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1. How does your book,
BUYING AND SELLING A SMALL BUSINESS (BSSB), compare to other entrepreneurial
textbooks?
2. The universities have gone for years without books
on buying an existing business, so why would they need one now?
3. What’s behind the boom in entrepreneurship?
Why didn’t it happen 30 years ago or more?
4. If there is a real boom in entrepreneurship, why
haven’t any of the university professors written a textbook on
buying a business?
5. Are you sure no one has yet written a textbook on
buying a business and that there is a genuine need for yours?
6. Why do you think BSSB will satisfy business students
and faculties?
7. What are your qualifications to have written this
book?
8. You have stated, according to your own estimate,
that about 75% of small business owners systematically skim their revenues
in substantial amounts. So why should any would-be entrepreneur want
to buy a business from a person who may not be trustworthy when they
have the option to do a clean, honest startup?
9. You keep referring to BSSB as a textbook. Won’t
this book also be useful to those who are not students and who just
want to buy or sell a small business?
10. Your book is almost void of references and source
notes. It therefore does not seem qualified as a scholarly, university
textbook. How do you explain that?
11. How did you name your publishing company?
1. QUESTION: How does your book, BUYING AND
SELLING A SMALL BUSINESS (BSSB), compare to other entrepreneurial textbooks?
ANSWER: BSSB is a brand-new book showing university
students how to buy an existing business. The other books (listed at
bottom of FAQ) essentially show only how to start one.
2. QUESTION: The universities have gone for years without
books on buying an existing business, so why would they need one now?
ANSWER: Entrepreneurship has entered a boom phase and
the schools need to catch up. Note these authoritative voices:
- “Some 2,100 schools now offer coursework in entrepreneurship,
up from just 380 in 1990…[a]nd nearly 500 of them offer entrepreneurship
concentrations or degrees.” (“Hitting the Books,”
BusinessWeek SmallBiz, Fall 2006, page 74)
- And a special note about entrepreneurs and the need to catch up:
“…a subject pretty badly neglected in mainstream economic
programs in universities.” (Edmund Phelps, recipient
of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Economic Science, as quoted in BusinessWeek
SmallBiz, Winter 2006, page 31)
3. QUESTION: What’s behind the boom in entrepreneurship?
Why didn’t it happen 30 years ago or more?
ANSWER: There are several factors behind this boom.
The development of the personal computer expanded the power of the individual
to perform a variety of tasks and to communicate through the internet.
The cultural climate changed rather dramatically and now encourages
and supports independence. And large companies learned new flexibility
and economy by outsourcing work previously done in house, consolidating
operations, and laying off workers, even those highly skilled.
4. QUESTION: If there is a real boom in entrepreneurship,
why haven’t any of the university professors written a textbook
on buying an existing business?
ANSWER: With much respect, it’s probably because
they don’t have the right experience. It takes years of deal-making
in the small business marketplace to learn the ins and outs well enough
to write a textbook.
5. QUESTION: Are you sure no one has yet written a
textbook on buying a business and that there is a genuine need for yours?
ANSWER: Well, I’m fairly sure. Note this statement
(in 1999) by Harvard University Professor Michael J. Roberts: “No
one has yet written a book [on buying a business] that successfully
defines the correct steps and best alternatives for every situation.”
(Reference 5 below; page 374)
6. QUESTION: Why do you think BSSB will satisfy business
students and faculties?
ANSWER: Because it meets the criteria set by Professor
Roberts by successfully defining the correct steps and best alternatives
for every situation within the purview of small business. Note that
small businesses, as I define them, means mostly with just one tier
of management, usually the owner, but possibly with a second or third
tier, such as a partner or a manager.
7. QUESTION: What are your qualifications to have written
this book?
ANSWER: My main qualification is my 26 years experience
as a business broker. I also designed and taught a class in Buying and
Selling a Small Business at the St. Louis Community College for 16 years.
I had extensive business experience in my former career in the defense
industry (including program coordination, cost estimating, and negotiating).
And I hold a Master’s degree from Washington University in St.
Louis.
8. QUESTION: You have stated, according to your own
estimate, that about 75% of small business owners systematically skim
their revenues in substantial amounts. So why should any would-be entrepreneur
want to buy a business from a person who may not be trustworthy, especially
if they have the option to do a clean, honest startup?
ANSWER: First, a buyout in many instances will be quicker
and less expensive than a startup.
Second, most business owners are basically decent people who, for philosophical
or other reasons, set their own rules for dealing with the government,
while being fair and honest with everyone else.
Third, prospective buyers of existing businesses who are well qualified
for owning and operating a business do not overly concern themselves
with how trustworthy a seller may or may not be. They place their trust
in their own abilities to see through most fraudulent data and to survive
and prosper through intelligent application of hard work. See Real-Life
Example 6.4 on page 206 for an actual case.
