Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM DECEMBER 15-21, 2021 UCW 17 Finding the right buyer for your business goes beyond getting the highest offer possible. After years of building your busi- ness, it's natural to want a big pay- off. But there are other factors, like preserving your legacy or maintaining the integrity of your company, that matter too. Here are four critical steps to help you identify the right match for your business. Create an ideal buyer persona When it comes to selling your busi- ness, you're not just looking for any- one; you're looking for your ideal can- didate. Ask yourself, "What do I want to get out of this transaction?" Are you looking to retire and achieve the greatest return for your business? Or would you like to cash out but remain in the company for a few more years? It's also important to consider what type of buyer your company can best support. How much time does a busi- ness owner need to spend managing and operating your business? While many buyers want a business that can run itself, your particular business may benefit more from a hands-on owner. ese are all questions that'll provide great insight into what kind of buyer you might want. Understand the different types of buyers Selling your business comes down to a basic fundamental: getting to know your target audience. People buy businesses for different reasons, don't be afraid to get into their heads. eir motive behind purchasing will affect how you reach them. Buy- ers fall into three groups: strategic, individual and financial buyers. A strategic buyer is looking to expand their current business into new mar- kets, decrease competition or acquire a new product or service that benefits their existing business. ey may be a competitor or a large company look- ing to expand. An individual buyer can be an entrepreneur, like yourself. Someone interested in running their own busi- ness. Individual buyers tend to be personally interested in a product or service. Unlike strategic and individ- ual buyers, a financial buyer sees your business as an investment; they're concerned with achieving a high return. ey're looking for growth and stability, often searching for a well- managed company that requires little oversight. Appeal to your potential buyers While selling a home is not the same as selling a business, they both require "curb appeal." Prepare your business for showing – make sure ev- erything is in its best shape before ap- proaching prospects. Get your books and financials in order, too. Now that you know why your target audience is interested in buying your business use that to your advantage. If the buyer is another company, highlight the potential of your products and services. When looking for an indi- vidual buyer, tap into your organiza- tional structures and emphasize your team of employees and training to leave a lasting impression. Your cur- rent and future earnings are what will most attract financial buyers. List your sale with a business broker e best way to reach your target audience is by enlisting the help of a business broker. If you market your business to the wrong set of people, you'll end up wasting your time and the deal. Or worse, you'll risk los- ing valuable clients, vendors, or employees from the negligence that may come from listing your business yourself. A broker helps you identify the right match for your business and ensures you're only dealing with qualified prospects. All while main- taining your anonymity. Understand- ing what your ideal buyer looks like allows you to market your business for sale to the right audience. However, navigating potential buy- ers while running your business can prove to be challenging. Working with a business broker can help position your sale with the perfect match and set you up for success. Finding the right buyer by THOMAS KELSEY BUSINESS & FINANCE D.G. MARTIN, Host of UNC's Book Watch. COMMENTS? Editor@upand- comingweekly.com. 910-484-6200. LITERARTURE Why are we the way we are? Can we blame it on somebody else, like the British colonists, for instance? By "we" I don't mean just you and me. I don't even include us necessar- ily. I am thinking about folks who live in North Carolina and the surround- ing regions. You know the kind I mean. Hard- nosed, sometimes rebellious, resis- tant to direction from those who think they know it all, suspicious of people in charge, unwilling to give up indi- vidual choice to some kind of group direction. It is not just those anti-vaxxers who will not accept an infinitesimal risk to themselves or their children in order to reduce to great risks all of us face from the ongoing series of COVID epidemics. It is not just them whom I am talking about. Nor is it just the Republicans. Or the Democrats. Lots of us on both sides of the polit- ical divide share a common resistance to authority. How do we explain it? Writing in e New Yorker on Oct. 4, the author and columnist Joe Klein gave it a try, writing, "e divide between maskers and anti-maskers, vaxxers and anti-vaxxers is as old as Plymouth Rock. It is deeper than politics; it is cultural." For his ideas, Klein credited a 1989 book, "Albion's Seed: Four Brit- ish Folkways in America," by David Hackett Fischer. is book, Klein says, "explains how the history of four centuries ago still shapes American culture and politics." Focusing on the South, Klein says the original settlers were, "a wild caste of emigrants from the borderlands of Scotland and England. ey brought their clannish, violent, independent culture, which had evolved over seven centuries of border warfare." According to Fisher, these emi- grants came from "a society of autonomous individuals who were unable to endure external control and incapable of restraining their rage against anyone who stood in the way." Fisher writes that the Scots-Irish in the southern hill country were "intensely resistant to change and suspicious of 'foreigners.' In the early 20th century, they would become negrophobic and antisemitic." Other parts of colonial America were settled by different groups. For instance, Klein writes about the Virginia-Cavalier tradition. "e Virginia definition of freedom was complex, contradictory — and remains problematic. It was hierar- chical, the freedom to be unequal. 'I am an aristocrat,' John Randolph of Roanoke said. 'I love liberty; I hate equality.' Freedom was defined by what it wasn't. It wasn't slavery. It was the freedom to enslave. It was a freedom, granted to the planta- tion masters, to indulge themselves, gamble and debauch." "Over time," Klein continues, "this plutocratic libertarianism found natural allies, if strange bedfellows, in the fiercely egalitarian Scots-Irish hill country folk. Neither wanted to be 'ruled' by a strong central government." Klein says things were just the op- posite in New England. For the Puri- tans, "Everything was regulated." "Order was an obsession." Local officials reported "on the domestic tranquility of every family in their jurisdiction. Cotton Mather defined an 'honorable' person as one who was "studious, humble, patient, reserved and mortified." About a different group of settlers, Klein writes that the Quakers seem an afterthought, but their migration was larger in size than that of the Puritans or Cavaliers. And their version of liberty seems most amenable today. It was 'reciprocal freedom,' based on the golden rule. Fischer notes the Scots-Irish prac- ticed the opposite: "Do unto others as they threatened to do unto you." e Scots-Irish, Virginia, Puritan, and Quaker legacies are very differ- ent and are, perhaps, diluted over the almost 300 years since these immi- grants came. But the influence of each continues. e Scots-Irish influence in our re- gion is still tenacious, which explains why the "Do unto others as they threatened to do unto you" rule is widely practiced by people across the political spectrum. Photo courtesy of Thomas Kelsey THOMAS KELSEY, Transworld Business Advisors of Fayetteville. Comments? tkelsey@tworld.com Blame the Scots-Irish by D.G. MARTIN