Mutual Finance

the second in a series taken from
How to Evaluate and Profit from a Business Opportunity

Going into business for yourself is a big decision, one that requires careful thought and a great deal of planning. Whether you decide to buy a business, or start one from an idea or a patent, you need to know yourself. In order to make the business successful, it has to be one you will like working in and its requirements have to match your skills, and attitude.

First, understand why you want to go in business for yourself. There are lots of reasons. Some people want to build an empire; others have an idea they passionately believe in. Some because they can’t find a job and by owning their own business they will have income to take care of their needs. Still others want control over their lifestyle while many want to pass on something to their heirs.

Knowing why you want to own your own business will help you avoid mistakes and let you focus on what’s right for you. A good match at the beginning will go a long way towards making you a successful business owner. We always do better at what we like.

As you start working on a self-assessment, remember that while it’s important to know what you are, it’s equally important to know what you aren’t. Do you learn new things easily, on your own, or do you find it tough to deal with change? What was the last new thing you learned? What are you looking forward to learning right now?

Can you teach others how to do things? Can you motivate people; are you good at critiquing, negotiating and reprimanding? If so you may want to stay away from a business that employees many people and experiences a high turnover.

How about your personal lifestyle; is being home for dinner with the family important, or spending time with the kids on weekends? If so a retail business might not be right for you. Its time demands could be a conflict which causes many problems.

If you like tinkering with tools and equipment instead of sitting at a desk, you probably should consider some type of light manufacturing or assembly business. Besides being able to help your employees deal with the occasional machine breakdown, you may very well find new ways to do things, maybe even design a new process or tool which you can market.

Are you a detail person or do you always seem to grasp the bigger picture? As the owner you will have to be both, but knowing how a business makes money (a topic for a later article) will let you begin spending more of your time on the activities you like.

Do you enjoy making people happy, bringing a smile to their faces? Maybe you’ve always had an itch to go on the stage. If so perhaps you should look for a restaurant that serves great food but all the people out front add nothing to the fun of the dinning experience. Perhaps the owner/chef really knows how to cook but lacks people skills and would be willing to take in a partner who would be the out-front person. If you know accounting, you can also take over the bookkeeping functions and free the creative genius in the kitchen expand the culinary offerings.

Always remember you don’t have to own it all to be in business for yourself.

At the end of Chapter Two in my book How to Evaluate and Profit from a Business Opportunity - The Entrepreneur’s Guide there is a twenty- nine questions self assessment quiz which will help you learn more about yourself.

www.artconsoli.com

Art Consoli held eight corporate positions with Johnson & Johnson before starting his first business. He went on to build over twenty businesses from patents or ideas or from businesses others couldn’t make successful. These ranged from starting a veterinarian drug company to taking over a steel fabricating company to developing the first manufactured home subdivision to qualify for every private and government assisted mortgage program in Arizona. He also did ten workouts for lenders and owners; the last was a $30 million, 300 employee, precision parts manufacturing plant that made parts for the auto industry. Consoli’s unique background and skills allow him to speak and write about how someone with limited experience can do a self-evaluation which will let him decide which business opportunity is best, how to evaluate opportunities and gain control over the one which offers the greatest potential and then manage that business to success. Readers of his book call and write to tell him how much his book has helped their lives and improved their business.

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number six in a series taken from:

How to Evaluate and Profit from a Business Opportunity - The Entrepreneur’s Guide

It’s important that you understand how the business makes money. You must take that business down to its essence. For example banks make money by loaning it out at higher rates than it pays to get the money. What it pays to investors as interest, to its shareholders as dividends, and what it pays in interest to the other institutions it borrows from are its costs. It has to get the money (Its inventory) it has and has access to out into our hands as loans at rates that produce more income than its costs.

It really is no different than a car dealer. The dealer has inventory — cars, which it doesn’t own until it sells, on which it pays interest (usually to the manufacturer.) If it prices its cars too high and doesn’t sell them quickly the interest on the inventory exceeds the profits on the sales and it winds up in trouble.

If the bank prices its inventory, money to loan — too high, and it doesn’t move out the inventory, its costs (above) exceed the profits on the loans it makes. Remember that the next time you go into a bank to make a loan. The bank needs you!

Every business, at its heart, has a simple plan. Take McDonalds — many think it is in the business of selling franchises. It isn’t, in fact I don’t think you can buy one anymore. Some think that it makes its money by getting a percentage of everything the store sells. It does, but that’s not its real business. McDonalds’ real business is real estate! That’s right it owns all those properties and collects rent and as they go up in value, it will rent them to somebody else who will pay even more rent.

When I was in the business of selling manufactured homes, I made it a point to find out how my competitors made money. Some were interested in high volume and would take small profits or even losses if they thought it would move them into a higher discount bracket. Others were interested in maximizing the profit on each transaction. When my salespeople brought me a deal to consider I wanted to know who else the customer was talking to. If it was a retailer who was focused on volume, one who would take the deal at any price, I negotiated like crazy and then let them have it a price, which would be below my cost (thier’s too- most likely). It was my way of helping them go out of business quicker.

As you evaluate opportunities find out what they do. If they sell primarily to one large customer, that could be trouble. A buyer that takes a large portion of a vendor’s capability can easily maneuver them into a position where they become so important that they dictate the price and terms of what they buy. The auto industry is notorious for loading a parts manufacturer with orders, watching them expand through borrowing money to purchase new equipment and then demanding price cuts, which leave the supplier with virtually no profits.