Finally, protective covenants in the purchase-and-sale agreement provide
some legal recourse. But remember, no alternatives in this world, including
startups, are risk-free. Absolutely none.
9. QUESTION: You keep referring to BSSB as a textbook.
Won’t this book also be useful to those who are not students and
who just want to buy or sell a small business?
ANSWER: It will definitely be useful, and very much
so. Actually, I wrote the book in the how-to mode, with ordinary buyers
and sellers in mind. That’s why I wrote it, as nearly as possible,
as a step-by-step demonstration of how to get things done. However,
as I wrote, I also thought of its possibilities as a textbook. Remember
that I was teaching, as well as brokering, all the while that I was
writing this book. What finally made me decide to publish it as a textbook
was that a number of readers to whom early drafts were submitted, insisted
that the amount of detail and analysis especially qualified it for the
university classroom.
10. QUESTION: Your book is almost void of references
and source notes. It therefore does not seem qualified as a scholarly,
university textbook. How do you explain that?
ANSWER: Recall Professor Roberts’
statement that no one [as of 1999] has yet written a book on buying
a business that successfully defines the correct steps and best alternatives
for every situation. My book, BSSB, being the first, did not have predecessors
to refer to or to quote from. Most everything in this book is based
on my experiences as a business broker—leavened with my general
experiences in life.
11. QUESTION: How did you name your publishing company?
ANSWER: This company is named after one of my favorite
heroes, Jean Monnet (1888-1979), principal founder of the European Union
(I pronounce his name moe-net).
Monnet, a French businessman despairing over the mass destruction in
World Wars I and II, realized the futility of keeping peace through
philosophical motives. He designed the EU to be a federation held together
by the self-interest motives of businessmen.
His basic idea was to eliminate the tariff barriers that had kept European
nations independent and uncooperative. By gradually lowering and removing
tariffs between the six founding nations—Belgium, France, Italy,
Luxembourg, Netherlands, and West Germany—manufacturers in those
nations began transporting goods across borders. They also began profiting
from the advantages of their hugely expanded market such as mass-production
tooling, lower costs, lower prices, standardization, better quality,
and increased cooperation across national borders.
Monnet engineered the treaty that brought the EU to a reality. It was
signed in Rome in 1957. Although certain ethnic and tribal conflicts
still exist, the success of the EU can be measured by the overall peace
and prosperity enjoyed throughout the continent during the 50 years
since its inception, by its adoption of a common currency (the Euro),
and by its growth to 27 nations, with others waiting to get in.
Now, the EU can be thought of as the United States of Europe. With
the USA and the EU as organizations to emulate, some day, perhaps, we
will have a United Nations that is truly united.
For further information about Jean Monnet, go to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Monnet.
Listed below are five—out of a total of eight or nine—of
the textbooks I cursorily reviewed, and with which I compared BSSB.
Shown in brackets { } following each of these listings are the statistics
for the current editions as of mid March, 2007.
- Launching New Ventures—An Entrepreneurial Approach,
Third Edition; Kathleen R. Allen, University of Southern California:
Houghton Mifflin Company (Copyright 2003) {Current: fourth edition;
copyright 2006; 453 pp; HB ; $129.56}
- Small Business Management—An Entrepreneurial Emphasis,
Eleventh Edition; Justin G. Longenecker, Baylor University, Carlos
W. Moore, Baylor University, J. William Petty, Baylor University:
South-Western College Publishing (Copyright 2000) {Current: thirteenth
edition; copyright 2006; 752 pp; HB; $146.95;}
- Essentials of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management,
Third Edition, Thomas W. Zimmerer, Drury University, Norman M. Scarborough,
Presbyterian College: Prentice Hall (Copyright 2002) {Fourth edition;
copyright 2005; PB; 550 pp; $120.00;}
- New Venture Creation—Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century;
Fifth Edition; Jeffry A. Timmons, Babson College: Irwin McGraw-Hill
(Copyright 1999) {Seventh edition; copyright 2007; PB; $112.95}
- New Business Ventures and the Entrepreneur, Fifth Edition;
Howard H. Stevenson Sarofim-Rock Professor of Business Administration,
Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration//Michael
J. Roberts, Lecturer, Executive Director Entrepreneurial Studies,
Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration//H.
Irving Grousbeck, Class of 1980 Consulting Professor of Management,
Stanford University Graduate School of Business Administration//Amar
V. Bhidé, Associate Professor of Business Administration, Harvard
University Graduate School of Business Administration: Irwin McGraw-Hill
(Copyright 1999) {This edition is still current; HB; 692 pp in BW;
$114.95}
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