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Want to Do Business in Japan?

Ron — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 12:32:43 +0000

Want to Do Business in Japan?

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Home Page > Business > International Business > Want to Do Business in Japan?

Want to Do Business in Japan?

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Posted: Dec 13, 2007 |Comments: 0
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Tips for Working with Interpreters in Multilingual Business and Event Environments

Ron — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 06:41:06 +0000

In 2008, nearly 2 million people travelled overseas to the U.S. for conferences and conventions; 6.3 million for business purposes (U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Travel & Tourism Industries, 2008. All-in-all, millions cross borders for business and networking opportunities. Not everyone speaks English, and even those who do speak it are often able to participate more fully if services are available in their native languages. As the number of international visitors at U.S. trade shows increases, and businesses expand into new international markets, so does the use of interpreters for communicating with non-English-speakers.

What follows are tips from language services company Global Language Solutions for working with interpreters in a multilingual business or event environment.

Brief the Interpreter in Advance. It is crucial to give your interpreters relevant materials and background information in advance, as well as copies of any documents which the interpreter will be expected to render verbally. For example, do you have presentation slides, charts, or graphs that you will use in your event? Give these to the interpreter as early as possible – ideally with plenty of time for him/her to research any unfamiliar terms or clarify any unclear items.

Understand Simultaneous vs. Consecutive Interpreting. Simultaneous interpreting is when an interpreter listens to information and relays it in another language while continuing to listen. This type of interpreting is generally useful for situations when there is only one speaker at a time, such as a conference or a presentation. Consecutive interpreting is where the speaker pauses after several phrases or sentences to allow the interpreter time to relay it into the other language. Many conference and business interpreters are trained to provide both simultaneous and consecutive interpreting. For example, an interpreter may interpret in simultaneous mode during a presentation, but the Questions & Answers session that follows will be rendered in consecutive mode.

Will Just Any Interpreter Suffice? Simply put, no. The interpreter should be a trained, professional interpreter who is able to speak both languages fluently and free of an accent that could significantly interfere with comprehension. Also, the interpreter should be experienced or certified in your topic matter. For example, there are certifications for medical and courtroom interpreters.

Creating Sound Barriers (equipment needs). Imagine your English-language presentation is being simultaneously interpreted into four languages and your interpreters are seated with the general audience. A scenario like this can cause confusion as not only do the languages overlap, but no one can focus or hear what the presenter is saying. Avoid confusion with a sound barrier, whether it is a PLEXIGLAS® enclosure that sits on top of a table (the more affordable option) or a fully encapsulated booth with direct audio feeds for the interpreter.

Online or offline, chances are your industry, brand, and target audiences are crossing borders. For more information about interpreting services, contact GLS or call +1-949-798-1400.

Importance Of Translation Service In Small And Corporate Business

Ron — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 19:48:18 +0000

Nowadays in global marketplace more and more business are trying to reach overseas customers through websites, online marketing, software, brochure, business contracts. They need those promotional materials to be converted in local language. It’s almost impossible to hire different staffs for translating those documents. Only few corporate giants can afford this, it may also prove to be expensive to to have a fulltime staff if the volume to be translated is low. There is a big challenge to translate your business documents properly so that it’s clearly understandable by local people.
Running an online business globally needs proper communication with your clients. The client can be from China or from USA. You can’t abandon a client just because of communication problem. So success depends on how good you are in communicating. You have to make sure your customers understand what you are talking about and what your business is all about. You need to make it perfect so that your information is presented in a correct way for the foreign market.
To be able to sell your product to a foreign market it’s better for you if you can reply to their enquiry in a language they understand. This creates a feel good factor and they believe they can rely on your company and buy the products and services from your company instead of your competitor. So you need to adopt proper communication strategy to be successful in foreign market. Some marketing strategies might not work in foreign markets if you don’t fully appreciate their language and culture. You need to develop your online and offline marketing materials in languages that local people understand.
Nowadays corporate companies can’t exist globally without the help of translation services for their products, brochures, cartoons, labels of products boxes, manuals etc. Some popular products are successfully marketed in more than 100 countries. Professional language translators have done remarkable jobs for certain companies. Take an example of Cisco networking device. Almost every big company uses it for their networking requirement. What if you can’t read their installation manual? Translation companies have a great role in globalization, without their help it might not be possible to corporate giants to market their products globally.

