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page.
Even though Buying
and Selling a Small Business is copyrighted, you are welcome
to print part or all of it if you will abide with the following rules:
- If you are a student,
please tell at least one of your teachers about the book.
- If you are a business
owner, please tell another owner about this book, or tell prospective
buyers about it.
- Whatever your background,
you are welcome to print part or all of the manuscript, but only if
you will tell at least one other interested person about it. Since we
are a tiny, independent publisher, we will really appreciate your help
in spreading the word about Buying
and Selling a Small Business.
- You may not use the printout
for commercial purposes, nor may anyone do so whom you share the printout
with.
- Suggestion: print the Monnet
Press home page and hand that printout to whomever you tell about the
book.
Before you begin browsing,
please allow us to suggest a few passages that we think might be particularly
beneficial and enjoyable. The approximate times to read are shown in parentheses:
- The introductory comments
and Part 1 of the “Preface” are the foundation of this book.
They describe the marketplace that buyers and sellers have to struggle
with, and why this book was written. (12 minutes)
- The introductory comments
(the first four paragraphs) at the start of Chapter 1 touch briefly
on the importance of the buyer’s qualifications. (30 seconds)
- Most people don’t
have the slightest idea of how difficult it is to sell a business. The
section on “Liquidity and Illiquidity” near the end of Chapter
2 will give you an introduction. (3 minutes)
- If you are an owner thinking
of selling, Part 1 of Chapter 4 prepares you to get started. There you’ll
also find one of Matt Kindt’s gritty illustrations. (15-20 minutes)
- Real-Life Example 5.3
demonstrates some of the ups and downs of a purchase and sale transaction.
It involves the buyer, the seller, the broker, their lawyers, and the
Small Business Administration, not to mention two or three kinds of
cheating. It’s followed by another of Matt Kindt’s illustrations.
The example is a downer, but this time Kindt gives us something we can
smile about. (4 minutes)
- If you want to know how
owners skim the revenues year after year without getting caught, the
section near the front of Chapter 6 titled “Owner’s Revelations”
will clue you in. (10 minutes)
- Now for something that
Monnet Press is especially proud to offer. None of the 40 how-to books
reviewed by the author, nor any of the several university textbooks
he also reviewed, provided anything better than an overview, rather
from afar, to describe how to prepare cash-flow projections. If you
had nothing but the vague descriptions provided by those books to guide
you in a real-life application, you’d have to be a savant to figure
them out. Buying
and Selling a Small Business explains and demonstrates
the entire procedure in detail, one step at a time including the setup
and all of the calculations. Just browse through Part 3 of Chapter 7
to see how it’s done. And you let us know if our projections are
not every bit as good as we say they are. (2-10 minutes)
- One of the author’s
favorite sections, “Invalid Zones of Appraising,” is in
Part 4 of Chapter 7. It demonstrates the limitations of appraising,
but also notes the limitations of professional advisors. It shows precisely
how they tend to mess things up. This is the anatomy of a broken deal.
(6 minutes)
- Chapter 8 leads off with
“Philosophy of Negotiating.” That tells what negotiating
is, why it is necessary, and why it is good. It clears away some of
the confusion. We think intellectuals will like it because it’s
sort of up there in the clouds, quite the opposite of what follows.
(3 minutes) Then comes the first basic rule of negotiating. That rule
and Real-Life Examples 8.1 and 8.2 should be required reading for everyone
entering a negotiation. (4 minutes)
- If you wonder what working
with a lawyer can be like, Real-Life Examples 10.1 and 10.2 demonstrate
the highs and the lows, respectively. These lawyers affected their clients
profoundly for the rest of their lives. That’s why the author
devoted an entire chapter to choosing a lawyer. (20 minutes)
- Part 3 of Chapter 12 ends
with the author’s business tips. Don’t miss tip 11, “Do
the Right Thing.” It will make you a better business person. It
might even make you a better human being. (7 minutes)
The above suggested passages
are by no means the only insightful or enjoyable ones in the book. They
are just a sampling of the all-around quality of substance you’ll
enjoy by reading Buying
and Selling a Small Business from cover to cover.
Good browsing to you.
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