August, 18 2010

When we last spoke with “John” (See Parts 1 and 2 of “Branding: More Than Just a Logo” at http://www.hsgglobal.com/brandingmore-than-just-a-logopart-i/ and http://www.hsgglobal.com/branding-more-than-just-a-logo-part-2/) he had created an identifiable image, established who he was, recognized why he does what he does, and figured out what his direction should be.

In Part 2, we left John with a few questions to ask himself in the creation of his tagline. He came up with the following 2 solutions:

John’s Brainstorm

From talking to individuals, it became clear that voters want someone who is willing to not only listen to them, but be willing to work for them; Someone who will put their needs and wants first, above the needs of themselves and special interests.

Q: In one sentence what do your voters want from their leader?

A: Someone who will put the citizens needs above their own needs.

Q: In 2 words what do your voters want from their leader?

A: Citizens First

Q: In 1 Word what do your voters want from their leader?

A: People

Tagline:  People before Politics

Round II

John then took a fresh look a few days later to further his idea process with a different approach. He recognized that the economy is of the utmost importance right now – this includes making government more efficient, lowering taxes, and improving the job market by becoming a more business friendly state. Therefore a tagline is needed that talks about our ECONOMY right here in OUR STATE, and ways we can improve it now!

Q: In one sentence what do your voters want from their leader?

A: Someone who will control spending, create jobs, and help improve the economy in the state.

Q: In 2 words what do your voters want from their leader?

A: Improve economy

Q: In 1 Word what do your voters want from their leader?

A: Economy

Tagline:  Let’s Get Connecticut’s Economy Back on Track!

Overview

John’s solutions he presented to us were great! What’s important is that he was able to portray the perspective of his intended audience. Equally important is how he was able to render those perspectives into both a simplified manner (1^st tagline) and drill it down to a more detailed and refined version (2^nd tagline).

Where do we go from here?

Now that John has all the elements lined up, his focus should now shift to consistency and culture. Every touch-point in John’s campaign, from signs, to social media, to the way volunteers answer and make phone calls, to the way he greets people door-to-door, should embody his brand. Every point that is not consistent leaves room for weakness. Remember, if John wants to solidify his brand image – authority, authenticity, and a visionary leader – his goal must be to position himself clearly in the minds of his target market, leaving as little room as possible for insecurity, inaccuracy, and doubt. Consistency is key!

Last but not least…Culture

Culture is the collaboration of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices under which an organization should function. Often times, we categorize marketing, branding, operations, sales, human resources, etc., as separate entities. It is clearly important to identify them individually, yet equally important to realize they are not autonomous to one another and still live under the same roof. In essence, John must make sure everyone working for him is living the brand by believing in the goals, mission, and values associated and depicting those beliefs onto the audience through consistency in every engagement. In other words, John must market internally as well as externally.

By establishing consistent authenticity, John’s brand will allow his voters to gauge the values and beliefs in which he represents against their own.  When they find a close enough match, the brand will invite those voters to join its culture and be a part of something larger then themselves.

By creating the culture, John is enabling a strong foundation across his organization, driving all future internal and external communications, eliminating the possibility of the brand saying one thing and doing another.

Stay tuned for the election results!

Want to learn more on how to implement branding across your organization?  Please Contact Us for more information.

Pia Bertone-Gross is the Director of Creative Development for HSG Global Services, Inc. HSG Global Services, Inc. provides management consulting and outsourced services to the international business community.

August, 12 2010

If you are not actively monitoring what people are saying about your company online, then how do you know you are not losing business to competitors? Everyone knows the old saying, “If a satisfied customer tells five people about their experience, then an UNHAPPY customer will tell FIFTY people about their experience.” Before the Internet, it took more time and energy for a disgruntled client to tell his take on a sour business experience. Tools like e-mail, social media, text messaging and online review sites have changed all that. All that customer has to do is share her experience with her Facebook Friends and Twitter followers and now hundreds of people know. Visit this reputation management company’s first hand account of how some one tried to discredit them online.

The good news is that there are plenty of tools and services to help monitor and manage our online reputation. One simple tool is Google Alerts. Google Alerts is simple and easy to set up. Simply log in with your Google Account, enter in the text you wish to monitor for (examples are your company name, personal name, products, etc.), how often you wish to be notified and were the notification e-mail should be sent. Once established, Google will automatically e-mail you when your company name or selected text is mentioned online. You can setup as many alerts as you wish and even use it to monitor your competitors online actions.

