Category: Business

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What Should You Do Before You Sell Your Business?

how to sell my business

When it comes to selling your business, being prepared is the key to getting a favorable outcome. The following ideas on how to tackle the business sale and how to properly prepare yourself beforehand should help you get everything in order in anticipation for your big move.

Your Mental Preparation

When thinking about how to sell my business, one of the most important things I was told to do is to prepare myself mentally and emotionally. If you’ve been running your business successfully for the past 10-20 years or more, and you’re finally ready for your exit strategy, the process can be not just nerve-wracking but also difficult to face emotionally.

Make sure you prepare yourself mentally for the next few months, as you will have to face the prospect that your business will be sold and you’ll have to move on to the next stage. You may also have to say goodbye to people you worked with for years, and who have become more like family members, rather than just managers and employees.

How Much Is Your Business Worth?

Comparing businesses and assessing value is a difficult thing to do, and you won’t always have the necessary skills or resources to get it done by yourself. Consider first how much your business is worth to you and how much it’s worth in the eyes of your customers and business partners.

The main goal here is to establish exactly how much you should ask for your business and how much you should expect to reasonably get for it. The two values will establish the interval of your asking price, although it should never be considered absolute. In the initial phase, do your best to do some research on how much your business might be worth, and run those rough numbers against the recommendations and insight of a reliable business broker.

Bring in a Business Broker

A local business broker will not only have the necessary skills and expertise to promote and sell your business, but also the invaluable insight about the local area and business landscape that will help you get a better price for your business.

Carefully look for local brokers by talking to your contacts and getting references and recommendations for some of the best ones. Also, make sure that you can make a proper case in favor of your business to present to your new business broker. The best of them rarely take too many clients at any given time, and they always screen businesses to make sure they only accept the ones that have a good chance of selling for the best price.

Establish a Strategy for the Next Few Months

Working together with your business broker, it’s essential to establish a good strategy. The promotion of your business alone can take a few months, and once the offers start coming through, you’ll need a good plan for approaching possible buyers and presenting your business in a favorable light.

Your business broker will be of an invaluable benefit when it comes to planning all that, and even more so when it comes time to negotiate a good price and actually start the formal proceedings and prepare all the paperwork for legally selling your business to another party.

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How Has Covid Affected the Cattle Industry?

cattle industry news

The coronavirus pandemic has had a severe impact on all segments of the industry, agriculture and the cattle industry included, with losses of over 13 billion caused to the beef cattle industry alone. The effects are far-ranging and complex, from the impact of the pandemic on beef markets all over the world to the effects on production processes and on feed and meat prices.

The Impact of the Pandemic on Exports

The US is known as one of the most important beef exporters in the world, with over 70% of its exports going to Mexico, Canada, Japan and South Korea. Even a temporary decline in the volume of these exports has severe impact on the incomes of farmers and the longer that decline persists, the harsher the consequences. The year-long crisis caused by the pandemic has forced many farmers and food processing companies out of business, further aggravating the situation.

The Impact Caused by Changes in the Food Service Sector

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to severe measures intended to stop the spreading of the virus. One set of measures that has had a huge impact on the cattle industry was the implementation of lockdowns. As restaurants and diners closed or switched to home deliveries, but with a much lower volume of orders than before, the demand changed its composition, decreasing for the premium cuts usually required by the food service sector to mince and to the cuts usually bought in supermarkets.

The Impact of the Crisis Experienced in Crops Production

Crops production has also suffered during the pandemic and lower production has led to a significant increase in prices. As a consequence, many cattle farmers were forced out of business as they were unable to pay the high price of feed. The cattle farms that decided to discontinue their activities left a gap behind and the process has resulted in astronomical beef prices.

The Impact of Changes in Personal Finances

The massive layoffs that affected all segments of the economy have decreased individual buying power and the demand for traditionally more expensive meat varieties, such as beef. Many people say that they can no longer afford the quantities of meat that they used to consume and were forced to completely change their meat eating habits, giving up on beef entirely.

Focus on Local Markets

The pandemic has also started processes that can be beneficial for the cattle industry on the long run, but that have certainly made life much harder for cattle farmers, meat packers and other businesses in the segment. One such effect can be the change in focus from nationwide sales and exports to doing business locally or regionally. The pandemic has caused disruptions in the transport industry as well, with the effects of those bottlenecks still reverberating and making companies worry about the risk of similar crises in the future. As a result, cattle industry news sources say that many companies in the cattle industry have decided to reshape their profiles and client portfolios, focusing more on fostering relationships with local partners and developing products that meet local demands.

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What is Precision Construction and How Can It Be Achieved?

What Is Precision Construction

To answer to the question “What is precision construction?” we must think about complete and integrated software solutions available today, that besides easing the work in the tough construction sector, also enhance the accuracy of the measurements and results.

