14 Easy Ways to Get Motivated

These simple strategies will keep you energized through the holidays and well into the new year.

It's getting toward the end of the year, so with the holidays in sight, I thought it appropriate to give you all a little gift: a column that I guarantee will make you more more successful in the coming year.

Here are 14 quick strategies to get and keep yourself motivated:

1. Condition your mind. Train yourself to think positive thoughts while avoiding negative thoughts.

2. Condition your body. It takes physical energy to take action. Get your food and exercise budget in place and follow it like a business plan.

3. Avoid negative people. They drain your energy and waste your time, so hanging with them is like shooting yourself in the foot.

4. Seek out the similarly motivated. Their positive energy will rub off on you and you can imitate their success strategies.

5. Have goals–but remain flexible. No plan should be cast in concrete, lest it become more important than achieving the goal.

6. Act with a higher purpose. Any activity or action that doesn’t serve your higher goal is wasted effort--and should be avoided.

7. Take responsibility for your own results. If you blame (or credit) luck, fate or divine intervention, you’ll always have an excuse.

8. Stretch past your limits on a daily basis. Walking the old, familiar paths is how you grow old. Stretching makes you grow and evolve.

9. Don't wait for perfection; do it now! Perfectionists are the losers in the game of life. Strive for excellence rather than the unachievable.

10. Celebrate your failures. Your most important lessons in life will come from what you don't achieve. Take time to understand where you fell short.

11. Don’t take success too seriously. Success can breed tomorrow's failure if you use it as an excuse to become complacent.

12. Avoid weak goals. Goals are the soul of achievement, so never begin them with "I'll try ..." Always start with "I will" or "I must."

13. Treat inaction as the only real failure. If you don’t take action, you fail by default and can't even learn from the experience.

14. Think before you speak. Keep silent rather than express something that doesn’t serve your purpose.

Maintain Your Mental Well-Being

This week the US government revised the food pyramid — that diagram that's been with us for decades that is supposed to remind people how to eat well. The model needed a revision, and the new version, called Choose My Plate, is a big improvement.

However, there's a different epidemic happening out there that's getting less attention, perhaps because it is less obvious than the epidemic of obesity we're experiencing. It seems we may be entering an era of an epidemic of overwhelm. A time when too many people's mental well-being is being stretched through multi-tasking, fragmented attention and information overload.

The trouble is, we are short on simple, clear information about good mental habits. Few people know about what it takes to have optimum mental health, and the implications of being out of balance. It is not taught in schools, or discussed in business. The issue just isn't on the table. Businesses schedule time as if the brain had unlimited resources, as if we could focus well all day long. Every week I talk to an organization who says that their biggest problem is simply the overwhelm their people are feeling. Without good information about the mind and brain, we may be stretching ourselves in ways that may have bigger implications than poor eating habits.

This platter has seven essential mental activities necessary for optimum mental health in daily life. These seven daily activities make up the full set of 'mental nutrition' that your brain needs to function at it's best. By engaging regularly in each of these servings, you enable your brain to coordinate and balance its activities, which strengthens your brain's internal connections and your connections with other people.

The seven essential mental activities are:

Focus Time. When we closely focus on tasks in a goal-oriented way, taking on challenges that make deep connections in the brain.

Play Time. When we allow ourselves to be spontaneous or creative, playfully enjoying novel experiences, which helps make new connections in the brain.

Connecting Time. When we connect with other people, ideally in person, richly activating the brain's social circuitry.

Physical Time. When we move our bodies, aerobically if possible, which strengthens the brain in many ways.

Time In. When we quietly reflect internally, focusing on sensations, images, feelings and thoughts, helping to better integrate the brain.

Down Time. When we are non-focused, without any specific goal, and let our mind wander or simply relax, which helps our brain recharge.

Sleep Time. When we give the brain the rest it needs to consolidate learning and recover from the experiences of the day.

We're not suggesting a specific recipe for a healthy mind, as each individual is different, and our needs change over time too. And we're not suggesting that business suddenly changes everything and reorganized all of work. The point is to become aware of the full spectrum of essential mental activities, and just like with essential nutrients, make sure that at least every few days we are nudging the right ingredients into our mental diet.

Just like you wouldn't eat only pizza every day for days on end, we shouldn't just live on focus time and little sleep. Mental wellness is all about giving your brain lots of opportunities to develop in different ways. In organizations, from a practical perspective, this means allowing people to work from home more, to be more flexible, to give people more autonomy.

