Best-selling author

Isn’t It Time You Bought Your Competitor Lunch?

May 29, 2012 | by tomdeans_admin | Business Succession, Selling Your Business, The Role of Advisors

For me, business has always been about dominating the competition – not just beating them but seriously overpowering them. Personal enmity has never driven this approach but rather a kind of institutional loathing underpinned by the idea that there is a finite number of customers worth battling for. I have never sought my inspiration from […]

Tags: attorney, Best-selling author, business advisor, business life cycle, business lifecycle, business succession planning, estate planning, Every Family's Business, exit planning, Family business, family business advisor, family business consultants, family business speaker, family shareholder agreement, selling your business, succession planning

A Family Wired For Perpetual Dependence

May 1, 2012 | by tomdeans_admin | Business Succession, The Role of Advisors

When the sale of a family business is all about a founder becoming wealthy and their children losing their jobs, you can see why so few ever put themselves in play and sell. The CEO – the Chief Emotional Officer (Mom, and increasingly Dad) – just can’t stand to see the family pull itself apart. […]

Tags: Associations, Best-selling author, Business Broker, Business Owners, Convention Speaker, Dynastic Family, entrepreneurs, estate planning, exit planning, Family business, Inheritance, M&A, professional speaker, Retirement, succession planning, Transition, wills

Mother of a Family Business

April 13, 2011 | by Tom | Business Succession

When the Young Presidents Organization brought me to El Salvador to speak to their newly formed chapter last year, I was both apprehensive and curious to see how my contrarian message on family business succession planning would translate in the Latin culture.

Tags: Best-selling author, business lifecycle, Buying a Business, El Salvador, exit planning, Family business, Matriarchs, professional speaker, San Salvador, Spanish family Business, succession planning, Young President's Organization, YPO