Free Online Reputation Management Tools

●      BlogPulse – monitor blog posts and conversations. Track searches with RSS feeds.

●      TweetBeep – keep track of who is mentioning you, your products and/or company on Twitter.

●      Naymz – provides online reputation management. Basic version is free.

Online Reputation Management Paid Services

If you are interested in more hands-off management and monitoring of your online reputation, then consider some of these paid service providers:

●      BrandsEye

●      ReputationDefender

●      Trackur

Every business, regardless of size, should be actively monitoring their online reputation. The obvious reason is to catch and negative or false remarks and address them quickly before the become wide spread and do damage. The other reason is search engines. The higher your company ranks in the search engines, the greater the risk is that negative or false statements could rank high as well. It is no secret that prospective clients and customers research businesses online before doing making a purchase. Make reputation management a priority for your business today.

Would you like HSG to help you establish an online reputation management plan? Contact us today.

Link Moser is the Director of Online Strategies for HSG Global Services, Inc. HSG Global Services, Inc. provides management consulting and outsourced services to the international business community.

Problem

One mistake people make when growing a small business is putting too much emphasis on the production of one or a handful of employees, thereby leaving the company extremely exposed to large dips in revenue when that employee or those employees are unable to produce.  Planning an exit strategy may be common practice but too often it will only include a plan for when it is time to shut down the business because a final goal or conversely a point of no return has been reached.   In any business involving more than a sole proprietor there is always a possibility that one person will at some point be unable to work while the other partner(s) wants to continue on with business as usual.  Lamenting the productivity loss of a partner can only last for so long before the remaining key components of the business start to look around and wonder if a course of action is in place for how to avoid a major slip in productivity.

Solution

Key man disability insurance is designed to protect a business in the event that a key employee or executive suffers a disabling accident or illness. It provides business owners with the peace of mind to know that the business can continue operations without major disruption in the case of a disability to an executive or key employee. Key man disability insurance is purchased on one or more people in a business that are important to the revenue stream of the company to protect the business from the economic loss associated with a disability. The company buys the insurance and is also the beneficiary of the policy should a disability arise. If disability occurs, benefits will be paid as long as the key employee cannot perform the regular and substantial duties of his traditional occupation. The funds can be used at the company’s discretion to stabilize the company until a replacement employee is located or the disabled employee is fully healed and has returned to work full time.

When considering key person disability insurance, there are some important questions to ask to determine the value to place on an individual.  For example, there is the replacement cost method – i.e. how hard will it be and what type of compensation will be required to locate and train a replacement?  There is also the contribution to earnings method – i.e. what percentage of revenue can be directly attributable to that key employee and what kind of decrease of that percentage would we see as a direct result of a disability?  By asking these questions about all owners and key employees, any business can start to get a pretty solid idea of what kind of coverage levels are needed for each person.

Some very basic disability policies will use the old standby of a multiple of earnings on the current salary of a key employee to find a value that can be placed on the loss of that individual.  While this may be a little more rudimentary and the other methods described above would have a bit more of a direct correlation to company earnings, the important thing is not how it is done but that it is done at all.  By having the conversation with your business partners about yourselves and other key employees in relation to key man disability insurance and placing a value on each key cog in your business machine, you are providing your business with a more accurate depiction of the potential of an unexpected short or long term exit and putting in place a strategy that may be needed to survive.  According to a 2003 study by the American Council of Life Insurers, the likelihood of an employee in a small business (5-100 employees) becoming disabled is 1 in 4.  If you’re top salesperson was to end up on the wrong side of that statistic tomorrow, would your business be prepared?

….Stay tuned for more on Business Continuity….

Brian Lynch is a Senior Consultant at HSG Global Services. HSG Global Services provides management consulting and outsourced services to the international business community.

How to make your employees like this

Let’s be honest, employees can be your best assets or your worst nightmares. I have been lucky and can say that all the people that have worked for me have been gems.          But motivating employees is not easy and can be one of the most time consuming activities. In this post, I will describe some of the best practices in motivating  employees and also provide some examples.

Be Consistent but Understand Uniqueness.

                Sounds contradictory but it is not.  It is important to realize that not everyone responds to the same incentives. For example, I had two salespersons working for me once and one wanted a base salary and bonus and one wanted a commission only compensation package. Both sold the same amount, one took home more money and one had more stability. So, how was I consistent? I created both plans in advance and made sure they had a choice and all the information needed to make the decision that was right for them.