Understanding Business Process Modeling

Ron — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:49:47 +0000

Business Process Modeling creates a view into how a company is organized and how it runs day to day. The BPM model provides visibility into where a company’s strengths and weaknesses are, how IT can work together efficiently with such disparate departments as sales and operations, which departments are siloed and isolated, how geographically distributed branches can better connect, etc.

Business process analysis begins with the discovery of what the process is and who all of the players are. Often the process will be analyzed via Six Sigma or Lean methods and never result in a software model. With BPM, the model isn’t just the design – it becomes the engine that runs the process. Improved enterprise architecture is the deliverable at the end of the project.

The BPM model provides real-time, cross-functional visibility into an operational business process, and a common understanding of activities for all participants.

It extracts the key metrics that are important to how that business process affects the business.

Improved enterprise architecture that is more efficient and responsive is the result of changes to a realistic BPM model. The model is what management uses to make needed changes that are also assured and predictable.

ARISalign social BPM is a significant improvement in BPM modeling. With ARISalign, BPM tools are accessible to many users at once online, working on the same model.

The ability to make the right changes in an organization’s processes depends on the accuracy and details of the model created with the BPM tools. BPM provides a unified design environment that avoids multiple interpretations and inconsistencies.

By enabling many associates to contribute to the model simultaneously, an ARISalign model’s accuracy can be much higher and details more granular than results from using traditional BPM meeting and interview methods.

What you need is a platform for stakeholders in a company, including IT, to build a more efficient business process into their everyday business. IT and all other departments it works with can update or replace the processes that block effective functioning and growth potential. All department heads, managers and employees can view the model online to discover points of cross-functionality.

The look and feel of ARISalign encourages users to contribute. Its online, collaborative white board environment adapts itself to how people work productively. Those who contribute to the model find that ARISalign helps them without demanding that they change their work style.

Live Forex News Feed – Know Its Benefits To Your Forex Business

Ron — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:49:16 +0000

Live Forex news feed tests prognostication powers are helpful when trading currencies. This article will help you discover how newscasts relate to exchange rate volatility. And also enlighten you on how to use it in managing information wisely.

Simultaneously released news stories tax the abilities currency traders have to interpret news bulletins and trade accordingly. U. S. Recently announced a decision about exiting Iraq War. It also expressed a desire to double U. S. Exports within a few years. These two newscasts make foreign currency speculators guess when and how these reports will affect currency value. U. S. Troops pull out and the U. S. Export increase should be completed in about the same year.

Individual traders must decide which information bulletins raise or lower currency values. Economists, market analysts, and fellow speculators have never reached universal consensus about newscasts and their effect on currencies. Some money experts do agree, however, that investors need a reliable source of breaking news bulletins. A fast delivery of news these days arrives electronically.

Electronic delivery offers reports and information. Forex participants can get information about big institutional players along with markets they focus on. These big buyers and sellers can move whole markets up or down. The immense size of their trades causes an impact. Small individual speculators can jump on the right side of the same trade if they get sufficient forewarning about actions big players take.

A live Forex news feed provides other features like commentaries and opinions. Readers can solidify their own understanding about markets by reading streamed articles over their Internet connection. Sometimes people need a critique of their personal trading strategy. The Forex is a huge market for trading foreign currencies. There is no one best speculative investing theory.

One popular speculation method suggests that volatility moves with changes in real GDP growth, deficits and inflation. This theory calls for a foreign currency market speculator to link news stories to these three variables. Other approaches make trades according with reports about catastrophes. Still other methods rely on technical not fundamental analysis.

