Packaging and Marketing Your Business--Renaissance consultants

Packaging and Marketing Your Business
The "Not Seeing the Business as a Product" Blind Side

This is a mistake that entrepreneurial companies, as well as the corporate big guys, are continuing to make. This occurs when the business owner decides to look for a suitor -- be it a lender to provide a working capital loan, an investor, a merger partner, a licensee, an acquirer, a joint venture partner, etc.

The owners or managers of these companies are continuing to fail to see that the product they are now selling is the business itself, and they are not packaging or marketing this new product (the business) in any way, shape, or form acceptable to a potential suitor, let alone in a way that a potential suitor can understand.

These same managers/owners do a superb job of packaging and marketing their normal products to their potential customers. They know that in order to secure orders for their products, they must present a reasonably good and complete picture of their products benefits, quality, and features in a way that potential customers will understand and be attracted to immediately.

However, when it comes to presenting the business to an interested party, these same managers/owners have a blind side; they do not view the business (the new product) as a product.

The business must be packaged and presented with the same care and diligence as one would take in preparing any other product for presentation to a potential customer. These deal packages should be put together in the form that the prospective target wants to see. If this is not known, then the necessary market research should be done to find out exactly what the target expects. Then the deal package should be carefully prepared and then target marketed to the prospect -- just like any other product.

In our experience: No deal gets done unless someone has done the packaging.

Renaissance consultants' advice is:

Start early and begin with a good financial plan that includes the prior three years. One that defines priorities and makes forecasts for the next five years.
Organize the assets and, if warranted, the ownership to minimize tax liability.
Have a valuation study done.
Be cognizant of the "right time" to present the package.
Select the "targets" carefully.
Be prepared to smooth the post-deal period by getting personally involved in the "close" and initiating open communication.

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Renaissance is a management consulting firm that specializes in implementation and adding value in short time frames for companies engaged in manufacturing, distribution and service.

Renaissance consultants are the publishers of the "NJ Directory of Select Service Firms and Organizations®."

Senior management expertise is available for assessment and implementation in the following:

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Business Positioning - preparation of business plans, growth strategies and acquisition plans. Also break even valuations for companies seeking additional capital; sales growth; growth by acquisition; to enter new markets; to be acquired; or to go public.