Small Business Loan Guarantee Scheme helps Birmingham firm clean up

Posted by Chris on February 6th, 2010

H2O Car Valeting has recieved a £5 Million Loan backed by the SBLGS see more here

http://www.birminghampost.net/birmingham-business/birmingham-business-news/automotive-business/2009/12/31/car-valeting-group-making-a-tidy-future-65233-25499988/

Selling a High Tech Business in Birmingham

Posted by Chris on February 5th, 2010

If you are selling a high tech business in Birmingham then the M&A Rainmaker blogsite has some useful information about the process to use

I sold the national Cisco Internet and Networking company Voyager Networks in 1999 and more recently the global Cisco Unified Communications company 5i Limited in 2009 and worked with Ernst & Young in 1999 and Nortons Corporate Finance in 2009.

Both times we used a similar process to sell the companies. It made absolutely no difference that one sale was at the height of the dotcom boom whilst the other was at the bottom of the global recession.

The process is outlined here

http://mandarainmaker.co.uk/wordpress/selling-your-business-2/

along with other useful, related sections.

As values rise, high-tech entrepreneurs grapple with build-or-sell dilemma

Posted by Chris on February 5th, 2010

An interesting article from 2007 in USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2007-02-23-facebook_x.htm?POE=MONISVA

Small business government loans birmingham

Posted by Chris on February 3rd, 2010

The M&A Rainmaker has been made aware that Government backed funding and loans  are available to small and medium sized businesses in the Birmingham and West Midlands area.

Discussions with experienced and long established Birmingham based consultancy Genesis Consulting have revealed a particular interest in supporting High Technology ( ICT and Advanced Manufacturing ) companies.

Typical companies might be small ICT start-up teams or ICT companies with a product and intellectual property who need assistance in developing and selling thier products and services.

Other examples might be established Engineering companies of around £1 Million turnover who are seeking to take thier business to the next level.

For further information and an informal discussion contact us here at M&A Rainmaker or give Arun Luther a call at Genesis on 0121 681 6880 and mention M&A Rainmaker.

M&A Rainmaker can provide business strategy, sales and marketing support to complement these loans and grants.

Cisco Heroes of the Human Network Contest

Posted by Chris on February 2nd, 2010

Poundbury Systems would like to make you aware of the ” Cisco Heroes of the Human Network Contest

Please call us for more details on               01305 259849         01305 259849 and ask for Clare or Ricki or fax us on               01305 259849         01305 259849 or visit our website here

http://www.poundbury.com/

or Google ” Cisco Heroes ”
or visit Cisco Systems link here:

http://www.cisco.com/web/solutions/smb/heroes/uk/index.html?POSITION=SEM&COUNTRY_SITE=UK&CAMPAIGN=SMB&CREATIVE=SMB+Heroes&REFERRING_SITE=Google&KEYWORD=cisco+heroes

or read this

How has Cisco empowered your business?
Tell us how Cisco Small Business technology has helped propel your business and your business could win!
Three grand prize winners will receive:
Video case study documenting your experience
$1,000 CDW gift card to spend on Cisco Small Business products
Flip Mino HD Video camera (valued at $229)
Simply tell us, in an essay of 250 words or less, how Cisco Small
Business technology has allowed you to streamline business
processes, enhance the customer experience or improve employee
efficiency and your business can be a grand prize winner!*

and visit this link here

http://www.cdw.com/content/campaigns/cisco-heroes.aspx

Creating Business Value before disposal

Posted by Chris on February 1st, 2010

After I wrote the main ” Selling a Business ” section of the M&A Rainmaker blog I came across the BCMS Corporate website here

http://www.bcmscorporate.com/

BCMS Corporate are a fabulous, family owned professional services  business focussed on the SMB sector and helping them acquire and dispose of businesses. They have a great downloadable book on thier website which I highly recommend.

They have considerable experience in the sector and I found that thier approach and sales process had many similarities with the one that I used and have advocated here.

There is no doubt that maximising the value of a business requires that you approach large numbers of companies, globally, many of whom would not have been in acquisition mode. If the potential acquirer( through skillful analysis and salesmanship ) is then convinced of the synergy and accretive nature of the acquisition they will be inclined to pay more than simple financial valuations indicate.

If, in addition, emotive considerations come into play, such as ” There will only be one chance to buy this company ” or ” I have to buy this company before my competitors do ” the the valuations will climb further.

