Good article on selling your business

PROFIT magazine is a favourite read of mine.  They do a great job of profiling the entrepreneurial sector in this country and every issue is chock full of lessons, success stories and business ideas. 

Selling Your Baby is an in-depth article published by PROFIT about the trials and tribulations some entrepreneurs face in selling their businesses.  It's shocking and sad when you think about the economic value that is destroyed - not to mention the many people affected - when businesses fall into the wrong hands.  

Although the article was published in March, it just won Gold at the National Magazine Awards last week.  Which I thought made it worth repeating.  Read through it and you'll also notice we added our two cents to the subject.

What to know before you IPO

Last weekend, I finished reading Rod McQueen's “BlackBerry: The Inside Story of Research in Motion” and thoroughly enjoyed it. It got me thinking about one area devoted relatively little space in the book – the entrepreneur’s decision to go public.

Now, in 300 pages recounting the 25 year history of perhaps Canada’s most successful technology company, you may figure 20 pages is sufficient to devote to the issue of going public. For the record, Research In Motion (RIM) completed a private placement of $34 million to institutional investors in June 1996 (12 years after Mike Lazaridis had started the company) and then completed a full blown IPO in October 1997.

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Does wealth bring happiness?

Only if you stop to smell the roses.

An interesting study by the University of British Columbia, reported in Wency Leung's Globe & Mail article, "If that chocolate tastes 'meh,' you may be too rich", found that wealth can alter one’s ability to savour the little things in life.  Things like enjoying a waterfall while on holiday, spending a romantic weekend with a partner, etc.

 “Hedonistic adaption – the idea that people get used to whatever they have” is an obstacle to happiness, Leung writes.

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