                Another example is to create a bonus plan that is consistent with the entire organization but the objectives to receive the bonus are different. For example, All engineers receive a 3% annual bonus, but engineer #1, who loves education, has to achieve 3 certifications and teach 1 class. Engineer #2 like to be onsite, so you have a billable hours goal.

Frequent and specific feedback

                Seems easy but it is often the most overlooked. Most organizations, if they have a formal review program, set objectives at the beginning of the year and then near the end of the year, start looking to see if they are done, with no interaction in between. Jan 1: Don you must take 4 courses. Dec 15: Don, did you take those courses? Your bonus depends on them!!!

                Believe it or not, that happens. So, my policy is to check the goals monthly informally and quarterly formally.  And not just stated goals. Employees need to receive feedback when you notice something good or bad and be specific. Watch what is happening and look for employees that go out of their way for a customer or for a specific task.

                When an employee stays late one evening, find out why and thank him for the extra time and see if there is anything you can do to help. Equally, if they do something inappropriate, bring it to the employee’s attention and suggest ways to do it differently. This ensures that the employee knows you are paying attention and that you care about what they are doing.

Rewards and Recognition

                This is one of the easiest and least expensive ways to recognize and incentivize employees. I have my department heads come up with metrics and competitions for their department and choose 1-2 from each to give an award to. For example, a service department I have advised created a competition called Service Tech of the Quarter. The most tickets closed with the highest customer service record wins dinner for two each month. The results are posted and updated each week so everyone knows where they stand. The winner is announced at the quarterly company meeting in front of everyone so they know it is visible. Everyone applauds and the employee is recognized.

                Then, I also create some other awards that are discretionary. If I notice a employee that stays late to close the books or post one more order for a customer, I will give them a special award maybe called “the overtime award” or something similar.

Goals and Objectives

                When we first visit a new client, we do interview with every employee. When we ask if they know their goals, frequently we get “Whatever the boss says” which translates to “ Just enough to not get into trouble”.

                Lack of direction and improper or unattainable goals is an incredible de-motivator. Start with something simple that everyone can work on. Sometimes this is a mission or vision statement, but can also be something simple. HSG’s is “Enabling Business Excellence”. But sometimes that is too vague for employees. Increase customer satisfaction or decrease service time is very direct and can be used.

            It is important that the goals be attainable and material. Asking a person to triple their billable hours will just shut them down. Also, not connecting the goal with either the person, the job or the end result can be equally disastrous. For example, telling an entry level engineer that they are responsible for a 30% increase in sales without connecting their job to that goal or telling them what they get if it is accomplished is as good as telling them nothing.

            However, it is also important to set a goal that is more than business as usual. A rule of thumb is 20% increase in anything. A 20% increase in sales, a 20% increase in utilization, etc. This at least keeps people working towards improvement.

Negative Reinforcement

                I believe in positive reinforcement whenever possible, however, setting a goal and rewarding performance is moot if you do not also apply some negative reinforcement if the goal is not accomplished. If you have done everything else above, this should not be a problem.

                But as it is important to be clear in what you expect, you also need to be clear in what will happen if the expectations are not met. Having a employee that is under-performing draws down the entire team and must be dealt with. Fixing the problem will motivate everyone else.

Holistic Approach

                Finally, it is critical that you consider the entire company and all of its employees when you are thinking about one or more employees in particular. You cannot setup a bonus program for one employee only. You cannot set a bonus program for all employees that bankrupts the company. You must take into consideration all of the goals, all of the employees, all of the customers, everything when motivating employees properly.

The fourth annual “Champ’s Challenge for Cystic Fibrosis” raised over $24,000 with the help of HSG Global Services’ financial sponsorship to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Lifestyle Foundation (CFLF).  Funds raised through this event are used to help promote healthy and active lifestyles for individuals faced with this chronic and terminal disease of the lungs.  Over 30,000 Americans struggle with ongoing lung congestion and compromise of other organs often resulting in CF related diabetes, and depression.

HSG’s Director of Creative Development, Pia Bertone-Gross, represented the company’s sponsorship and remarked on her personal connection to the foundation stating, “CFLF founder, Brian Callanan, is a personal friend of mine and an adult living with CF. We couldn’t be more proud to contribute to this cause.”  According to Bertone-Gross, the two met in 2006 when Mr. Callanan was cycling the East Coast from Maine to Florida on a $60,000 fund raising drive.  To date, the CFLF foundation has awarded $57,000 of Recreation Grants to 97 people with CF across the country.

