CEO, Owners

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

According to Stephen Sayre and Mark Weisbard of law firm Dykema, this well-worn adage applies in spades to successfully exiting or transitioning a family-owned business.  Whether an owner is considering a sale or intergenerational transfer in the near or distant future, there are five important steps every owner should take today to make the transition -- whenever it ultimately occurs – smoother and more profitable:

Surveys have shown that accepting and screening rental applications is one of the most time consuming parts of managing a commercial real estate enterprise.  It is even more time consuming for smaller "mom-and-pop" operations with less than 20 rental units.

Business owners should stick to what they know best – running their businesses – and leave it to the professionals when trying to sell their enterprises.

Showcasing an invention or idea while still protecting the intellectual properties from theft is a continuing problem for smaller firms.  A possible solution is being offered on new web site that helps inventors protect their ideas from theft, while at the same time showcases their creations to potential investors and buyers.

The New Year ushers in a series of new regulatory, compliance, and legislative changes that affect every small business. Paychex, Inc., a provider of payroll, human resource, and benefits outsourcing solutions for small- to medium-sized businesses, offers these 11 issues that they believe small businesses need to know about in 2011.

Every year, billions of dollars are spent on consultants that organizations hire with the goal of achieving greater levels of business performance.

Too often, these consultants produce underwhelming results for overwhelming fees.

In today's world, chances are that the lender or lessor will require owners and major shareholders of a small to midsize business to sign a personal guarantee during the  refinancing debt or a bank loan, when leasing a facility or purchasing new equipment.