Traders Overwhelmed By Choices

Currency market speculators do not have to keep track of many currencies. Currently over 190 countries populate the World. About 180 circulate a currency. Participants can speculate using around sixteen currency pairs on Forex markets. Dozens more individual currencies can be bought and sold but currencies usually trade in pairs. People generally do not select a long list of currencies then throw money at it.

Currency speculators do not have the luxury of waiting centuries to be proven correct like Nostradamus. The correctness of their opinions about a newscast is known fairly quickly in fast moving financial markets. Having current newscasts makes for better informed opinions. Timely arrival of pertinent news is especially important when using fundamentals to trade the Forex.

Live Forex news feed allows testing of predictions made by people who trade in foreign currency. Uncover ways that relate news with volatility. Reduce choice to a manageable level.

Do you want to know how you can really make more profits doing forex business? Get the very first daily currency updates ahead of other traders: Forex News Trading

Cedric is an article marketing expert, freelance article writer, link building professional, and freelance seo specialist.

Doing Business in Albania

Ron — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 22:35:09 +0000

Background

Albania is located on the Southeast coast of the Mediterranean Sea, with Italy to the West and Greece to the South. Rome, the Italian capital, is only one hour away by plane and Athens, the Greek capital, is about two hours away by plane. Albania has a population of about 3 million people, with Tirana, the capital of Albania, home of more than 1 million Albanians. The second largest city is Durrës, on the Adriatic Sea coast, of about 200,000 people. The Tirana International Airport is the only international airport in Albania and has direct flights to most European capitals.

Business etiquette Appearance

Albanians dress in European fashion and lively colours, with business attire being more casual than their European colleagues and their business behaviour more laid back. Albanians may dress casually for important meetings; women sometimes may dress in slightly revealing attire.

Meetings

Business meetings may often take place in unconventional places, such as café houses, residential dwellings, as well as during taxi rides. Often not much attention is paid to equipment in conference rooms or other meeting places and these auditoriums may be smaller than anticipated for large and important meetings. Contacts are frequently made verbally and payments for goods and services are conducted in cash.

Albanians do not seem bound by time; lateness for important events, including business meetings and lunch/dinner parties are not unusual.

Meeting etiquette

Albanians shake hands when meeting strangers and they kiss or hug the men and women they consider close acquaintances or good friends. Sometimes these circles will include the potential foreign business partners they have just met. Business cards are not mandatory and there is no custom of exchanging business cards at either the beginning or the end of a meeting. Assistants, secretaries and/or interpreters may not be introduced. Sometimes, especially when meeting high officials outside their own offices, bodyguards may accompany these officials up to the door of the meeting venue and may often wait immediately outside this door.

Communications

Most young Albanians (younger than 35 years old) speak fluent English and often other languages, mainly Italian. Most government officials speak English or some other European language (French, Italian, German, and Greek) to some extent. However, this may not always be true with private enterprises. In any case, interpreters are widely used for any types of meetings, sometimes the interpreter being the assistant or the secretary of the Albanian entrepreneur/businessman. Contracts can be made verbally and/or in written form. Albanians do not like much paperwork and try to keep things simple. Also, private businesses have very few layers of bureaucracy and the same person may serve as a manager, point of contact, secretary, accountant, as well as driver for a given company. There are many able Albanian translators and interpreters that may be hired at hourly or daily rates.

A nod of the head in Albania means “no” and shaking of the head means “yes”. This is very confusing; therefore it is safer to ask that your business partner verbalizes what he means when asked a “yes” or “no” question.

Payments

Bank transfers and credit card payments are possible, although most Albanians prefer cash. The Euro and the U.S. dollar are two of the most preferred currencies used for payments. In stores and markets foreigners may be charged more than locals, especially since most items may not have their prices advertised. Use of old and new “lek”, which is the local currency in Albania, is also very confusing and you should ask someone once in Albania for a detailed explanation. When shopping, it is better to go with your interpreter or someone who knows Albanian.