In short, it is important to eat well, and we applaud the new healthy eating plate. However as a society we are sorely lacking in good information about what it takes to have a healthy mind. We hope that the healthy mind platter creates an appetite for increasing awareness of what we put into our minds too.

Three Traits of a Successful Entrepreneur

Sometimes when you're wondering what to do next in life, good advice can come when you least expect it — like when you're getting your hair cut.

Jenn*, the hairstylist giving me a trim, mused aloud about what she was planning to do with her career. Cutting hair was just one part of her livelihood; she was also a professional caregiver as well as the owner of a rig that her husband operated. But her husband was about to retire from the road, and now they were wondering, "What next?"

Over the course of our brief conversation, in no more than the time it took Jenn to cut my hair, I picked up on three attributes of her success that are helpful for any entrepreneur:

Practical. Listening to her brainstorm reminded me that successful entrepreneurs know how to keep their feet on the ground. First, they get inspired through personal observation, developing ideas from needs they see in the world around them. Second, they develop a concrete plan. They may work the plan, changing it as they go, but always with an eye towards getting a good return.

Purposeful. People with a practical outlook seek opportunities that add value, as opposed to opportunities that just seem "cool." (It's easy to forget this distinction, especially in well-established organizations.) Their focus is offering products and services that customers need and will pay for. For instance, Jenn's second job as a caregiver: that's a service for which there is always a need.

Impatient. Sure, patience is a virtue in some cases. But for an entrepreneur, so is impatience. Jenn is eager to make things happen so that she can continue to earn a good living. When it comes time for her husband to leave the trucking business, she will be ready with another venture. Her gumption and ambition make her impatient for success, and that drive increases her chances of getting there.

There's one final trait that successful entrepreneurs share: They realize that inspiration is useless without perspiration. During my 15 minutes in Jenn's chair, we talked about three different industries she's involved in — personal service, health care, and transportation. People who work for themselves have to rely on their own get-up-and-go.

People like Jenn enjoy working for themselves because it affords a level of independence. With hiring still sluggish at large firms, I suspect we will encounter many more such entrepreneurs. The future of our economy may indeed depend upon such folks, whether they are running a company that cuts hair, or running a company that makes microprocessors.

People who can think and plan ahead, are comfortable with uncertainty, and have the discipline to work hard are an asset, and are ideal candidates for business ownership.

Day 2: Understanding EBITDA: Seek Outside Opinions

You can tinker with the formula all you like. But how will you know what calculations are safe to assume and which aren't? How do you put a price tag on your company's competitive advantage, list of customers, and your brand as a whole?

There are endless variables and measurements that factor into your company's worth. One way to gauge interest is to approach potential buyers in your industry.

There are a number of other resources you can use to estimate the value of your company. Business Valuation Resources, for instance, provides you with comparative and historical information within your industry. Experts agree, though, that EBITDA does depict an accurate comparison across markets because of the exclusion of interest and taxes that vary by sector. Making the right changes – cutting unprofitable costs, expanding sales, or reaching new markets – can have a significant effect on EBITDA as a measure of your performance.

At this point a simple question remains: which year's EBITDA are we talking about, the current, past, projected, or a combination? Buyers, of course, will be pushing for a lower valuation and might look at an average of EBITDA over, say, three years as the base number. To get the highest valuation, you'll want to bolster gains in the present and future. To do so, be sure to exceed your business plan and monthly goals, create a solid sales stream into next year, and get clients on-board with long-term contracts. Don't exaggerate too wildy, though: sophisticated buyers will always cut through the grease.

Alternative Acquisition Funding

As the economy struggles to rebound, unemployment rates remain at historical highs and millions of Americans are still looking for work. As a result, many have considered following their entrepreneurial dreams of "creating" their own job rather than relying on corporate America to see them through. While hard times have kept demand for small businesses high and a wide selection of options are on the market, most business buyers are facing one major challenge: Accessing the capital required to purchase one.

It's rare that a buyer has enough cash to buy a business outright, so traditionally they've relied on a variety of sources to finance the purchase. Unfortunately, the primary source of capital for small business buyers--commercial and bank loans backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration's 7(a) loan program--has dried up significantly over this past year. According to numbers released for the SBA's 2009 fiscal year, the 7(a) program made 36 percent fewer loans than it did in 2008, backing only 44,221 loans from banks for starting, purchasing, or expanding a small business.

