Planning To Buy A Start Up? Read On Before You Do

December 4, 2007

Exact evaluations, no matter you are big or small company or you are Man or Woman seeking Small Business Funding, then it becomes more important when you are planning to buy out a small business which is not into trading operations for long i.e. a start up. A new organization which has just commenced its trading operations, does not necessarily gives open picture by numbers alone, and there is not much past to go by.

Apart from actual evaluation you need to evaluate the viability of the idea and of the industry it is dealing in.

So how should one assess a startup? It’s pretty complex, because the company doesn’t really has any assets, revenue or perhaps established industry to accurately reach at a price.

The method enlarged below is one of the most widely used. At the very least, this method provides a starting figure to be adjusted according to a diversity of external factors.

Terminal Value:

Terminal value of a company is the value at some point in the future. This point may be an expected liquidity event or a point where the company starts gaining profits. The easiest way to do this is to comparison with a similar company.

 

Another method is to go over the price/earnings (PE) ratios for the existent companies in the industry, and factor in the expected earnings in the terminal year.

Note: this terminus value is the best case script– everything goes right. Discount rate method acknowledges the possible negative events to arrive at a figure.

The Venture conservatives necessitated ROI:

In this method a VC decides upon the one time investing figure and its expected annual rate of return, and then using the expression [(1 + IRR)years x Investment] arrives at final figure at the end of the time period.

Apart from above described method acting there are two other methods of valuing a start up. They are multi-stage financing and discount rate method. I will discuss them in my next post.

While it is out of context of use here, but it is important to know that if you have bad credit evaluations and you want Small Business Loans for your working capital necessarily, you can always opt for cash advances. Companies like MerchantCashDirect provide Fast Business Loans if you have done certain amount of money of business in credit card revenue over some time even if you have bad credit valuations.


Before You Buy Out a Business

November 28, 2007

In my last posts I discussed about the essentials and basics of Small Business Start up Loans for your capital or working capital financing requirements. This time I will discuss some of the absolute prerequisites before even thinking of going for a loan.

If you want financing so that you can buy out a small running business or a start up you need to know exactly the state of that business to negotiate a bargain if any, or to avoid paying more than the business is worth, or whether or not to go for it at all.

 

Following steps should be taken to understand the current state of a business:

 

Visit the Facility:

Check the facility and see it in action. Don’t be swayed by the super numbers on paper, visit the business. In fact, get an appointment with the seller to check out the business and then go again by yourself. This is the best way to find out the ground realities.

 

Decide on Professional Help:

Get some professional to do the valuation. If you don’t want to hire anyone for the evaluation, at least get an attorney to help you on many legal issues involved in such deals.

 

Request financial information.

The minimum you must insist upon:business loan
– Financial statements for three years.
– Corporate Tax returns for three years.
– List of capital assets
– List of equipment.
– Inventory listing
– Accounts receivable aging.
– Accounts payable aging.

Check out the price of comparable businesses and the industry:

The professional you would hire might give you some information, but the best place is Internet. Check out the forums; articles; ask the industry experts.

Obviously none of these steps are required if your requirement is just working capital or if you are looking for financing small business loan for start ups.

In both the cases steps provided in my previous posts should be taken or for working capital financing requirements you can go for business cash advance.

The cash advance will be repaid from the credit card sales that the business does in a specific period, usually through automatic debit. Organizations like Merchantcashdirect provide such cash advance.


Want Funding For Your Small Business, Well…Options Galore

September 7, 2007

In my last posts I discussed the types of loan, funding options available, and documents essential for the successful loan application. Now I will discuss the financial institutions providing small business funding.

You should approach your bankers first to apply for a commercial borrowing. You and they have worked together. The resultant familiarity will go a long way in mitigating doubts and insecurities. Also banks charge less for commercial loans than others.

But banks are a little more circumspect, and stickler of rules and guidelines regarding the borrower.

There are quite a few other types of business lenders. The main separating factor is the type of loans they offer: secured or unsecured loans.

Banks usually deal in secured ones, while independent financial organizations favor unsecured loans more. These independent financial organizations are ready to take more risks on startups and smaller businesses than banks. Often they look for particular industries, types of loans, or business sizes.

There are a third kind of lenders who mostly provide working capital funding. These lenders offer business cash advance.

The cash advance will be repaid from the credit card sales that the business does in a specific period, usually through automatic debit. Organizations like Merchantcashdirect provide such cash advance.