Eating etiquette

While Albanians love good food, at the same time they love to keep fit. You will rarely see overweight Albanians, although recently their number has increased. Albanian cuisine has been influenced by Greek, Turkish and Italian cuisines and the food served in Albania has many similarities to the typical food for these countries. Very few Albanians are vegetarians, therefore, it may be difficult to find suitable vegetarian food.

Albanians eat lots of meat; beef, pork, lamb, as well as chicken and fish. These will most likely be served at any business lunch or supper. Liquor is widely used in Albania and wine and beer, as well as strong spirits, will be served alongside lunch or supper. Albanians take pride in one of their most well-know spirit drink “raki” – (pronounced like “raikee”), made of grape juice and as strong as vodka – and will insist that their foreign guests at least try some of this drink. It is an offence to refuse and just trying some is, in most occasions, quite acceptable.

Albanians usually pay for their guests’ meals, especially female guests the first time they are having lunch or dinner with guests. They will insist that they foot the bill, even when you have invited them to your favorite restaurant. There is a tacit understanding that the second time, their guests are expected to repay this courtesy. Sometimes lunches and dinners are not planned and it may happen that you will be invited for lunch or dinner immediately after concluding a meeting, especially if something good, like the signing of a contract, came out of that meeting. This will usually serve to ‘celebrate’ what has been achieved in this meeting.

Besides lunches and dinners, coffees are very popular in Albania. It seems that everyone drinks coffee, although sometimes ‘going out for a coffee’ may mean that strong drinks like ‘raki’ will be consumed. Coffees take time and there is no such thing as a ‘five minute coffee break.” Sometimes having a coffee may take longer than an hour or two.

Gifts

Gifts are very important for Albanians and mandatory for special guests. You are expected to give a gift in return if you have been given something. Money is never a good gift as it presumes you want a bribe or something illegal from the receiving party. Flowers are generally not given as gifts. Good gifts are generally works of art from your home country, such as small paintings, sculptures, and other memorabilia that will most likely decorate their offices. If you are aware that your potential business partner has children, a very good idea is to bring a gift for their children.

Business negotiations

Haggling is totally acceptable in most stores in Albania. When negotiating your business with your potential Albanian partner, keep in mind that no offer from them is ever final until you have accepted it. If you are going to negotiate some items, such as prices, places of delivery, etc, this needs to be done before the end of the meeting, unless it is clear that these items will be discussed at a follow-up meeting. Albanians are generally reasonable and willing to negotiate and accommodate their business partners.

Cultural awareness and conversation

Albanians are aware of their problems and they like their foreign friends to point them out. Women in Albania are usually considered as belonging to someone if they have a boyfriend, fiancé or husband and flirting or even remotely indicating an interest in them (for example by saying to someone, “Your girlfriend is very beautiful”) may cause very unexpected and unpleasant situations. It is wise to refrain from any comments about someone’s wife, fiancée or girlfriend.

Politics is another issue to avoid talking about to Albanians. In Albania everyone is very passionate about their political beliefs and one of the fastest ways to infuriate your potential business partner is unknowingly insulting his favorite politician or political party. Albanians, however, may initiate political conversations and in these cases you may engage in exchanges of information about the political system in your country, especially if you are from a country which is geographically remote from Albania.

Smoking is allowed in public and in most restaurants, which typically will not have a non-smoking section. Sometimes it may be considered an insult to ask your business partner to put out their cigarettes, especially if they are already smoking them. If the meeting takes place in your company’s office, then you may choose to display “NO SMOKING” signs in advance of your business partner’s visit.

Homosexuality in Albania, although legal, is not fully accepted and it is looked down upon by most people as a sign of weakness and even sickness.

Religion

Albania is considered a Muslim country, with 70 percent of the population belonging to this religion. However, most of this Muslim population are Muslims because of their family origins and traditions and not because of choice. Albanian Muslims do not have any of the characteristics of the Muslim religion in the Arab countries, such as the teachings, the attendance in mosques, and the devotion to the practicing of their religious rites. Instead, Albanian Muslims gladly marry and cohabit with the rest of the Albanian population, which is 20 percent Orthodox Christian and 10 percent Catholic Christian. In addition, there are small numbers of Protestant believers.