Companies active in construction have to cope with different challenges including the particularities of their work and the conditions imposed by the beneficiaries. Typically, the activity of a construction company means 80% site work, with resource allocation: workers, equipment, machinery, deadlines for projects, downtime caused by unfavorable weather conditions, crowded periods alternating with inactive periods… Under these conditions, efficient resource management, execution of more projects with fewer resources, strict cost accounting, analyzing and reducing them are mandatory requirements for maximizing profitability and efficiency.

Surveillance and geo-location

Some of the major reasons for delaying construction projects and overcoming the budget are geological problems, especially when building lake homes for sale in Hot Springs AR and other popular areas, consisting in variations between the conditions of the land and estimates; they may involve costly changes in the design of a construction project. Fortunately, new techniques that integrate geographic information systems, HD photography and 3D scanning, allowed by recent technological progresses, can improve the precision of the information on which a construction project is based.

5D design

This next-generation technology is a complex representation of the characteristics of a construction project. It takes into account the cost and schedule of construction projects, as well as standard 3D spatial design parameters. It also includes details such as geometry, aesthetic, acoustic and thermal features. 5D Design Platforms allow building owners and entrepreneurs to identify the impact of changes on costs and schedules related to construction projects.

Process digitization

Digitization brings faster exchange of information between those who work on a construction project. Using paper makes it more difficult to capture and analyze data. Process digitization means forgetting about papers and welcoming online transmission of information in real time, to ensure transparency and enhanced collaboration, risk assessment, quality control and more reliable results.

New and improved construction materials

New construction materials (nano-materials, self-healing concrete etc.), as well as new building approaches (3D printing and pre-assembled modules), can speed up the construction time and reduce the costs, by improving the precision, quality and safety.

 

Other advantages of software that contribute to precision construction

  • Construction work management

Managing the efficient performance of construction works and keeping track of the quantitative value of all activities.

  • Cost control

Defining and tracking planned and committed costs, as well as real-time comparison with the actual costs of running the construction project.

  • Equipment and machinery management

Planning and tracking the equipment and machinery used in construction projects

  • Supplying on time

Controlling the quality and the stock levels and planning the purchases

  • Financial-Accounting Management

Managing your financial and accounting activity from any location and consolidating communication.

  • Integration with other project management software

You can integrate construction software and project management software to ensure complete efficiency.

  • Analyzes and reports specific to construction

Tracking in real-time the profitability, consumption of materials, human resources, equipment and transport.

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5 Reasons to Change Insurance – When Is It Time to Look for a New Insurance Provider?

Whether you want additional coverage, or you simply don’t like your current insurance company, the reasons to change insurance providers can be numerous.

insurance coverage change

As follows, we present you with the top 5 most pressing changes and questions that could act as reasons for shifting to a different provider in most cases.

  1. Has Your Current Provider Been Reliable?

Oftentimes, the most important reason behind why people want to change their insurance providers is that they haven’t been dependable enough. They might have avoided or delayed making a claim when there was nothing to contest about it, or they might have even avoided you entirely in order to avoid giving you the money you require.

Reliability also translates in small stuff like being there to provide you with basic information if you need it. An unreliable or rude representative is a sign that the company might not take its clients as seriously as you’d expect.

  1. Do You Have a Hard Time Contacting Them?

Another one of the reasons to change insurance companies has to do with contacting your provider. Are they slow in answering the phone? Maybe they’re unresponsive entirely, and it takes days for them to answer a simple email. If that’s the case, it might be best to start searching for a new insurance provider immediately.

  1. Are the Representatives of Your Insurance Company Being Unhelpful?

Maybe you just gone through a very difficult time having been injured or because of a family member’s injuries. Or maybe your situation is even worse. In such cases, you will need your insurer to be understanding and provide you with assistance.

If the representatives you talk to on the phone are unhelpful, cold or downright rude at these times, then you definitely don’t want much to do with that company.

  1. Do You Need Updated Coverage Levels That They Don’t Offer?

Let’s say your health insurance coverage used to be great when you were on your own. However, now that you have a family, things will change.

While this transition doesn’t always warrant getting an entirely new insurance provider, it is usually preferred. This is mainly because some providers specialize in offering basic insurance packages, while some are better at providing adequate coverage for families with children.

  1. Have You Moved to Another City or Area?

Finally, it can happen that you might have moved to another area. If that’s the case, your insurance should change as well, since the area in question features different types of dangers. If you move from a mountainous region to one where hurricanes and tornadoes are commonplace, then you’ll definitely want another policy. Contacting an insurance company that specializes in offering support in that particular region will be even better.

These are some of the most important reasons to change insurance providers that you will want to consider, and even if most of them might not be a problem for you, in most cases, one is enough to act as a red flag that would cause most insurance adjuster Florida experts to urge you to find a new company.