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The Missing Link in Most Merger and Acquisition Due Diligence

 To be effective an M&A due diligence requires assessments of the legal, financial, and operations facets of a business. The financial assessment relies heavily on a past performance analysis of the business while the legal assessment looks at the current structure and outstanding liabilities of the business. Neither of these, however, looks in any detail at the future sustainability of the business. Determining the longterm sustainability of a business is the role of Operations Due Diligence (ODD) which requires an assessment of the infrastructure that supports the sustaining operations of the business. Unfortunately ODD is often the weak link in the M&A process and one of the leading causes of M&A failure. Given the high rate of M&A failures , it's hard to understand why any investor would consider putting millions of dollars into a business based solely on performing the financial and legal assessments without also performing an enterprise wide operations asses...

5 Ways Entrepreneurs Send Investors Running

 Creative entrepreneurs can be fun to work with and they present unique challenges as their imaginations fly unfettered. The possibilities they imagine for their dream are endless and they can struggle with focus and reality. Learning to channel the creative energy and boundless dreaming into a plan of action that will result in some measure of business success can be extremely challenging for many. Nowhere is that conflict and contrast between a dream and reality highlighted more than when the entrepreneur presents his story to would-be investors. If you are one of the creative entrepreneurs, your reality check begins with an understanding that the investors are attempting to evaluate the opportunity by assessing the risks involved and the value created so far. This can be a rough process for the entrepreneur who is so fixated on the creative aspects of the invention and the wild-eyed dream in his or her head. Several statements that entrepreneurs make to seasoned investors are s...

Website Maintenance - Spring Cleaning for Your Website

 Regular website maintenance is an important aspect of owning an online business. Just like a house, your website needs an annual spring-cleaning. Certain website maintenance tasks should be performed regularly to keep content relevant. Sites that are updated regularly have more returning visitors and higher page views. You may be worried that website maintenance is costly, but there are many budget web design methods that can be employed to get the job done. Here is a list of budget web design tips that will help you perform the regular website maintenance that every site needs: Budget Web Design Tip #1: Visit Competitor Sites The contents of your site should project the image that you want to promote. For example, if you have a fun website, you should have lively colors and graphics. If you have a website that is serious in tone, the look should reflect that. When performing any type of website maintenance, you should regularly check competitor sites to see what else is out the...