For more information, please see our website or email us.

Business Broker Versus Merger And Acquisition Advisor

Ron — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:48:43 +0000

Most business owners only sell one business in their lifetime. The results of that sale can have a major impact on the financial future of the family. For most business sales we recommend that the seller engage a professional specializing in business sales to assist. There are two broad categories of professionals that engage in business sales business brokers and merger and acquisition advisors.

What should the seller be looking for? This article will discuss the type of services offered by both groups and help the business seller decide which professional to use.

The first criteria is type of business. Generally, business brokers specialize in “Main Street” types of businesses such as dry cleaners, gas stations, restaurants, and convenience stores. M&A advisors specialize in more B2B types of businesses such as manufacturers, distributors, information technology firms, etc.

Size of Business BB’s specialize in businesses under $1.5 million in revenues and M&A’s represent larger businesses or smaller businesses with a high component of technology or intellectual property.

The Targeted Buyer BB’s are generally targeting individual buyers while M&A’s are seeking to locate corporate buyers.

Business Valuation BB’s specialize in commodity type businesses that have “rule of thumb’ valuations that are consistently applied to arrive at a business selling price. There is usually a pretty narrow range of valuations applied to these businesses. M&A’s are recommended where there can be a broad interpretation of “strategic value” and rules of thumb do not apply. A high component of Intellectual Property, a unique niche, a hard to penetrate customer base are characteristics that can demand strategic value and purchase prices can vary widely.

Complexity of Transaction BB’s are generally selling to individual buyers that have a finite approach structuring the transaction. The contracts are usually fairly straight forward and the negotiations focus on price, financing, and seller notes. For the M&A’s the targeted audience is the corporate buyer with vast experience in acquiring businesses. They employ both an internal legal team and outside council and make the purchase contracts quite complex. The number one goal is protecting the corporation. The contracts are 35 pages of complex legal language and schedules of reps and warranties. The seller will need someone that is familiar in navigating in that environment. Corporations generally send in a due diligence team that is well versed on finding every little wart in a seller company and will attempt to reduce transaction value during the process. The seller will need good advisors to offset these pros.

Exclusivity because the BB’s are targeting individual buyers, their audience is vast so exclusivity is sometimes required and sometimes not required. Business sellers often engage multiple non exclusive BB’s to insure the broadest coverage in presenting their business to the buyer audience. BB’s are often part of a network of BB’s to help broaden this exposure. Sunbelt Business Brokers and BBN are two very good networks.

M&A’s require exclusivity because they are targeting corporate buyers and the audience of potential buyers is finite. These corporate buyers have M&A departments or sometimes the president handles the process. If a target is presented to a corporate buyer by more than one professional the credibility immediately drops and the chance of serious interest drops significantly.

Number of Clients Represented BB’s want to represent as many business for sale as they can. When contacting their vast network of individual buyers it is a real benefit to have a vast inventory of companies. Because on this, their approach is more of a mass mailing, mass email, post the business on a business for sale Web site, type of approach and their attention is spread over 25 or more simultaneous clients.

M&A’s usually limit their number of engagements to 3 or 4 per professional at a time. Their approach is very hands on and labor intensive. M&A’s usually rely on a direct selling approach of calling the buyers and talking with the M&A department or the president. Often M&A’s will have specific industry niches and will have a customized data base of contacts. They often have had several prior contacts with the buyers and are able to penetrate the call screening that is set up to protect these individuals. A corporate buyer does not buy through a posting on a business for sale Web Site. A corporate buyer will open 2% or less of letter solicitations. A corporate buyer will read less than 1% of unsolicited and unknown emails. Corporate buyers demand personal and professional contact to get their interest.