Does the business you are considering rely too heavily on the skills and talent of one person? If so how will you keep him or her if you buy the business? Does the opportunity’s success come from a legal document, like a patent or a trademark? If so will you have enough money to defend that document if a competitor decides to ignore it and put a similar product or service in the marketplace.

Ever think about what happened to the corner gas station that used to repair cars? As the automobile became high tech, the skills of a repair mechanic were replaced by the read-out on an electronic analyzer. The guy who was willing to stop rebuilding the starter on a workbench to go put gas in your car and see if you needed a new fan belt is gone. The fellow who now owns the shop that has five technicians doesn’t care about trying to sell you thirty bucks worth of gas because he knows that his guys can’t spot a problem before it happens.

Make sure the business you are considering is not passing into history — know how it makes money.

You will find more about this topic in chapter six in my book.

By Art Consoli

www.artconsoli.com

Art Consoli held eight corporate positions with Johnson & Johnson before starting his first business. He went on to build over twenty businesses from patents or ideas or from businesses others couldn’t make successful. These ranged from starting a veterinarian drug company to taking over a steel fabricating company to developing the first manufactured home subdivision to qualify for every private and government assisted mortgage program in Arizona. He also did ten workouts for lenders and owners; the last was a $30 million, 300 employee, precision parts manufacturing plant that made parts for the auto industry. Consoli’s unique background and skills allow him to speak and write about how someone with limited experience can do a self-evaluation which will let him decide which business opportunity is best, how to evaluate opportunities and gain control over the one which offers the greatest potential and then manage that business to success. Readers of his book call and write to tell him how much his book has helped their lives and improved their business.

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the third in a series taken from:

How to Evaluate and Profit from a Business Opportunity - The Entrepreneur’s Guide.

Guess what every not-yet-an-entrepreneur says when they are asked what’s keeping them from owning their own business?

“No money. I don’t have enough money.”

Certainly many may not have enough money, but most people don’t understand how much money they have — or may have access to. They also don’t realize that money is just one resource they will need to get their business up and running, or bought and open for business.

Many people pass up opportunities because they don’t think about the resources they have. Instead, they focus on what they don’t have. A successful business owner is resourceful. Think about that word for a moment. What comes to mind? Someone who can make a fire with a piece of rock and some dry twigs? Maybe somebody who can open a locked car with a coat hanger or who can figure out how to get the computer program to run. That’s what successful business people can do because they can reach back into their experiences and draw out what they need to solve problems.

Most people probably don’t think of themselves as resourceful and many of you reading this probably would say that you aren’t as well. But as with most things in life, we weren’t born being resourceful, we came to it by dealing with problems. The more practice you’ve had the better at it you become. And small business owners are confronted with many problems so they quickly become very resourceful.

The first time I was identified as resourceful came when I was put in charge of the complaint and claims department for Johnson & Johnson. The previous manager sort of let things go and the folks doing the work were way behind. I was told to shape up the department and get every complaint and claim handled within a few days of receipt. We were so far behind that we were getting the second and third inquiry about the same problem. We had no hope of catching up without a serious infusion of additional people.

Rather than ask my boss to approve such a request, I found another way. I went into work one weekend and pulled every file (a complaint or a claim) off every person’s desk and from their work-in- progress temporary files and stacked ‘em in storage boxes in a vacant room — and after making a list of all the customers’ names and order numbers — I locked the room.

On Monday when the adjusters came in they looked around in disbelief. Then I made an announcement. “Every call or letter that comes in today will be answered tomorrow. No exceptions. Find out what happened and resolve the matter. If it’s an old problem, one where the papers are out of the files because you were working on it, bring it to me.”

When somebody brought me a second or third inquiry on an old problem I told them to make the adjustment in the customer’s favor - and I made a note which I then attached to the documents in the locked room and put them back in the files.

After a week or so of grumbling about how difficult it was to get the answers and resolve the problem in a day, things began working smoothly. In a month all but a handful of the problems in the locked room were back in the files.

How does this help you in your quest to own your own business? First, realize that the most important resource you need is people. Good people make good things happen. Be sure you know who you are going to count on to help you run the business. Second, understand that everything else you will need are just things; vehicles, facilities, equipment, inventory, supplies - - whatever. These will either come with what you buy or be acquired, as you need them as you build your business.

What you buy will have value and can be financed. Maybe you won’t like the terms, but the money is available. And if you can show that the business you are buying or are going to build — is a good bet. It too can be financed. Maybe you won’t find a lender so easy, but you may be able to find a partner, maybe the seller might like to be your partner.

As you become successful you will quickly learn there is always money available for a good idea and for a person who knows how to build successful businesses.

Your most important resource is — YOU! And you will become more valuable, more important as you deal with and solve problems.

Check out the chapters in my book on Resources and Leverage; learn how many you have without even knowing it.

By Art Consoli

www.artconsoli.com

Art Consoli held eight corporate positions with Johnson & Johnson before starting his first business. He went on to build over twenty businesses from patents or ideas or from businesses others couldn’t make successful. These ranged from starting a veterinarian drug company to taking over a steel fabricating company to developing the first manufactured home subdivision to qualify for every private and government assisted mortgage program in Arizona. He also did ten workouts for lenders and owners; the last was a $30 million, 300 employee, precision parts manufacturing plant that made parts for the auto industry. Consoli’s unique background and skills allow him to speak and write about how someone with limited experience can do a self-evaluation which will let him decide which business opportunity is best, how to evaluate opportunities and gain control over the one which offers the greatest potential and then manage that business to success. Readers of his book call and write to tell him how much his book has helped their lives and improved their business.

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