By Rieva Lesonsky
1. New data from BizBuySell.com shows the days of buyer-friendly rates in the business-for-sale market may soon be ending. The BizBuySell annual survey shows:
- Prospective sellers are 20 percent more confident they can sell their businesses at an acceptable price than they were last year. Buyers, however, are slightly less confident.
- 95 percent of buyers and 75 percent of sellers hope to close a deal within the next two years
- More sellers plan to offer seller financing this year compared to last year. Seller financing is apparently an essential for closing deals.
- 76 percent of buyers want the sellers to stay on board at least one day a week to help with the transition. Only 50 percent of sellers feel the same, however, and 30 percent want to be completely uninvolved after the sale.
2. When I first started working at Entrepreneur magazine in 1978, no one knew what an entrepreneur was. Today, my friend Steve Strauss writes in USA Today, that everyone is an entrepreneur—even those who have no intention of ever owning a business.
3. 9 hacks that will save your small business time and money. And isn’t that what it’s all about?
4. Why do businesses fail? There are dozens (hundreds? thousands?) of reasons. Read what these founders have to say about why their businesses didn’t cut it.
5. I’m a big fan of social media (particularly Twitter), but there are too many company CEOs who aren’t. Fast Company tells you what you’re missing out on.
6. Do you watch Shark Tank? This business journalist/startup entrepreneur studied every pitch ever made on the show (377 in all) and came away with these 10 lessons.
7. Here’s an interesting factoid: According to a report in USA TODAY, by 2017, about 2.5 million “new, middle-skill jobs are expected to be added to the workforce, accounting for nearly 40% of all job growth.”
8. Nordstrom may no longer be a small business, but there’s a lot you can learn from them—even today. Jamie Nordstrom, president of Nordstrom Stores warns that retailers must constantly innovate or risk extinction. “When you stop evolving with your customer, you die.”
9. Graphics matter. Here’s how to punch up your images.
10. Are you a perfectionist? Ironically that’s not a good trait for entrepreneurs to have.
Rieva Lesonsky is CEO of GrowBiz Media, a media and custom content company focusing on small business and entrepreneurship. Email Rieva at rieva@smallbizdaily.com, follow her on Google+ and Twitter.com/Rieva and visit her website, SmallBizDaily.com, to get the scoop on business trends and sign up for Rieva’s free TrendCast reports.
