later, they’re still here because they made our lives better! Trends in marketing are the same way. Sometimes a fresh marketing strategy will pop up, everyone will try it, and it will disappear. But if a marketing trend works , it sticks around and becomes a mainstay. With that in mind, as you plan your B2B marketing strategy for 2022, you shouldn’t throw out your 2021 playbook. The tactics you tried this year might not be on the 2022 trend lists that are starting to pop up on marketing websites, but that doesn’t matter. If the marketing strategy successfully worked for you in any capacity, roll it into your 2022 plan. Not sure what 2021 B2B marketing trends means? Here are just a few called out by B2B marketing expert Lee Odden.
trend of marketing through influencers on Instagram and TikTok. A TopRank Marketing survey found most B2B marketers believe this strategy changes minds, improves the brand experience, and yields better campaign results.
What do you think of when you hear the word “trend?” Depending on your age, it could be anything from big hair to avocado toast. The word itself has more definitions than you might think, including these four from Merriam-Webster: 1. A prevailing tendency or inclination 2. A general movement 3. A current style or preference 4. A line of development When people say something is “trendy,” they usually mean the third definition. But trends aren’t always fleeting. Sometimes, as you can see from definitions 1, 2, and 4, they’re useful predictors of what’s to come. How to Harness 2021’s B2B Marketing Trends in 2022 YES, IT WAS TRENDY — BUT DID IT WORK?
2. ADVERTISING ON PODCASTS
Apple Podcasts crossed the one million show mark in April 2021, and in 2020, 37% of Americans ages 12 and up listened to at least one podcast each month. These factors made podcast advertising a major trend in 2021, especially for B2B marketers aiming to reach a younger audience.
3. AUTOMATING EVERYTHING
COVID-19 forced us all to reevaluate how we spend our time, and it turns out many of us don’t want to put those minutes toward sending texts and emails! Still, text and email marketing are both vital B2B channels. The trendy way to get the best of both worlds in 2021 was through automation. Within those messages, Odden called out a trend for a “greater focus on storytelling, personalization, and more informal content versus explicit sales offers.” Continued on Page 3 ...
1. USING INFLUENCERS
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people are spending, on average, 30% more time on smartphone apps this year than they did in 2019. Early statistics lead to the 2021
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