Getting More Capital Out of Your Bank Growing companies often struggle to get enough capital to grow the way they want. Its not uncommon for business owners to wine and dine their banker then ask for a credit increase and be denied. A way to change that dynamic is to go out and shop for a new lender. If another bank is willing to provide a bigger credit facility, there is a good chance your existing bank will step up and match the other offer (saving you the trouble of changing banks). I’ve seen this play out more times than […]
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Determining Value Early On is a Good Idea for Business Partners
Partner Buyout: Determining Value Early On is a Good Idea for Business Partners I was recently asked if I could help a company develop a valuation methodology for their business so that if one partner wanted to buyout the other, they would already have an agreed up on formula valuing the business. Two weeks later I got a different call from another owner asking for the name of a valuation consultant because one partner had died and they needed to get a valuation to figure out the value of the Company. The spouse of the deceased partner was getting […]
What’s your EBITDA?
What’s your EBITDA? When I give speeches I like to wrap up the presentation by doing a group exercise where the participants have to look at a simple set of financial statements and calculate a Company’s EBITDA (earnings before taxes depreciation and amortization). This is the most commonly used financial short hand for understanding the operating cash flows a company generates. What’s interesting is many business owners and CEOs have a tough time calculating EBITDA. Many go back through their the notes from my presentation to look up the formula. What this tells me is many owners and CEOs of […]
How Do You and Your Team Use Corporate Financial Planning?
Corporate Financial Planning: How Do You and Your Team Use Corporate Financial Planning? Do you have a financial planning process that improves your business planning process? There are numerous ways to apply corporate financial planning to drive more growth and value in your business. If you want help or ideas about that, give us a call. We’d be happy to share with you some effective planning techniques and/or help you implement them. Corporate Financial Planning Management Buyouts Lantern Capital Advisors helps growing companies find the financing solutions to fund management buyouts while keeping management in control and preserve and/or […]
Financing Challenges: How We Helped a Client Buy His Division From The Owner
Management Buyout Financing Challenges: How Lantern Capital Advisors helped a client buy his division from the owner. Situation: A divisional manager wanted to buy his division from the owner who was having financing challenges with the bank. How Lantern Capital Advisors helped execute the management buyout: Lantern helped the manager negotiate the purchase price and terms of the management buyout and secure $7 million to finance it (management buyout financing). As part of the transaction, this division was spun out into a separate entity. The manager invested $200,000 and received a 25% ownership stake in the new Company. If the […]
Growth and Liquidity Financing: How We Helped a Client Fund Faster Growth and Take Capital Out of Business
Growth Capital and Liquidity Financing: How Lantern Capital Advisors helped a client fund faster growth and take capital out of the business. Situation: Owners of a growing software and services company were interested to explore financing alternatives to fund faster growth as well as take capital out of the business. How Lantern Capital Advisors helped secure growth capital financing: Lantern helped the company secure a variety of financing alternatives that ranged from bank debt financing of $3 million (without personal guarantees) to a variety of specialty debt and equity financing solutions that ranged from $5 million to $25 million. What our […]
Owner Exit Strategies
Owners of businesses typically dream of going public or performing an IPO, even though less than 1% of businesses ever achieve this. However, for the remaining 99% of businesses out there, there are multiple viable options that owners should consider and evaluate when determining their business exit strategy. Ideally, owners should plan for their owner liquidity event at least five years in advance of their “target date”. However, sometimes an opportunity appears unexpectedly, and Lantern is called to rapidly evaluate the opportunity and the assist our clients in negotiating next steps. Some strategies and alternatives that Lantern Capital Advisors has helped […]
Failure Is Not An Option
If you haven’t seen the ad by Chrysler featuring Enimem, well, we want to share it with you, provided that You Tube doesn’t take it down… What does your company know about luxury? The finest things in life. Especially when the questions are asked by someone that has never set foot in your business, in your world, in your shoes, in your town. The hottest fires make the hardest steel. What does your company know about being successful, especially when the talking heads swear that the sky is falling, and that there won’t possibly be anyone left to buy what […]
When Is The Right Time To Sell Your Business?
One of my favorite shows is “The Office”, I’ll leave the humor out of this post, but the show only exists because the original creators took a chance at producing “something new”. Does anyone even care or know what they did before? What made Simon Cowell so famous in the United States was not producing Teletubbies, but telling contestants the truth on the hit show, American Idol. He’s onto something new now, and we’ll probably all take some time to watch. Business is picking up. Things are looking good. Your sales team has really delivered. But you wonder, is now […]
Weekly What If: What If We Consolidate On Our Own?
The Weekly What If…Chronicling companies that transformed their business by Exploring What if Today’s biggest boat retailer was organized around this What If. Today, Marine Max is America’ largest boating and yachting retailer with over 50 locations in 19 states. In 2004, I interviewed company, CEO and Chairman Bill McGill and was surprised to learn more about their history. Mr. McGill, an engineer by background, owned and ran a successful single location boat dealership in St. Petersburg Florida. In 1997, Mr. McGill and a handful of other successful dealers were approached by a private equity firm that pitched the idea of consolidating their […]