For companies located outside of the United States with plans to grow, entering the U.S. market is an important part of any long term business strategy. For American firms, the domestic market can offer substantial opportunities. North America should probably be the first market of choice, for most firms. The United States is probably the most dynamic and possibly lucrative market in the world. In fact, combined with Canada and Mexico, the region will possibly be the main economic driver of the world in the 21st century. Despite the back and forth and the re-negotiation of NAFTA, these three are…
Author: Gregory Pearl
The Challenge of Strategic Market Entry
Companies are expanding into new geographic markets to achieve growth now more than ever. For a business that wants to grow and achieve substantial scale, globalization has made conducting business on an international basis a necessity. The need to reach beyond a company’s traditional markets into the global marketplace is an essential activity for growth. Besides looking at revenue growth, sometimes operations need to be located overseas to realize the necessary cost advantages to be successful at home. It really is no longer a choice. This is a process containing risk. While any new market entry carries the risk of…
Business Valuation: Standard of Value is an Important Assumption
The Standard of Value is probably the most basic assumption of a business valuation and affects the result. It allows the valuator to design the valuation report to fit the needs of the users of the appraisal or valuation. There are different Standards of Value used by business valuators, A note – the different valuation certification organizations sometimes use either the term “valuation/valuator” or “appraisal/appraiser.” For the average person, the terms valuation and appraisal are interchangeable. However, some like to say a “valuation” is for business interests and “appraisal” is for real estate. I use the term valuation. Though I…
Life Insurance Can Play a Role In Both An Exit Plan and an Estate Plan
Most people have an aversion to life insurance salespeople, they can be aggressive and often unpleasant. But don’t let that negative sales culture prevent you from recognizing the role that life insurance can play in your estate and exit planning. But even if you have a fairly modest business and estate, life insurance can play an important role. Of course, life insurance can increase the size of your estate should you pass early. And for young families in need of a breadwinner, life insurance can provide invaluable financial protection in the event of premature death. In large estates (businesses) life…
So You Want To Start A Business: Part 2 – Know The Business
This is a continuation of my last post. In Part 2, I discuss in general terms the positive characteristics of the proposed business you should consider. There have been libraries written on what makes a startup successful. I will not repeat any of that here, as it would take a river of ink (pixels). Instead here are some items I have personally found useful to consider. This discussion is definitely not comprehensive! Just things to consider. Why are you trying to start this particular business? Maybe you have a killer, versatile skill set that would make any entrepreneur jealous. And…
So You Want To Start A Business: Part 1 – Know Thyself
Starting a new business enterprise is a formidable undertaking. It involves both the mind and the heart for the new venture to succeed. It can be quite fun to imagine what a new business started from nothing may look and feel like. But prospective entrepreneurs should do some very hard, steely-eyed thinking before starting this task. Good planning is essential. At the risk of being a curmudgeon, and dampening the excitement, here is a quick guide for how to think through and plan for many of the decisions that need to be made. This topic will be covered in two…
M&A Valuation Trends as of November 2021
Alteris LLC tracks Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) valuation and other trends/metrics from its various partners and research sources. We will periodically report on what we find here. For more detailed information on valuations and M&A trends contact us directly. Please note that this information is a summary, generalized for many different types of companies of various sizes. This data is collected from various sources and includes proprietary deal information from over 200 PEGs (Private Equity Groups) on $10-250mm sponsored transactions, with an average TEV near $50mm. The information is available as of November 2021 and covers the third quarter of…