Up Front or Monthly Fees BB’s generally will charge a minor up front fee to begin the engagement or have a simplified valuation completed. Generally there is no monthly fee charged. M&A’s generally charge either a substantial up front fee or a monthly fee in the $3500 to $10,000 per month range depending on the size of the business.

Success Fees BB’s generally charge a success fee of 10% of transaction value. M&A’s generally have a sliding scale based on the anticipated size of the business. The known Wall Street firms that sell the mega businesses will not touch a transaction where they are not guaranteed $1 million in fees. The big regional firms require at least $750,00. The M&A firms that deal in the lower end usually charge considerably less than that with a minimum or $150,000 cash at close. If your transaction value is in the $10 million range, count on paying your M&A firm $300K to $400K.

Conclusions The deciding factor is in cost benefit. An M&A firm is going to cost a lot of money and you are going to be paying either an up front or monthly fees without a guarantee of success. If your business is smaller and is a commodity type business or Main Street business where the target buyer is an individual, an M&A firm will not add much value and is not worth the fee.

If your business is larger, complex, unusual, strategic, with a high component of intellectual property or technology and subject to a broad interpretation of value in the marketplace, an M&A firm is the right choice. In the final analysis, is a swing of 20% in your company’s selling price worth $5,000 per month for 8 months?

Chinese interpreter and China Business Consultant Service

Ron — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:39:28 +0000

Hi, I am Tom Lee who is freelance interpreter based on ShenZhen, China.
With MBA degree focus on international business and more than ten years international business experience, fully understand western business mentality. Not only can I offer interpreter service but also China Business consultancy service. I will act as your own business interpreter, assistant, Consultant, a buying agent. NOT ONLY help you overcome the language barrier, But ALSO stand your side and try my best to protect your interests in business processing. Provides practical assistance to International companies establishing and expanding business in China, also provide business opportunities, expert trade advice and support the companies to internationalize and grow their business in China.

I have built up good relationship with suppliers in different industries, such as injection moulding, imitation jewelry, Consumer electronic and stationery factories

Interpretation Services

Organizing business trip, Sourcing, Negotiation, Confemerence

Joint venture, sole agency agreement, Technology transfer, licensing agreement, Etc.

China Business Consultant Service:

Trademark register service,
Register representative office.
Register wholy own foreign enterprise.
Consultation on tax and law.
Consultation on resident permit and visa issue.

The following is some of case study for our interpretation service:

2009 Interpretation for Online payment cooperation between Tencent corporation and Singapore HEKEY2ASIA PTE LTD

2009,Interpreting? for foreign business delegations and Chinese corporate executives on joint venture projects in China.

Mar 2008 Interpretation for Arrowhead system Ltd. Co (US) for joint-venture setup negotiation.
Mar 2008 Interpretation for Pinkerton Consulting and investigation (US) for Global annual meeting

Nov 2007 Interpretation for Interpretationfor Comet Feinfocus (Swiss) for X-ray equipement Exhibition

Oct 2007 Interpretation for Nature’s Sunshine Products, Inc (US) for office setup meeting

Sept 2007 Interpretation for Turning point Garment Ltd.(Australia) for supplier visit

Jul 2007 Chinese representative to UNU-KNCU Global Seminar(Korea, Jeju Island)

Jun 2007 SPARX Asset Management(HK) for business visit

May 2007 Interpretaion for Jeffery Hessing (French Painter) for Shanghai Spring Art Festival

Apr 2006 Interpretation for ProGuardPlus S.L. (Spain) for Boat Exhibition

Apr 2006 Best Creativety of 14th L’Oreal Brandstorm Marketing Reward

Oct 2005 National Scholarship granded by China Education Ministry

Jun 2005-Jan 2006 Marketing Intern in GM China for Cadillac Brand

2004 Canton Trade Fair:
Interpreter for the GM of Reuver Outdoor Product Company from Holland.

2004 China International Fair of Investment & Trade (Xiamen):
Interpreter for Officers of Valencia Community Investment from Spain.

May 2004, Dafen Art Village:
Visited Chinese artists with the British artist of UK Art23.