So, I am entirely supportive of the BCMS Corporate approach ( and I might not have outlined all thier special processes here ) and the fact that it helps to maximise valuations.

What I try to get over to companies is the fact that you have to be thinking about maximising valuations well before you decide to sell. BCMS Corporate ( or any other M&A or Corporate Finance house ) basically do thier very best with the hand that they are dealt. They probably have about 6-9 months to ” clean-up ” the company.

This is not enough for real value creation and for addressing all the factors that can inhibit the value of your company such as lack of succession planning.

The conundrum is how to begin addressing these issues at least 3 years BEFORE you decide to exit. It is likely that if the business is an ” exit route business ” value creation ( and all that goes with it ) will be built into the strategic plan. Lifestyle businesses that decide to exit some time into thier business life are a different matter.

One of the reasons for creating this blog was to make business owners aware IN ADVANCE of the need to prepare a business for exit years before the event. Clearly this is a bit of a challenge because if you are not thinking of an exit you are not likely to be spending any time or money planning for it !!

Actually this is happening ! My colleagues and I are working with some businesses who are planning for an exit some years away. They have said to us ” What do we need to do to maximise the value of our company if we sell in about 3-5 years ” ??? Clever people eh ??

I am not going to describe all the things that can be done if you have that much notice but let us mention a few:

– One big one involves crystal ball gazing !!! There is general agreement that you want to sell before your business reaches the peak of it’s lifecycle so that there is life and growth in the business for your acquirer. To do this you need to understand your market and your business cycle.

– More crystal ball gazing is involved in attempting to predict what acquirers will be looking for 3-5 years hence and who those acquirers might be. This is just hard – it is not necessarily impossible !!

– You should try to be providing what the industry regards as ” sexy ” or ” fashionable ” products and services ( I keep my eye on Gartners predictions for the High Tech market )

– Ideally you need to show scalability and replicatability in your products and services

– Ideally you should have global possibilities for the sale of your products and services

– You should have clearly defined processes within your business eg dealing with support issues, forecasting sales

– You should ideally have Intellectual Property ( I.P. ) , something unique that you have invented

– You should have recurring business ( eg maintenance and support contracts )

– You should have a succession plan for all the main management ( I call this the ” If we all go down in a plane test ” )

There are many others but hopefully this gives a sample.

My colleagues and I spend our time helping companies with these and other ” business valuation drivers “.

When you combine these with the correct disposal approach you will almost certainly have a great result.

Selling a High Tech Business

Posted by Chris on February 1st, 2010

The original and still the most important purpose of the M&A Rainmaker blog was to impart the lessons that I learned in selling businesses, particularly High Tech businesses.

The process is discussed here

http://mandarainmaker.co.uk/wordpress/selling-your-business-2/

in some detail.

I use the sale of 2 of my businesses Voyager Networks and 5i as particular examples in the selling your business process. One of the reasons for this is that one, Voyager Networks, was sold at the height of the High Tech, Dot Com Boom in 1999/2000 and the other, 5i, was sold in the depth’s of the global economic recession in 2008/9. Yet they both sold and sold well.

A very similar process was used in both cases although there were differences other than the economic backdrop.

When we started Voyager we had no clear strategy for it being a lifestyle business or an exit route business. It only became an exit route business after my meeting with Investec and after innumerable approaches to buy us. This was something like 1996, 3 years into the life of the business.

5i, on the other hand, was started with the clear intention of exiting ( sale or float ) 3-5 years later.

In fact both businesses sold around 7 years after thier start and in conversations with other people who have sold High Tech businesses this seems to be a typical lifetime for a business before it is sold.

In both cases we conducted a ” Beauty Parade ” to find the right M&A ( Mergers and Acquisitions ) partner. In the first case settling on Ernst & Young and in the second Norton Corporate Finance. ( Actually it was probably thier Rainmakers and thier teams that we settled on aswell as the companies ).

I remember that in the case of Voyager we discussed who was going to sell the company ( after we had decided to sell ) and put into the pot Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young and one other ( who I forget ). To get to the short list the three partners each put out feelers amongst thier contacts and 3 were chosen for presentations. Our accountants and our lawyers were consulted ( D & T were our accountants ). We ended up using Ernst and Young and our lawyers ( from Leeds ).

With 5i the lawyers and accountants were consulted; board members and shareholders put forward suggestions and a process was followed which resulted in Nortons Corporate Finance being selected.