These numbers might seem to paint a grim picture for aspiring business buyers, but fortunately there are other ways to secure financing to buy a business. If you're in the market but face a lack of capital and no clear idea of where to start, consider the following financing options:

Peer-to-Peer Lending Networks
If you're unable to access bank capital to finance a small business purchase, one alternative is to turn to peer-to-peer lending networks. These networks remove the traditional lending institutions, instead allowing lending transactions to take place directly between individuals. If you want to use this route, you can do so via online companies such as Prosper.com and LendingClub.com. On these sites, loan seekers request a specific amount (typically up to $25,000) at a specific interest rate, and lenders fund all or portions of the loan. Lenders are then paid back with interest over a set period of time. Buyers' success when using these networks depends largely on their credit ratings.

Friends and Family
Borrowing money from the people you're closest to in life is probably the longest-standing method of funding entrepreneurial endeavors. Many people are hesitant to borrow money from friends and family for fear of straining personal relationships, but--if you make it a point to hold up your end of the deal under all circumstances and borrow only from individuals who are in a position to lend without risking their own financial health--it can serve as one of the most effective ways to fund a business.

If you feel this is an ideal method for your individual situation, you can use sites such as VirginMoney.com to manage the process of borrowing from people you know to ensure all parties involved are comfortable with the deal and confident that all loans will be paid back on time.

Retirement Funds
As with borrowing money from friends or family to buy a business, some might consider using money from a retirement nest-egg risky. That said, it can often be an effective way to invest in your entrepreneurial endeavors and has had successful outcomes for more and more of today's business buyers. As laid out by the government's ERISA law, you can invest your existing IRA or 401(k) funds to the purchase of a business without taking an early distribution and incurring penalties.

It's even possible to combine money from your retirement fund with loans and other funding methods for greater flexibility. Many entrepreneurs choose to invest in a business they control because they believe the growth opportunity is greater and want to diversify a portion of their retirement holdings outside of the stock market. If you find this is a viable option, sites such as GuidantFinancial.com can provide you with more information on this small business investing method.

Seller Financing
Increasingly today more business-for-sale transactions are resting on a seller's willingness to finance at least part of a sale. In a deal that includes seller financing, the seller takes part of the purchase price in cash and the remainder in the form of a promissory note that the buyer will pay back with interest over a period of three-to-five years. This has become essential; buyers are having difficulty accessing funds through traditional methods, therefore there's a natural gravitation toward seller-financed businesses to help offset some of the cost up front.

Conversely, sellers who continue to say no to seller financing are finding it difficult to close a deal, and as more of them have realized this, there has been an increase in seller-financed businesses on the market. To make it easier for buyers to locate these businesses, my company site, BizBuySell.com recently introduced the ability to filter search results based on a seller's willingness to offer financing.

If you're in the market for a small business it's important to be aware of alternate funding options, but know that in some cases it's still possible to borrow from a bank. Government stimulus and bank policy have been trying to promote ongoing small business lending, although many banks are still more conservative than they used to be about when and to whom they'll loan money.

Today's business-for-sale marketplace is full of exciting opportunities that will allow you to take your destiny into your own hands, and with various options available there's no reason to let a shortage of traditional capital sources get in the way of your dreams.

Re-Build to Sell

It's sad to say but many small business owners who come to me wanting to sell are in a crisis. They haven't kept up with the times and have outdated equipment and pricing that is below industry standards, and are up to their eyeballs in debt. One thing to keep in mind is that when you do something to enhance your service, it will have an impact on the eventual sale of your business.

Here are a few things to consider when getting your business ready to sell:

1. Equipment: If you were six months away from putting your service on the market than I would not recommend purchasing new equipment or upgrading your software. You will not make back your investment in that period of time. The buyer may also prefer a particular brand of equipment or may buy only your accounts. You would then have to sell your equipment on the used market, which usually brings only pennies on the dollar. If you are two to three years from selling and have old equipment, then by all means buy newer equipment. This enables you to keep up with your competition by offering the same or more enhanced services.

2. Rate increases: Annual rate increases are recommended. One of the most important formulas I use in evaluating a business is determining profitability, which comes down to rate structure. I recently sold a medical service for more than 14 times its monthly billing and the reason it sold for that multiple was the way the services were priced. It was very profitable, averaging $365 per client. The service had only 140 accounts but billed more than $50,000 per month, producing a net profit margin of more than 38 percent. Do not increase your rates just before selling your business to boost your monthly billing. A potential buyer will want to see a reasonable conversion history for the rate increase. I would also recommend switching to a 28-day billing structure. This will give you an additional one month's billing per year, which should increase cash flow along with your annual revenue.