To learn more about the CF Lifestyle Foundation, or make a donation, please click HERE (www.CFLF.org)

Start with your keyword phrases. You have to know exactly which words people are typing in to find your products or services. Are more people typing in “boston web designer”, “massachusetts web site design” or “ma web design”? If you’re going to invest time and money into optimizing your web site, you want to be sure you know you’re targeting the correct phrases. Use Google’s Keyword Tool to find out that the term “ma web design” was searched for 128% more often than “ma web designer” during the month of June 2010. Use this tool to research keyword phrases for your web site and make a list of all relevant phrases that you either have existing content for or can produce new content.

Now that you have your keywords, it’s time to do some competitive analysis. Search for each of these phrases in Google, and print out the top ten results for each phrase. Make a note as to which of your online competitors appear in these search results.  Does your site show up for any of these searches? If it does, that’s great, but your goal is to be number one because the number one position gets about 42% of all the clicks. Visit each of the competing web sites that show up in the top five. Spend some time looking at their site and their content. Compare your web site to these sites. Does your site look better? Is it easier to navigate? Does it offer more content? If your competitors’ web sites offer more content and have a more polished look and feel, you should focus on improving your web site to make it the best site relevant to your industry.

Assuming your web site is on par with your competitors, it’s time to look at some more factors that have put your competition on top. A major influencing factor that raises a web site’s ranking is the number of other web sites that link to it. If your competitors have ten times as many web sites pointing to them as you do, then it’s likely their site will rank higher. Think of each of those links as a ‘vote’ in the eyes of the search engines. More votes ultimately means more potential traffic.

Use a free tool called Yahoo Site Explorer to research two things about your site and your competitors. Enter in a domain name, yours or a competitor, and see how many web pages are acknowledged or indexed by Yahoo. In addition, notice how many web sites are linking or voting for that domain name. You’ll get a list of web pages with two buttons with numbers at the top of your screen. The Pages button tells you how many web pages have been discovered by Yahoo and the Inlinks button tells you how many web pages are pointing to this domain name. Compare your competitor’s web site to your site, and if you’re short on indexed pages and links, look for additional opportunities to generate more content and more web sites to vote or link to your site.

If you have ever searched for something with a geographical factor like “boston hotels”, then you may have noticed a small map with pushpins appears in the search results. This is called Local Search. If you’re a business with local customers you want to make sure you’re listed in the Local Search directories. A free site called Get Listed will help you ensure your listings are accurate.

What about social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook? They undoubtedly offer more value to some businesses. For consumer-centric businesses, however, they’re a great way to connect with current and future customers online.

There is no silver bullet to move your web site to the top of the search engines. It takes time and hard work but the results are well worth the effort. If you’d like to learn more about search engine optimization, there are plenty of web sites and books like ‘The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization’ to help you learn more.

July, 13 2010

When we last checked in with “John”, he was given suggestions for best-practices that would set him up for success, as well as a few basic questions to answer that would give us a better idea of who he is. (If you have yet to read “Branding:More than just a Logo:Part1”, you can find it here – http://www.hsgglobal.com/brandingmore-than-just-a-logopart-i/)

The next most important thing is to turn John’s personality traits into power words!

The attraction of a strong personality is irresistible. A strong personality is one that provokes an emotional response in the listener. Not only is John establishing an identity, but authenticity and authority as well. The message he wants to resonate in the mind of his voters is– a simple targeted message that will differentiate him from his competitors. In other words, John’s goal is to tell voters what they can expect if he is elected to represent them (why should they vote for him?).  John’s vision is, “be a highly respected political figure in the community who is known for attaining results, to be recognized as someone who stands for fiscal responsibility.” He wants the people to see him as someone who knows and cares about the community in which he was born and raised, where he has a proven track record of success!

John’s exercise was to attach rational traits to the brand he wants to portray, we were then able to help him translate those into emotional terms that will resonate with voters (the target audience).This will serve as the basis for which John will build his brand.

What are John’s Personality Traits?

• Proven Results
• Respected
• Rock-solid
• Heritage and belief

These are all strong personality traits, but also replicable by competitors. It is important to tailor these traits to make them more specific and to evoke a positive emotional connection to the audience.  So the following emotional values were created to produce characteristics that are felt to be much more powerful and expressive of John’s image, and differentiated him from his opponents.

