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Every relationship your company creates with clients has value — every contact has the potential to grow into a long-lasting relationship and source of additional revenue.

However, every client relationship takes considerable time, effort, energy and patience before they can become a dependable and trusted part of your business.

It’s a considerable investment, and when a relationship fails you’ve usually lost quite a bit of time and effort along the way.

In this article, we will discuss several techniques you can use to screen out potentially negative clients such as non-payers, clients likely to be litigious, clients with bad credit or financial problems and clients that are just not worth your effort.

The best way to establish a basic level of protection and discover who you are dealing with is to perform basic background check prior to spending your time and resources to their project.

With minimal research and effort, a surprising amount of these potentially problematic clients can be identified before you expose yourself to any risk.

There are several companies that provide basic background check services for a minimal fee that will allow you to weed out clients that you will not want to do business with.

When Should you do a Background Check on a New Client? Every time. There that is pretty simple and straight forward, but it is certainly the easiest way to always have a basic level of understanding of your client.

You can certainly take your valuable time to do web searches and may learn a few things about your client, but aren’t you better off outsourcing this function, and paying the few dollars, so that you can spend your time providing a service for which you are better-skilled, and thus generating more income for you and your employer?

There is a wealth of information that will be provided about your client.Information that can be used in certain areas and at specific times in your ongoing relationship will provide ease of mind and alert you to potential problems, if there are going to be any during this relationship.

A basic background check will provide information regarding your client’s location and length of time at their current or any previous addresses. A check that includes information from the local state or county will verify licenses, permits and tax information. These should be obtained once a negotiation has started or a proposal is in process.

Once there is a signed contract, however, it’s time to do a comprehensive check on the company and make sure that the contract is going to be enforceable and collectible.

The goal is to make sure that the client is who they say they are, confirm that the signatory is authorized to sign on behalf of the company, and verify that the company is legal and doing real business. With those three items in place, you can comfortably begin the project knowing that you are, in fact, legally protected by the contract or legal agreement.

What are other types of information that you will need? Background check service providers vary greatly in the information that they provide and the cost for it.

There is truth in the old adage, “You get what you pay for”. Providers that promise information for less than $20 will give you less than $20 worth of information! It is always best to deal with a provider that has the resources available to provide access to more than one information database to get better value for your money and better information regarding the client you are dealing with.

After you have identified the client’s identity, location and business license with the state, you will want to have information on your client’s financial status. If there are liens or bankruptcy filings, this is a client to be wary of.

A list of assets, such as titles to real estate, vehicles or boats would show whether there is tangible real property and any liens or attachments on them. Any civil judgments, particularly involving principals of the company or judgments against them by previous service providers would indicate a pattern of not living up to agreements with previous business partners.

They may be trying to do business with you because no one else will have them, or they are going into a relationship with you knowing that they have no intention of paying for your products or services without legal action. A small investment in a background check could save you thousands of dollars in legal fees in trying to collect payment.

In the end, you can save yourself incredible amounts of time, stress and money by doing a bit of due diligence at the beginning of a client engagement. Considering the low cost of record searching and the incredible hassle associated with collections and litigation, background check research is one of the best insurance policies you could ever find.

It is wise to protect your bottom line, yourself, and your business by doing a little work up-front to find out background information.

AssetSearchPros.com is your dedicated professional services, background investigative firm that makes the commitment to meet each and every clients needs. Visit them today at http://www.AssetSearchPros.com

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When economic times are uncertain, business buyers become very cautious about a potential merger acquisition transaction. They attempt to negotiate for a lower price, but they also try to negotiate for the seller to have a significant interest in the post acquisition performance. This results in less cash at close and more of the transaction value tied to an earn out based on future sales of the acquired new division or business unit.

The buyers, especially experienced buyers, know that one of the key mistakes is to underestimate the amount of time and effort it is to institutionalize this new business. It takes a good deal of time to transfer the intellectual capital from the target company to the buying company. Converting customer loyalty to the new entity is not an automatic. Meshing corporate cultures can be problematic and good employees may leave. The owner is almost always viewed by the buyer as a critical element to the future success of the new division.

How is this reflected in the transaction? If the buyer views the owner as the center of her company’s universe, owning all the customer and supplier relationships, possessing all the intellectual capital, and taking on the identity of the company, the transaction will involve a large earn out over several years. If the owner has done a good job of developing a management team and has delegated herself out of day to day operations, then the cash at close will be much greater and the earn out period will be reduced.

