Ian Smith | The Portfolio Partnership

Valuation Vs Saleability

by Ian Smith | Mar 5, 2024 | Execution Tips, Exiting your business, Operational Tips, Scaling

Valuation As the owner of a private company you can commission a valuation of your business at any time. For example a 409A valuation is an independent appraisal of the fair market value (FMV) of a private company’s common stock on the date of issuance. This valuation...

How to Justify CAPEX using my ROI Calculator

by Ian Smith | Mar 1, 2024 | ROIs

We all need to justify spending money. Whether it’s $1000 or $1m. It doesn’t matter whether the expenditure is in the budget or not in the budget. Trust me, what drives the spending of money is the efficiency of capital. The Return on Investment. The ROI...

That’s Not The Right Question

by Ian Smith | Jan 31, 2024 | Execution Tips, Leadership, Operational Alignment, Operational Blueprints, Scaling

One of the best dialogues in the latest season of True Detective is when Jodie Foster, as Police Chief Liz Danvers says, “you’re asking the wrong question”! As the owner and CEO of your growing business, you will have many challenges in front of you. To solve these...

Entrepreneurship and the Exit Myth

by Ian Smith | Jan 24, 2024 | Entrepreneurship, Exiting your business, Operational Alignment

Most entrepreneurs start a business to create something valuable whether they bootstrap it from Day 1 or launch through seed capital and/or venture capital. The type of funding will influence the exit process. External funders will expect an exit. If the business is...

Branding For Buyout

by Ian Smith | Jan 15, 2024 | Exiting your business

Sometimes you meet a friend through a network event, or a common connection, or though your kids but rarely do you realize you have a new friend through a book! Branding For Buyout by Ted Schlueter nails one of the realities of private company exits – most owners need...