Sidney Nebraska is a real place - The Monday Morning Memo

“I told a teenage girl today I used to get 10 CDs for a penny in the mail, and I’m not sure if she thinks I’m lying about what a CD was, what a penny is, what the mail is, or all three.”
– sent to us by Dave Young,

previously from Sidney, Nebraska.

Located in the valley of Lodgepole Creek, Sidney is exactly 9 miles north of the Colorado state line.

The town was named after Sidney Dillon in 1867. I promise I’m not making this up.

Or am I?

(Specifics are more believable than generalities.)

– Indy Beagle

PS – The weakness of politicians and conspiracy theorists is that they never suggest to you that they might be sharing a subjective truth that is not entirely provable. And frankly, the only reason I am suggesting to you that I might be making this story up is to make you more sharply aware of how quickly we embrace any story that is full of details.

FYI – If you spend some time searching Google for whether or not I have been telling you the truth, you will find that all my details have been factual and actual.

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I have worked with almost 100 people that sold businesses. Here is what I have learned.

Almost all professional business acquirers do this strategy. There is a due diligence clause that they can use to lower the price. And here is how they use this clause. The closing is on an afternoon on Friday (yes, almost always a Friday). And here is what happens. At noon on Friday the buyers drops the price. They tell you they have come across something that says the price is now 20-30% lower. They bank on the owner having emotionally sold. They bank on the owner having made plans to celebrate on the weekend. The champagne is on ice. And they cannot emotionally walk away. To fight this the seller needs to stay emotionally ready to walk. That is the power the seller has.

The second thing that I have seen. Selling a business is a slow process and the closer it gets to the closing of the sale the more the owner gets tempted to stop investing in the business. Stop growing it. They can mentally and emotionally check out. That is a dangerous thing to do. Especially if a sale falls through. Then they have to get the momentum going again.

The last thing. Most sellers do not actually know what their business is worth. If I was selling a business I would invest in hiring someone to handle the negotiation. But again, that is just me. Not sure if I would stick my head into that hornets nest.

So, if I was going to give the seller advice. It would be this. Run the business like you are owning it for the next 20 years. It is not sold until the cheque is cashed. You give the buyer power when you emotionally, in your mind, sell the business. As a seller, your power is the willingness to walk away from the sale.

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- Stephen Semple