Translated to Emotional Traits

• Authority (as opposed to a generic ‘respect’)
• Authenticity (as opposed to ‘heritage’ which give an old-fashioned feel)
• Visionary Leader (assumes the position that John already has his ‘ducks in a row’ and is looking forward to improve on a ‘solid’ foundation in leading his community in the right direction because he cares)

What’s next?

Equally important is John’s slogan (tagline). The tagline is the key phrase that identifies what John stands for by capturing the spirit of his mission, values, and promise. A tagline is not what he does, but rather why he does it. The most widely used example of a great tagline is Nike’s, “Just do it”, and for good reason. It’s clear and simple but at the same time stands out and compels someone to listen. This is where John needs to get in the heads of the voters, figure out what they want, and give it to them. Voters say, “What’s in it for me?” Or “How will it benefit me to vote for you?” Now that John has completed our task list of who he is, he must now find out who they are, the voters.

This brings us back to Sun Tzu Philosophies of Know thyself, know thy enemy, know thy terrain. In our last blog, we challenged John to gain a better understand of who he was. Now he poses the challenge of figuring out his audience.

John’s Brainstorm

1. In one sentence, what do your voters want from a leader?
2. In two words, what do your voters want from a leader?
3. In one word, what do your voters want from a leader?

(Think about words that encompass your political image)

Now a little math for you. Subtract any words that are not screaming at you, then take the summary of your benefits, bake it into your mission, and voilà! You have yourself a tagline!

Example: HSG Global Services Tagline is “Enabling Business Excellence”.

HSG in a sentence – Business services designed to grow revenue, reduce cost, and improve efficiency.

HSG in 2 words? – Business Improvement

HSG in 1 word? – Consulting

Why we do what we do? – Because each and every one of us has a passion for helping businesses be better.

As stated, this is brainstorming.  John should take the time to think about different ideas, words, and phrases that are important to his voters and that capture his mission. No one person is going to give him the perfect tagline all wrapped up with a pretty bow.  Some places to start might be for John to start a whiteboard, ask friends, ask kids (we all know they have the ability to be blunt), use a thesaurus (or what I like to refer to as, ‘Shift-F7’).  Once established, John’s tagline will be used over and over in an attempt to resonate in the minds of the people until that one faithful day that they head to the ballots and they hear John’s tagline ringing in their ears.

Pia Bertone-Gross is the Director of Creative Development at HSG Global Services. HSG Global Services provides management consulting and outsourced services to the international business community.

June 29, 2010

According to a study by Kaiser Family Foundation, the average cost of employer-sponsored health insurance has more than doubled since 2000.  This spike in health care costs has forced employers to look at a wide spectrum of options for containing employee benefit expense.  Most of these options center on passing more cost or risk to employees, leading an unhappy workforce to wonder how to cover additional out-of-pocket expense.

So what’s the solution? There is a new plan design option available in the state that will help remedy this issue.  Companies are discovering plans that will allow them to pre-fund a portion of their claims as a fully refundable part of their monthly premium, providing a way to control costs and maintain coverage.  Fully self-funded health plans have existed for years, but have only been viable for 1000+ employee businesses.  A partially self-funded plan, however, can afford smaller organizations many of the advantages of a fully self-funded plan with less risk and responsibility.

These self-funded plans are very different from traditional plans in that they are medically underwritten.  For example, in states such as Massachusetts that are “guaranteed issue” states, groups of any size enjoy the freedom of knowing that they will pay the same rate for a package as another in the same situation.  With plans in which claims are pre-funded, a basis for the claim pool amount must be established and therefore a short medical questionnaire is completed by each employee and submitted for a quote.  While only the most major critical illnesses are unable to attain coverage, the pre-funded portion can vary based on medical history, making it an important consideration in analyzing this type of plan versus traditional coverage.  Each quote will have two sections: a fully refundable piece that is your pre-paid claim pool and a fixed piece that pays for any claims beyond your claim pool and deductible.  The advantage of this is that the fixed portion protects just as any traditional plan would so if you go beyond your pre-funded portion you will not be responsible for this surplus amount any more than on any other plan.  So there is the potential upside of thousands a year in savings if your pre-funding maximum is not reached without the risk of any additional out of pocket if it is exceeded.

