Tag Archives: Financial Strategy

Optimal Owner for a School — Not Private Equity or Wall Street

The School Business Finding a perfect match between a business and an owner is not easy.  This hit home to me last week at a gathering for private post-secondary schools in California where I heard an owner of a private, post-secondary school describe an epiphany… Continue reading

Honey, I Shrunk the Definition of “Long-Term Investing”

Defining Long Term Investing Three years is “long-term investing” according to a discussion I attended last week.  The discussion was among a handful of family office investors who help manage money for Haim Saban (participated in sale of Fox Family to Walt Disney), Eric Schmidt… Continue reading

50th Post Since April — How am I doing?

Today’s post marks my 50th blog post since I began the blog on April 22, 2012.  To me, it feels good to be writing posts and I hope it is helpful to some business owners and investors out there.  To make sure it is helpful,… Continue reading

Buying a Business: Raise Money for the Search or Not?

Search Funds Last week I had a nice conversation with a mid-career person looking to buy a business.  He was contemplating using the “search fund” model to find and buy a business.  As a brief background, a search fund is a model where an entrepreneur… Continue reading

Chart of Most Profitable Industries — Increase Your Odds of Business Success

Profitability Differences Building a business is a lot of work.  Thus, it makes sense to build your business in an industry where the fundamental dynamics are a little more in your favor.  Or, evolve your business to improve its fundamental characteristics by studying the best.… Continue reading

“Strategy Follows Structure” — John Bogle on Investment Funds

Investment Fund Structures “You are what you eat” is the common phrase about nutrition.  With investing, I think a corollary should be “you are where & how you get your capital”.  This is particularly true with any type of investment fund as John Bogle, the… Continue reading

Mezzanine Financing – A Guide for Business Owners

Mezzanine financing is a type of debt financing that sits between bank loan financing and equity financing in a company’s capital structure.  This post is meant to be a general overview of mezzanine.   I recommend that all business owners should know about this financing option… Continue reading

Trend-spotting at Harvard Business School

One magnificent place to spot trends (and things that are too trendy) is the Harvard Business School.  There is a famous saying that someone should watch what newly minted Harvard MBA’s are doing and do the opposite — such as when all the MBA’s joined Internet… Continue reading

Business Purchase and Sale Agreements (a series)

This post begins a series of posts on business Purchase and Sale Agreements.  Even though I have executed a number of  Business Purchase and Sale Agreements in my investing career, this series falls in the category of “teaching what you want to learn” as I… Continue reading

Business Growth Strategies – Early Revenue and Profits (even small) are Important

Business Growth Strategies In business growth strategies, two excellent thinkers about business growth suggest driving to revenue, profit, and customers quickly (even if small).  These are ideas from Clayton Christensen of the Harvard Business School and author/consultant Ram Charan. In Christensen’s class at Harvard, he taught… Continue reading