3. Automate: One way to cut down on your biggest expense, labor, is to automate some of the message taking and delivering functions. By delivering messages via email, fax, voice mail, pager, or cell phone, it will free up the time it takes the operator to deliver the messages in person. Some services offer an automated attendant feature, giving the caller a choice of where the call should be directed with instructions that if they have an emergency, the caller should press zero for an agent.

4. Cut the fat: Get your business lean and mean. Cut out all frivolous expenses and cut the dead wood clients. If you have clients who are non-payers or who do not produce a profit for your company, get rid of them.

5. Financial record keeping: Buyers are interested in businesses with a good profit margin of at least 20 percent, advanced equipment with updated software, solid management in place, and a history of growth. One of the first items buyers ask for after reviewing your listing information is a current financial statement, along with at least one previous year's statement. This shows the prospective buyer how your business has grown financially in the past and its likely future growth trend.

6. Clean your financial history: Make sure that you have clear titles to your equipment and other assets, and that all your federal and state taxes are paid, along with being current on your payroll tax deposits. Buyers will do lien searches on you and your business, so if you have any skeletons in your closets, clean them up before placing your business on the market.

Of course location, cleanliness of the operation, and a reliable, well trained staff, all have something to do with how salable your telephone answering service will be, but the above points are critical to getting your business ready to sell.

The Escrow Advantage

In dealing with business sales, often times the seller or the buyer will ask about the use of an escrow company. The seller may say 'Why can't the buyer just pay me cash or give me a cashier’s check'?

Escrow does a number of things during the business sale transaction that are designed to protect both the buyer and the seller. First, it is important for the seller to know that the buyer's earnest money deposit or good faith deposit actually has some cash behind it. Escrow will deposit the buyer's check and hold these funds in an escrow account until such time as the transaction closes or is cancelled by the buyer and seller.

On occasion, the buyer will discover during the due diligence period that the income of the business was overstated by the seller. The buyer may decide that the business will not generate sufficient cash flow for his/her needs and may choose to cancel the transaction. If the buyer has given the seller a cashier's check or cash as a deposit, there may be substantial difficulty in getting the deposit back. However, it is generally a simple process to have the deposit funds returned by Escrow.

It is important for the buyer to know if there are any liens against the business and if so to ensure they are paid by the seller. Escrow orders UCC searches to see that the seller doesn't have other liens or encumbrances against the assets of the business. Imagine if a buyer simply handed over a cashiers check for $200,000 only to find out six months later that there was an outstanding lien for $125,000 that had been recorded against the assets of the business. Additionally, Escrow ensures that a "Notice to Creditors of Bulk Sale" is published so that any other creditors can file any claims they may have against the business or the seller prior to the transaction closing. All of this is done to protect the buyer in the transaction.

The buyer's funds have to be deposited into escrow several days prior to the closing date. The funds may come from a lending institution, cashiers check, wire transfer. However, typically the funds are required a few days in advance. This is to protect the seller. There have been situations where buyers have paid sellers directly with cashier’s checks and then proceeded to the bank to stop payment. Since escrow requires the funds in advance, it prevents this type of situation from occurring.

An escrow company acts as a neutral third party in relation to the following issues:

There are often prorations and adjustments to the purchase price, such as rent payments, personal property tax, inventory adjustment and vacation accrued to name a few.

It is always a good idea to have an objective third party hold the funds, make sure there are no additional encumbrances against the business and make sure both the buyer and seller are in agreement on closing prior to releasing funds. After all, once the funds have been disbursed, there's no going back.

Hard Financial Times

If you have heard that there were fewer Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) transactions completed in 2008 versus the previous year, you heard correctly. According to Piper Jaffray, there were $29 billion in M&A deals (212 deals) in the first quarter, compared with $219 billion (1,147 deals) over the same period the year before.

Access to capital is more limited, especially for smaller, less-capitalized companies. Issuance and trading are down in markets such as bank loans, mortgage-related financing, auction-rate securities and other formerly liquid sectors. Many major Wall Street institutions are avoiding making unwise choices right now due to what they saw happen to Bear Stearns.