A great deal of a buyer’s due diligence will focus on the owner’s current role in the business and her role post acquisition. Forgive me for a broad generalization, but most lower mid-market businesses we have worked with have an owner that is a passionate subject matter expert that started the business almost as an afterthought. They are not necessarily skilled as CEO’s and really do not enjoy the administrative duties required to run a small business. One of the reasons they are selling is to remove themselves from that grind of administrative duties.

That is a great platform to present to the buyer. The buyer usually has the infrastructure to handle that and does it much better than the target company. They are buying the smaller company in order to leverage their assets and grow at a much more rapid pace than the smaller company could grow on their own. The buyer wants to remove all the barriers for their new subject matter expert, provide her additional resources and support, and let her do what she does best - sell her product or service.

As the business seller, if you take that message to the buyer, you will find that the buyer will feel more comfortable about the risk profile of the potential acquisition and you will get more favorable terms. Unfortunately, many times the seller over communicates how tired they are and how much they want to get away from the pressure cooker environment they currently have. We have literally watched this unfold in the most unfavorable way for our sellers. When this message comes out, the earn out period gets extended and the cash at close gets reduced. The more the seller wants to get away the greater the buyer’s attempts to lock her up for an extended period.

The lesson here is that if you are a smaller mid-market company and you want to receive the maximum value for your business, count on staying involved for a reasonable period of time post acquisition to insure the success of the buyer’s new division. The buyer will structure the transaction so that you do have a vested interest in this success. It is acceptable to the buyer that you do not enjoy the day to day duties of being a CEO. They are counting on that because they already are performing that function. You can proactively present your vision of your new role in a way that will be received very positively. I want to be the product evangelist. I want to be the promoter at industry events, speaking engagements, blogs, and industry publications. I want to focus on integrating the two companies and helping with the strategic plans. If you position it this way, the buyer will be more generous with the cash at close and will be less likely to try to lock you up for an extended earn out period.

Dave> Kauppi
is the editor of The Exit Strategist Newsletter, a Merger and Acquisition Advisor and President of MidMarket Capital, representing owners in the sale of privately held businesses. We provide Wall Street style investment banking services to lower mid market companies at a size appropriate fee structure.

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As an investment banking firm, we regularly dialogue with the top executives in the beverage industry. We have to chuckle when we reach a decision maker with a large beverage company and he says, “We have a corporate policy that we organically develop all of our own beverage concepts.” Does this guy read the industry publications? Did he miss the surge in beverage start-ups caused by the success of Red Bull, Hansens, Vitamin Water, and others? It seems like the major source of innovation in the beverage industry is coming from these new rule makers that defy the odds and launch successful new brands and even new categories.

This surge of innovative activity is fun. What energy. It reminds us of the old Internet days - lots of money, talent, ideas, hope, energy, and potential successful businesses. This is the innovation environment in the beverage industry and any large company that feels it can keep pace with this force through internal development efforts alone is headed down the path of extinction.

Almost everyone will agree that the new drivers of innovation in the beverage industry are entrepreneurial small companies that launch their products on a shoe string and defy the odds to reach a critical mass with very little outside funding. There is, however, a huge barrier in this market. The institutional buyers often make the cost of entry on to the shelves of their stores prohibitively expensive. This often prevents the expected innovation and commercial success that should naturally follow the effort and passion of these innovators.

These entrepreneurs respond to a market need and achieve encouraging initial success from the early adopters. They soon hit the wall and are not able to “cross the chasm” from a small group of early adaptors to general market distribution within the large retailers. There is little economic value created when promising concepts are in the control of an under funded start-up company and the brand never reaches broad acceptance.

Most of the blockbuster new products are the result of an entrepreneurial effort from an early stage company bootstrapping its growth in a very cost conscious lean environment. Think of some of the new developments from companies mentioned above. The big companies, with all their seeming advantages have a very high internal cost structure for new product introductions and the losses resulting from those failures are substantial. Don’t get me wrong, there were hundreds of failures from the start-ups as well. However, the failure for the edgy little start-up resulted in losses in the $1 - $5 million range. The same result from an industry giant was often in the $100 million to $250 million range.

For every Red Bull and Vitamin Water there are literally hundreds of companies that either flame out or never reach a critical mass beyond a loyal early adapter market. It seems like the mentality of these smaller business owners is, using the example of the popular TV show, Deal or No Deal, to hold out for the $1 million briefcase. What about that logical contestant that objectively weighs the facts and the odds and cashes out for $280,000?

As we contemplated the dynamics of this market, we were drawn to a merger and acquisition model that is used in the networking technology market by Cisco Systems. We believe that model could also be applied to great advantage in the new era beverage industry. The giant networking company, is a serial acquirer of companies. They do a tremendous amount of R&D and organic product development. They recognize, however, that they cannot possibly capture all the new developments in this rapidly changing field through internal development alone.