2003, Xiamen stone event:
Interpreter for the Italian Stone Delegation, involved in meetings with suppliers, visited factories.

2003, Xiamen:
Visited suppliers with the owners of a Canadian Metal Rail Company.

2002, Xiamen:
Interpreter for the business meetings between a Canadian garment design company and a Chinese supplier.

2002 China International Fair of Investment & Trade (Xiamen):
Interpreter for Officers of Valencia Community Investment from Spain.

Baby Boomer Business Sellers – The Rush To The Exits Could Erode Company Valuations

Ron — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:49:03 +0000

The Baby Boomers are retiring in large numbers over the next ten years and the impact on the economic landscape of America will be dramatic. This article will examine those trends and the likely impact on business valuations over the next several years. From a 40,000 foot view the number of businesses that change hands will mirror the number of baby boomers that are retiring.

According to Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, in 2001, 50,000 businesses changed hands. That number rose to 350,000 in 2005 and is projected to increase to 750,000 by 2009. Price Waterhouse reported in a Trendsetter Barometer Survey of Business Owners that 51% were planning on selling their company to another company compared with 18% anticipating passing on the business to a family member and 14% planning a sale to the company’s management.

The trends point to more than a doubling in the number of businesses that will hit the market looking for a buyer by 2009. Simple economics and supply and demand would suggest that unless the number of buyers increases significantly, there will be an erosion in valuations for business sellers during this rush to the exits. Compare that to the relatively robust environment business sellers have enjoyed over the past 3 years. This period was supported by unprecedented Private Equity investments in addition to the available cash from corporations with rising profits.

Now we have the sub-prime situation impacting the available funds that the Private Equity Firms were using to highly leverage their mega deals and drive up transaction values. The good news for most privately held companies, 99.9% of your companies will not fall into the mega deal category. A larger privately held industry player or a publicly traded company is the most likely buyer. The economics are still positive for these buyers looking to add customers, product lines, technology or all three. A publicly traded company can still buy a private company for a good price and not dilute their share price.

Given this backdrop, what is a business owner who is anticipating selling his business in 2010, to do? Move up your sale timeframe, but not necessarily your exit timeframe. No, I am not talking in riddles. What I mean is that you should take your chips off the table with a sale transaction sooner rather than later. Your eventual exit could be in 2010 after working full time for the new owner for 1 year to transition customer relationships and intellectual property, followed by a limited consulting engagement for two years.

Too many business owners view their business sale and their retirement as a simultaneous event and end up delaying the sale to the day they want to stop working. That misperception can be very costly. Too many owners wait too long and end up selling because of a negative event like a health issue, loss of a major account, a shift in the competitive landscape, or just plain burn out. As you can see, none of these major reasons for selling puts you in a favorable negotiating position. As a general rule, the faster you want to disassociate yourself from your business, the more the buyer will want to deduct from his purchase price. Your desire to leave quickly is a red flag of risk to the new owner.

Your best outcome is to sell your business near the top and stay involved as an employee or consultant for a reasonable period. If you look at the transaction structures that are popular in the acquisition of closely held businesses, this approach makes a lot of sense. The more a business depends on the owner for its success, the greater the risk to the buyer. The greater the percentage of a selling company’s projected earnings that is dependent on future new sales, the lower percentage of transaction value that the seller will receive as cash at closing. The greater the concentration of company sales to a small number of customers, the lower the price and the greater the earn-out component of transaction value.

Most privately held family businesses have one or a combination of these value detractors. Your selling strategy can mitigate the negative impact on selling price. By exiting before the necessity of exiting, your sales trajectory will more than likely be on the increase than on the decline. Buyers pay a premium for growth and discount for flat or falling sales. Unless your entire revenue stream is contractually committed over the next several years, most buyers will introduce an earn-out as a component of the total transaction value. This is a risk avoidance strategy that ties the total acquisition price to the future performance of the business post acquisition. It is also designed to keep the business seller engaged in the near term performance of the business.