I have to say that in my opinion both firms were exactly the right ones for us. The Nortons process and culture was similar to the one at Ernst & Young and this was a factor in the decision to go for Nortons.

Now, there are a great number of Corporate Finance and M & A companies to choose from and it is very important to find the right partner with the right processes and capabilities.

It is possible that the right people to use are your own accountants and lawyers but probably not. Or, at the very least, you should look for alternatives. If you are very experienced at selling companies then you may well have lawyers and accountants that you have used on a number of occassions. My advice is directed at people who have not had these opportunities.

In an ideal world you want to have decided wether you are a lifestyle business or an exit route business as early as possible. Also in an ideal world, you want to give yourself time to select the right legal and accountancy M&A partners for you and your business.

Business Transformation using Cisco and 5i

Posted by Chris on January 15th, 2010

How to achieve customer business transformation using Cisco technology and 5i methodology

Define your customers’ collaboration strategy – Transform their business (and yours)

Collaboration has become critical in a world where employees can be anywhere, travel budgets are tight, and information overload is ‘normal’.

Cisco’s latest solutions represent a major breakthrough in the capabilities of technology to transform business, but to ensure success, your customers need an effective collaboration strategy.

5i’s unrivalled experience in designing and deploying Cisco-based collaboration solutions has taught us a thing or two about making technology work to deliver business benefit – and we’d like to share them with you and your customers.

Here’s the simple 6 Step approach to driving the optimal value from your customers’ collaboration strategy:

1.Identify the value. Team members must understand the value they are expected to deliver, whether it’s increasing revenue or moving into a new market.

2.Link it to business strategies. Collaborations that are aligned to corporate strategy deliver the greatest value.

3.Select team players who are engaging, creative, and expert. Team members must be excited and optimistic about the project and bring a unique expertise.

4.Build trust. More important than employees trusting their managers is co-workers trusting each other.

5.Define business processes. Great collaborators require flexibility creating processes that are unique to their role in the collaboration. Each team member should have a specific responsibility and the opportunity and incentive to improve the process.

6.Employ technology that is flexible and secure. Collaborators need to communicate securely and flexibly. Virtual interactions can be just as effective as face-to-face meetings when they support preferred working styles and provide a valuable contact.

For a FREE introductory assessment of your customer’s collaborative potential, delivered via our proven partnering model that maximises your margin and project quality call 01189 885558 or email sales@5i.co.uk

For more information about 5i go to http://www.5i.co.uk

Cisco Telephone Systems in Dorchester Dorset

Posted by Chris on January 14th, 2010

If you are looking at buying Cisco Telephone Systems in Dorchester Dorset

then I highly recommend that you talk to Clare at Poundbury Systems on 01305 259849.

I have been in the business to business information technology industry for more than 20 years and specifically I have been involved in the Cisco Systems community since around 1993 when I started the national Cisco Gold Partner Voyager Networks. I have known Clare and her husband and business partner Mike since then.

If you are a Small or Medium Business in the Dorchester or Dorset area Poundbury provide computer and telephony systems and related software, hardware and networks to small and medium sized businesses. They have many years of experience of doing so and are technically very competent.

They aim to use plain English wherever possible rather than technical jargon and they focus on what technology can do for your business.

Many of thier customers have confirmed that they live up to thier philosophy and objectives and you will find their testimonials in thier news section.

Please contact them for clear, simple advice on how to make technology work for you.

You can find out more about Poundbury Systems by visiting thier website http://www.poundbury.com/ or buy calling 01305 259849 and asking for Clare.

You can find out more about me by Googling my name.

Teamwork are we being true to ourselves ………?

Posted by Chris on January 10th, 2010

Working together as a team is often key to the success of a particular task, had you ever thought what part our own ‘persona’ plays in the overall team success.
Our persona represents our public image. The word is, obviously, related to the words person and personality and comes from a latin word for mask.

So the persona is the mask you put on before you show yourself to the outside world. Although it begins as an archetype, by the time we are finished realising it, it is the part of us most distant from the collective unconscious

At its best, it is just the “good impression” we all wish to present as we fill the roles society requires of us. But, of course , it can also be the “false impression” we use to manipulate people’s opinions and behaviours, and, at its worst, it can be mistaken, even by ourselves, for our true nature: Sometimes we believe we really are what we pretend to be !

That’s food for thought……..

Richard Spooner – Sales Coach


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