Cisco seeks out investments in promising, small, technology companies and this approach has been a key element in their market dominance. They bring what we refer to as smart equity to the high tech entrepreneur. They purchase a minority stake in the early stage company with a call option on acquiring the remainder at a later date with an agreed-upon valuation multiple. This structure is a brilliantly elegant method to dramatically enhance the risk reward profile of new product introduction. Here is why:

For the Entrepreneur:

1. The involvement of the large beverage industry investor - resources, market presence, brand, distribution capability is a self fulfilling prophecy to your product’s success. The halo of the big secure company helps you cross the chasm to the conservative majority institutional customer.

2. For the same level of dilution that an entrepreneur would get from a VC, angel investor or private equity group, the entrepreneur gets the performance leverage of “smart equity.” See #1.

3. The entrepreneur gets to grow his business with Large Beverage Company Investor’s support at a far more rapid pace than he could alone. He is more likely to establish the critical mass needed for market leadership within his industry’s brief window of opportunity.

4. He gets an exit strategy with an established valuation metric while the buyer/investor helps him make his exit much more lucrative.

5. As an old Wharton professor used to ask, “What would you rather have, all of a grape or part of a watermelon?” That sums it up pretty well. The involvement of Large Beverage Industry Investor gives the product a much better probability of growing significantly. The entrepreneur will own a meaningful portion of a far bigger asset.

For the Large Beverage Industry Investor:

1. Create access to a large funnel of developing technology and products.

2. Creates a very nimble, market sensitive, product development or R&D arm.

3. Minor resource allocation to the autonomous operator during his “skunk works” market proving development stage.

4. Diversify their product development portfolio - because this approach provides for a relatively small investment in a greater number of opportunities fueled by the entrepreneurial spirit, they greatly improve the probability of creating a winner.

5. By investing early and getting an equity position in a small company and favorable valuation metrics on the call option, they pay a fraction of the market price to what they would have to pay if they acquired the company once the product had proven successful.

This hybrid merger and acquisition model is a collaborative effort drawing on both Investment Banking experience combined with 25 years of beverage industry experience. Both the small entrepreneurial firm looking for the “smart equity” investment with the appropriate growth partner or the large industry player looking to enhance their new product strategy can benefit from this creative approach. This model has successfully served the technology industry through periods of outstanding growth and market value creation. Many of the same dynamics are present in the beverage industry and these same transaction structures can be similarly employed to create value.

Dave Kauppi is an investment banker and President of MidMarket Capital. We help business owners with all aspects of Mergers and Acquisitions.

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When selling products or services marketing is key. When beginning your business it can be difficult to make your product take off from the start. You may find yourself struggling to get the companies involved in the mass market to even acknowledge your calls. This is where the assistance of a group-marketing network can come in handy. These networks carry extensive experience in taking new products and introducing them to the mass market. A group-marketing network already carries solid relationships with both medium and large chains that will be interested in selling your product. This allows you to get your product in a well-known tore in half the time it would take if you were to try and contact these companies directly.

MLM Opportunities
There are so many areas in which a group-marketing network can benefit your growing business. A group-marketing network can help you to create a strategic marketing plan that will increase your customer sales 10 fold. They will assist you in your communication skills and the design of your product that will assist you in the final build of a product brand name. With a group marketing network you will be able to find and reach your target market audience. They can also prepare you to work through changing market conditions. You will also learn how to give yourself a competitive edge and keep that edge into the future.

Where To Find These Opportunities
These networking groups can be found on the Internet. They will provide a list of helpful hints as well as the ability to speak with them on how to make your business flourish. The help from experienced professionals aiding you to meet your goal is such a better choice than wandering in the dark with your home business. You can go from home business to a well know nationwide market.

Experienced Assistance
The fact is that a group-marketing network is experienced and understands what it really takes to make a product succeed in the mass market. You dont have to worry about trial and error. Instead you have professionals working for you, using proven techniques that will lead you to business success. It is easy to see why choosing a group-marketing network is a helpful tool in bringing a product to the mass market.

Find Out For Yourself
Take some time to search for a group-marketing network in your area. Contact them and see what they can do for you. You may find that with their help your rise to the top will come much easier and much quicker that it would if you were to work alone. You can also do some marketing research on your own to aid you in the marketing network basics. You will be sure to appreciate the tips and tools that a group-marketing network can provide you with. You may also find that in a matter of a few short months your product is being sponsored by local businesses that see your rapid accent as a sure sign of business success.