In spite of the normal response from business sellers who want the entire sale price in cash at close, we believe that under the proper circumstances and properly memorialized in the definitive purchase agreement, earn-outs can be a big win for a seller. We normally try to tie the earn-out to future revenues of the acquired property. That is usually very easy to measure and to audit if necessary. Earn-outs based on future EBITDA or division profitability are more problematic because of the greater possibility for interpretation by the buyer. You all of a sudden get an accounting entry of corporate overhead in your financial reconciliation and your profit disappears.

Count on your original champion who negotiated your agreement not being involved by the end of the earn-out period. Make the agreement air tight in terms of how it is interpreted. A subtlety that we negotiated into an earn-out for a client was that the earn-out would be paid based on the greater of the sales price for the seller’s product or 80% of list price, whichever was greater. You see, we can not control how the buyer runs the business once he has the keys, but we can control how the earn-out is calculated. This prevented the buying company using the seller’s product as a loss leader in combination with their other products and shifting the revenue to other products at the seller’s expense.

If you look at this preferred structure in conjunction with your sell now, exit later strategy, it can work in your favor. Wouldn’t you want to be fully engaged and energized during your earn-out period and drive the value of the earn-out? As part of the new company, you now have 325 installed accounts instead of 25. Your sales force is now 25 strong compared to 2 sales people from your prior company. Your advertising budget is twenty times your old budget. You now have a network of 50 manufacturers reps supporting sales. Your new company’s access to growth capital dwarfs what was available to your little company. Do you think you have an environment where you can achieve a sales growth far greater than what you could do on your own? The key is to negotiate the earn-out that gets you to a transaction value comparable with an all cash at close offer that assumes your company sales grow at their historical rate.

For example, your offer if you back the buyer into the all cash at close offer is $5 million. Compare that to a deal that would provide you $3.5 million at close and another $1.5 million in earn-out if sales grew at 10% per year (your company’s historical rate) for the next three years. Our contention is that the earn-out deal could be far superior. Given the much greater distribution power of the new owner, you could reasonably expect sales to jump by 25% per year, driving your earn-out to $2.5 million and resulting in a $1 million improvement in transaction value. You want to be fully engaged to achieve this result and that is exactly what the buyer wants.

As a business seller you have many factors that can greatly impact your selling price. Getting multiple buyers involved is probably number 1. A very close second, in the near term future is the timing of your sale. The economic trends are against you postponing the sale part of your exit. You can always sell now and retire later.

Importance of Translation and Interpreter Services on Business Trips

Ron — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 23:39:15 +0000

In today’s globalized economy, one cannot down play the significance of translation services during overseas trips. To make your business trip a success you need to communicate with your potential customers in their own language. By communicating with them in their own language, you can gain their trust and their business as well. The advent of the internet has led to an explosive growth in the level of business activity between nations. What we are seeing is a convergence of cultures and economic systems all across the globe. This means that people all over the globe will be communicating more than ever highlighting the need for translation services.

Some agencies bundle translation and travel services for their clients. This means that the customers can avail of translation service right from the time they embark on foreign territory. Many organizations find the translation and travel services bundle quite valuable, as their executives do not feel lost in a foreign land. These agencies ensure that the visitor is picked up from the airport and taken to the hotel room. He or she does not need to involve him in the hassle of booking a taxi or finding a hotel room in a country where the natives do not speak the same language as he does. These operators design the visitor’s itinerary in consultation with the clients and arrange for domestic travel if desired by the visitor. If needed, they also accompany the visitor during factory visits or for client meetings. If there are some contracts to be signed then these agencies also perform the document translation work and explain the nuances of the contract.

If a visitor desires to visit trade fairs, exhibitions or places of historical importance then these agencies provide personal interpreters during these visits also. All these services ensure that the visitor utilizes his time productively during a business trip and make his investment worthwhile. By availing these translation and interpreter services during overseas trips you can prove to your clients that you are serious about their business and are willing to go that extra mile to serve them better than competition.