JPAbusiness

If you're thinking about buying or starting a business – moving from the employed workforce to self-employment – take a look at our free Business Owner's Checklist.

The checklist features 10 common attributes our team tends to find in people who successfully build and run businesses.

Among these attributes are:

• persistence
• ability to deal with uncertainty, including extreme highs and lows
• ideas person, with an eye to commercialisation and reality
• self-confidence, but not arrogance
• someone who can trust others.

Topics: Buying a business, Free download, Template, business advice, Business advisor, James Price

 

Step 1: Imagine the process of assessing different businesses for sale as a funnel

The top of the funnel is wide and has a screen which sifts out businesses which don’t meet your requirements.

Topics: Buying a business, Free download, infographic, business advice, Business advisor, James Price, business buying funnel

In order to determine a business’s value we assess business health factors, which may include:

• Financial performance
• Quality of product or service delivery
• Point of difference and competitive position
• Staff culture and performance
• Physical location and geographic coverage
• Diversity, size and quality of clients
• External pressures on business, including industry trends and dynamics
• Future projections and prospects.

In the past five years, a critical new health factor has been added to that list: ‘Online presence and quality of online interaction’. 

The following infographic illustrates some of the factors we take into account when assessing a business' online position.

Topics: Business Value, Online, Free download, Running your business, infographic, Business valuation

A good business purchase is about planning and ensuring you have plenty of information to base decisions on, rather than rushing in and letting emotions take over.

Use our Buying a Business Planning Sheet to help you ‘make a match’ between your requirements and risk profile, and the business you are assessing.

Topics: Buying a business, Free download, Advice, Template

Buying a franchise may, on the surface, seem like any other business purchase.

However, a franchise is a special type of business in which the brand and business operational model has been systematised.

A franchise may have additional, more complex requirements for a buyer to consider and meet, but they also tend to come with more ongoing support than regular businesses.

We have created the JPAbusiness Buying a Franchise Planning Sheet to help business buyers assess potential franchise opportunities.

Topics: Buying a business, Free download, Template, Franchises

Outsourcing is hardly a new phenomenon in business, but globalisation and technological advances have made it a much more common one.

Many small to medium-sized enterprises – including my own – have a ‘virtual team’ of service providers who work in concert with the regular team of in-office staff members.

We have created the following cheat sheet based on our experience and that of our clients who also have valuable outsourcing partnerships.

Topics: Free download, Advice, Staff, Running your business, cheat sheet, outsourcing, business advice

A good business purchase is about planning and ensuring you have plenty of information to base decisions on, rather than rushing in and letting emotions take over.

Use our Buying a Business Planning Sheet to help you ‘make a match’ between your requirements and risk profile, and the business you are assessing.

Topics: Buying a business, Free download, Advice, Template

Improved communications and the global economy mean businesses are increasingly using outsourcing parties to drive efficiencies.

Contractors, part-time and casual staff, consultants and advisers, are now common among SMEs and larger businesses alike.

We’ve created the JPAbusiness Outsourcing Checklist to help you as a business owner or senior manager decide where and when you can use outsourcing, or virtual resourcing.

Topics: Free download, Template, outsourcing, virtual team, staff management, Checklist

We created the JPAbusiness Business Health Check template to use with our business advisory clients.

It helps them to identify business health issues they can address in-house, as well as areas where they need to seek external advice on methods to improve the business’s outcomes.

Topics: Free download, Advice, Running your business, Template, Financial

Value can be destroyed overnight if a business sale transfer goes wrong.

Whether you are the buyer or the seller, there are numerous issues that need to be considered and dealt with in the transfer process.

Topics: Buying a business, Selling your business, Free download, Advice, Business transfer, Template