Todd Ash Is An Entrepreneur and A Master Of Network Marketing.To Find Out More About About Succeeding Online Visit http://www.ToddAsh.com

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The hardest part of having a business in a network marketing program is to retain your downline. Many people think a network marketing program means huge incomes and little work, which is why the turnover rate in multi level marketing companies is higher than any other industry. While people have many reasons for walking away from a great business opportunity the most common reason for people is that something better comes along for them.

At least twice a year there is a new marketing network opportunity coming out and they all claim to be the best. Every new product that is introduced is made available on the internet and in order to get this product to the consumer distributors are needed. After potential distributors understand the way network marketing works they often lose their interest and move on to programs that claim to take less working time and give you more opportunities to get rich overnight.

Realistically there are no more ways to get rich overnight while working on the internet. The odds are a few thousand to one that you will earn into the millions with your first year and most of those are the self-proclaimed entrepreneurs. Rather it is disappointing to see the odds that most people will be able to earn a stable living through a multi level marketing program, but those that are successful understand that working from home requires actually working hard.

Always take time to investigate the business offer even if the most recent email promises you the newest top product that is arriving on the market and how you need to act immediately in order to get in on the ground floor of the excellent opportunity. Many wonder why a hot product isn’t sold in retail outlets, but the truth is that it takes time in order to get shelf space at a retail store and a company can save money on lower distribution costs by selling through qualified distributors once the product has become successful through network marketing.

Don’t panic if you miss the deadline to get in on the ground floor of a business opportunity. The odds are that in another six months a new and more improved product will come out and you can get in on the ground floor of this product.

You have to believe in what you are selling in order to be successful with a network marketing system. If you personally use the product or service then it also pays dividends since you can offer first hand testimonials to your potential customers. After customers start to use the product then you can invite them to join the network, even if the only reason is to buy the product at wholesale next time they need it. Eventually the person may see the benefit of the network marketing opportunity and sell their own customers in turn on the idea of becoming a distributor while also building your downline sales.

It can work by simply buying into a network marketing downline for the purpose of making money, but the more interest your have in a product the more effort you will expend. If you believe in what you sell it will be a strong indicator to other distributors and will help you to work harder and contact more people so that you stay involved in both sales and recruiting.

Todd Ash Is An Entrepreneur and A Master Of Network Marketing.To Find Out More About Succeeding Online Visit http://www.ToddAsh.com or send an email to:
toddash@getresponse.com

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Just yesterday I participated in a business matchmaking event sponsored by the local SBA and prime contractors in the Houston area. These types of events of held across the country to help small business owners meet with decision makers in government agencies and local prime contractors. I have attended these events previously but did not get a lot of traction from the event that led to referrals and new business. So this year I decided upon a new approach.

My business is an instructional design and training development company that specializes in creating web-based training. Now in the matchmaking format you only have 15 minutes to give your sales pitch about your company, so you don’t have the time or space to conduct a computer-based “show and tell”. So I decided to prepare a “brag book” that consisted of screen shots of recent work that highlighted my company’s capabilities.

I organized the information in a three-ring binder to show various tools and techniques that we used to save clients money and time in creating training products.

In addition to showing the normal introduction screens, I demonstrated how we can take a lackluster multiple choice test and add audio and graphics to make it more engaging to the learner.

Throughout the presentation I used key phrases and slogans about my company to help the organizational representatives shape at mental picture of how my company can fulfill a need in their company. You must remember that large companies are reaching out to small business owners. My goal was to create a niche service area that companies can easily tap into when they have quick turnaround projects.

My advice to you is to re-think how you are presenting your small business at matchmaking events or when you are on sales calls. Sometimes it is best to leave the computer behind, even if you are in the technology buisness and come prepare to show and tell with paper-based flyers and documents that “tell your story”.

The result from my matchmaking experience was that four of nine companies told me that I was the best prepared company presentation and they were going to advocate for me set up appointments with their organiztions. You can have the same results!

Here is a quick checklist for your next sales call:
- Business cards with the basic information on the front and additional information on the backside, including business certifications, NAISC codes, and your company mission
- Company flyers with lots of pictures that represent successful projects you have completed
- Company Capability Statement that is directed to government agencies that contains specific codes and a narrative about how your company conforms to specific government requirements
- Three-ring binder “brag book” with screen shots of project work that tell a story of how you created workable solutions for clients

My last recommendation is that in the matchmaking event, you are the star. Don’t start off by asking about them, this is your bully pulpit. Seize the opportunity to sell them on you and your company capabilities. Don’t waste your time on a dialog - get in there and sell, sell, sell. Then ask for an appointment to come in and start a dialog.

V. Karen Miller is the founder of Design2Train, an award-winning instructional design and training development company. Visit our website: Design2Train

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