How much can we expect to save? The typical savings in year one for companies who implemented a self-funded plan is $1,000-$1,500 per insured employee. The current trend sees most business owners using year one savings to fund employee benefits for the following year, establishing a cycle of savings that compounds while maintaining robust coverage.  That fact, coupled with the idea that plan design can closely mirror your previous plan leaves little to no down side in switching.  You see savings without having to sacrifice benefits that are important to employees.

Sounds like a win/win! Partial self-funding is a proven strategy for putting premium dollars back in your pocket. The momentum behind the concept will continue to build as health care costs soar.  As with any current health insurance package, there are bound to be changes to the pre-funding concept in coming years due to recently implemented health care regulations.  However, the majority of these changes do not go into effect until 2014 and some experts believe they may lead to a higher cost basis for employee benefits initially, meaning that it is more important than ever for businesses to examine their options and attempt to save on expenses in the present.  Any organization striving to be fiscally responsible and maintain strong employee relations should invest a little time with a local broker to learn how a partially self-funded plan can be a better option than simply absorbing the additional costs each year.

Brian Lynch is a Senior Consultant at HSG Global Services. HSG Global Services provides management consulting and outsourced services to the international business community.

June 22, 2010

I have done over 200 valuations, some certified and some not, and the one question that gets asked most often but frequently the answer is ignored is: “What is my business worth?”

The main reason that this answer is ignored is because most people do not like the answer, which is: “It depends on who is buying and who is selling.”

Before I explain how to find out what your business is worth, and why you should be thinking about this all the time, I want to explain valuations and how they are accomplished.

More often than not, when someone asks for a valuation, they are talking about a certified valuation. This type of assessment is often requested when a company is selling stock, when a smaller company is selling a family share, or some other action that requires a certified company value. The National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts trains and certifies analysts to perform a complex analysis to determine a fair value of company or entity. It is important to note that this action produces a reasonable estimate of what the  company is worth in the market.

The steps taken to estimate this fair value are the same as taken for non-certified valuations and are not complex.

1. Discounted Cash Flow Model – Here an analyst takes recent prior history and realistic projections of future revenue, expenses and income and then discounts those cash flows to today’s value.
2. Comparable Companies – Here, public companies that are similar are identified and their multiples (Price/Sale, Price/Earnings, Price/Assets) and used to value the company. Finding public companies that are similar is difficult and often adjustments are made to the data.
3. Comparable Transactions – If there have been transactions in the market of similar companies, these numbers can be used to value the company.  This is even more difficult as transaction data is limited and most often on the companies doing the transactions have the data.
4. Asset and Book Value – All the assets of the company are added up and liabilities are subtracted and the remainder is the used as a value of the company.
5. Other Measurements – Revenue per PHD, Revenue per Patent and Revenue per marketable drugs are all possible multiples than can be used to assess a company’s fair value.

All of these methods are tallied and a rough average of all of these measurements is used to determine a fair value. Outliers are smoothed or eliminated.

In stock transactions and family business dissolutions, this method is critical for fair value. BUT, that only represents 10% or so of transactions.

In the other 90%, the answer is not so easy nor is it so concrete. First off, in theory, two different valuation analysts should come up with the same valuation. But I have rarely found that to be the case. Secondly, the old adage is true: “The value of anything is what someone will pay for it”.

I propose that there are two other numbers that are far more important to use in those 90% of value assessments  and this is how I value all the companies I have worked with, whether the goal is Mergers, Acquisitions, Capital Raises, or just to prepare the senior team (CEO, CFO, etc) for strategic metrics on how to run their business.

First number is simple: If I sold my business today, what would I accept for a purchase price. This has  many facets that need to be explored, but simply, at any point in time there is a practical side to this number (rough worth) and a personal side (how much effort have I put into the business). When I work with an owner or board member, I ask a question: “What is the minimum you would accept to sell the business today?” and “What is reasonable number?”

Second number is the one that trips people up most often. “What would another company pay for this business; max and reasonable?” Put yourself into their shoes and evaluate the purchase price of your company.

Now, compare these two ranges and if they are not overlapping, something is very wrong with the picture and a formal valuation will not change that. However, if they overlap, this is where an accomplished M&A professional or CFO can benefit the company. It is this person’s job to either help the seller get as much as possible for the business or help the buyer pay as little as possible.

Not only can having the right person on your team make the difference between the right and wrong price, but a good strategic recommendation can make the difference between your company’s success and failure.

Donald Noble is the VP, Financial Services and General Manager of HSG global services. HSG Global Services provides management consulting and outsourced services to the international business community.