Just Elementary, Inc. » Business Tips
Nuts & Bolts to Due Diligence
What are the nuts and bolts of doing Due Diligence on a Business Opportunity? Of course this answer varies from business to business. In this post, we will discuss doing due diligence on B2B (Business to Business, i.e. Non-retail) businesses, such as manufacturers, service businesses and Distribution businesses. Naturally, you need to consult with legal and financial professionals in the process of doing due diligence, and even before you start. This post is informational in nature, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Business Tips, Due Diligence, Negotiation
Franchising: CNBC’s ‘Inside’ Look at it
CNBC just broadcast a show highlighting five Franchise Brands. The official title is ‘Behind The Counter: The Untold Story of Franchising.’ The show had three story lines. One was about Franchisors doing a good job of growing and maintaining a brand (Proctor & Gamble and Five Guys), … Read entire article »
Filed under: Business Tips, Featured, Franchises, SBA, Uncategorized
Five Rules for Negotiating Commercial Leases
Your Bottom Line, is it important to you? Yes, ok, then let’s see where you can increase it. Occupancy cost is typically the first expense item we review as Commercial Brokers are at Just Elementary, Inc. Every business has a physical cost to exist and occupy space, even virtual businesses (think server space). For those business owners that lease the space that their business occupies, this post will cover Five basic Rules to negotiating or … Read entire article »
Filed under: Business Tips, Commercial Leasing, Landlord, Negotiation, Real Estate Tips, Renegotiation
Factors that Effect the Value of a Business
Factors Affecting the Value of a Business Lease & Occupancy Cost In the cases of businesses operating on a lease, the lease terms are key to affecting the contribution of value to the business. For retail business that are not footloose, a long term is key to positive value. For example, with a coin laundry, the lease needs to be typically, 20 years or more in length. Long term leases are important with most retail businesses. In … Read entire article »
Filed under: Business Tips, Business Valuation, Uncategorized
CDC/504 SBA Loan Program
SBA/CDC 504 Loan Program The CDC/504 loan program is the only SBA loan in which the SBA puts up a single penny. Unlike other SBA loans, in which the SBA only provides a guarantee to the bank, in the CDC/504 program the SBA injects 40% of the Project cost into the loan. Fifty (50%) percent comes from the bank and the remaining (10%) comes from the borrower. So how does this program work? Well, a little … Read entire article »
Filed under: Business Tips, Real Estate Tips, SBA
West Coast Franchise Expo Begins today
For those of you who have never attended and are not familiar, the West Coast Franchise Expo kicks off today in Downtown Los Angeles at the Convention Center. The West Coast Franchise Expo features many franchise brands that are looking to sign up new franchisees. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Business Tips, Franchises
RIAOC 10-26-2010 Rick Franzi
Today’s RIAOC meeting featured Rick Franzi as the guest speaker. Rick is the author of CRITICAL MASS: The 10 Explosive Powers of CEO PEER GROUPS. He spoke about Growth Strategies for small businesses. He broke it down into four (4) bullet points. #1: Be Relevant. #2: Be Authentic. #3: Be Agile. #4: Be Innovative. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Business Tips
Gilmore Bank Mixer 10-14-10
Some interesting nuggets came from the Gilmore Bank Mixer held at their branch location at the Grove/Farmer’s Market in Los Angeles. Number one, for those of you who don’t know, Gilmore banks owns the Real Estate that the Grove is developed upon. It is on a long term land lease to Rick Caruso’s company. Number two, Jim Roby and Cyrus Greene, both Gilmore associates involved in commercial lending, noted that of the applicants that they are reviewing for SBA loans, they have noticed an increase in 2010 revenues and profits over 2009 figures. Of course, this doesn’t mean all companies are experiencing a better 2010 over 2009, just that struggling companies may not bother to even apply for a virtually guaranteed no. Here is the one nugget to really take … Read entire article »
Filed under: Business Tips, SBA
Free Upgrades for Investment Rental Properties
Today’s RIAOC meeting was a quick meeting, but one that came with a good reminder. We all have probably heard of rebates and other programs from the major utility companies to help with energy savings. Well, today’s RIAOC guest speaker was Rosemarie Malijen from the Telacu Agency. Her agency is one of many that works with major utility companies to reach out to people to offer free energy efficiency upgrades for residential dwellings, multi family properties included (such as duplexes and fourplexes). Very important to note this program offers free upgrades to rental properties that are tenant occupied and even primary residences. Here is a link from the Southern California Gas Company that will let you check on the eligibility of your primary residence and any investment rental properties. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Business Tips, Real Estate Tips
Unhappy Franchisees
I am sure there are more of these, and that most franchise brands have their own franchisee run website for gripes about the franchise, but Unhappyfranchisee.com is a resource to hear some horror stories to educate yourself on things to watch out for when getting into a franchise network. That is the one thing I have noticed in my years as a broker, so many people get into a business or franchise without knowing all of the relevant facts, and like they said on G.I. Joe, knowing is half the battle. What you don’t know will lead to horror stories like the kind you will find on Unhappyfranchisee.com … Read entire article »
Filed under: Business Tips, Featured, Franchises
Getting Ripped off on Merchant Credit Card Fees?
Getting Ripped off on Merchant Credit Card Fees. I have seen this many times when escrow closes on the sale of a business to a buyer. The first places people think of when they look for merchant processing is the bank which with they have set up the business banking accounts with. When setting them up, they’ll be told that Bank also offer Merchant Processing for them. Be Careful to review the terms your bank is offering, often times you can shop around and get better terms with another third party processor. Watch out for getting locked into an unfavorable contract and paying inflated prices on the actual physical processing equipment you receive. If you buy them from the processing company they could be charging huge markups or trying to … Read entire article »
Filed under: Business Tips, Featured
CABB OC Chapter Meeting 9-28-10
I skipped today’s RIAOC meeting today due to a conflict with the CABB O.C. Chapter Meeting today. It was nice to catch up with a few Business Brokers that I had not talked to recently. Key takeaways from the meeting are that loans are happening for business acquisitions, but the adherence to criteria is a must. Namely, the experience criterion. Today, we were told that a buyer was able to secure an SBA loan for a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Business Tips, SBA
Jargon
When reading online you may come across a plethora of acronyms and real estate terms that sound familiar, but you don’t know what they mean. Here are some Common Commercial Real Estate Terms: Leasing Related Terms: NNN: This is referred to as ‘Triple Net.’ This is a commercial leasing term that refers to leases in which the Lessee (tenant) pays the operating expenses of the property. In a full Triple Net lease, all of the operating expenses will be paid by the tenants, including, but not limited to, real property taxes, property maintenance (including the parking lot) and even the cost of the management company managing the property for the Lessor (Owner). Thus, in a NNN lease, the tenant pays a fixed Base Rent, and then pays additional NNN fees to … Read entire article »
Filed under: Business Tips, Real Estate Tips
HOT or NOT? Buy Now Or Forever Hold Your Peace!
Well, it is not quite that simple. The most likely market trends for the next 3-5 years is FLAT. Hopefully not a Flat-Line. There are three kinds of markets I can think of, #1 HOT, #2 Imploding Crashing Markets and #3 the flat & boring market. So, probably not a good idea to buy while the markets are still crashing like Fine China falling from a Display Case. Also, it is a risky proposition to extend a lot of leverage in a hot market, lest your exit strategy be too long and you get stuck holding asset(s) into a Crashing market. Thus, if we are now finally into the beginning of the LONG, Flat and Boring Portion of the Market, then it is time to buy all the assets that you … Read entire article »
Filed under: Business Tips
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