Get Thousands of Affiliates to Market Your Product Instantly

Written by Charity Adams


Affiliate marketing is awesome for generating a flood of leads or sales, but you need thousands of affiliates to create a significant impact in your marketing strategy. Creating a large enough affiliate base to be effective could take months if not years to establish. You can harnessrepparttar power of a large affiliate base by tapping established affiliate networks.

Established affiliate networks have thousands of web site owners, email list owners and independent marketers ready to drive traffic to your campaign. Affiliate networks except CPS (Cost Per Sale), CPA (Cost Per Action), CPC (Cost Per Click) and other hybrid deals. Usingrepparttar 104042 affiliate networks you could literally have your product displayed on millions of web sites with in a matter of days.

Affiliate management and recruiting is done for you byrepparttar 104043 big networks allowing you time to concentrate on running your business. Affiliate Networks approve affiliates web sites, managerepparttar 104044 accounting, mailrepparttar 104045 checks and assist you withrepparttar 104046 development of very successful campaigns.

You payrepparttar 104047 affiliate network based onrepparttar 104048 results of your campaign. With a pay for results campaign there is no guessing about your profit margin. Your advertising costs will be fixed.

SELL A BUSINESS 10 STEPS TO MAXIMIZE SELLING PRICE

Written by Dave Kauppi


You started your company 20 years ago “in your garage”, worked many 80 hour weeks, bootstrapped your growth, view your company withrepparttar pride of an entrepreneur, and are now considering your exit. The purpose of this article is to help you evaluate your company as a strategic acquirer might. From that perspective we will ask you to focus on ten critical areas of value creation. The benefit to you is thatrepparttar 104041 better your performance in these areas,repparttar 104042 greaterrepparttar 104043 selling price of your business. The most likely result is that you will sell atrepparttar 104044 high range ofrepparttar 104045 multiples normally associated with your industry. For example, duringrepparttar 104046 last 18 months similar companies have sold at an EBITDA multiple of between 4.8 and 5.7 times. Moving your company fromrepparttar 104047 low end torepparttar 104048 high end of that range can result in a significant swing in transaction value. If your EBITDA were $2 million,repparttar 104049 low price is $9.6 million andrepparttar 104050 high price is $11.4 million. The Holy Grail in selling your company is when an acquirer throws outrepparttar 104051 traditional multiples and acquires your company based on strategic post acquisition performance. Below is our list of STRATEGIC VALUE DRIVERS:

1.CUSTOMER DIVERSITY – If too much of your current business is concentrated in too few customers that is perceived as a negative inrepparttar 104052 acquisition market. The concern is that ifrepparttar 104053 owner exits andrepparttar 104054 major customers leave,repparttar 104055 business could be negatively impacted. Onrepparttar 104056 plus side, if none of your customers accounts for more than 5% of total sales, that is viewed as a real plus. If you find yourself with a customer concentration issue and are planning an exit, start focusing on a program to diversify. A quick fix would be to make an acquisition of a competitor with customer diversity, integrate them and then take your company to market.

2.MANAGEMENT DEPTH – A common thread in privately held businesses is a concentration of responsibility withrepparttar 104057 owner operator. The buck stops here may be a good slogan for a presidential candidate, but it will not help create value for a business owner. An acquirer will look atrepparttar 104058 quality ofrepparttar 104059 management staff and employees as a major determinant in acquisition price. A key in preparing for exit is to develop your people so they could runrepparttar 104060 business after you are gone. You should makerepparttar 104061 move of assigning your successor a year in advance of your scheduled departure date. If you have no one that you feel hasrepparttar 104062 ability then go hire someone that can dorepparttar 104063 job. If you have a strong management team in place and you are anticipating an exit, you should try to implement employment contracts, non-competes, and some form of phantom stock or equity participation plan to keep these stars involved throughrepparttar 104064 transition. A strong management team is a valuable asset inrepparttar 104065 middle market. If you have one, take steps to keep it in place andrepparttar 104066 market will reward you. If you are weak in that area,repparttar 104067 acquisition market will punish you if fail to takerepparttar 104068 corrective action.

3.CONTRACTUALLY RECURRING REVENUE – All revenue dollars are not created equal. Revenue dollars that arerepparttar 104069 result of a contract for annual maintenance, annual licensing fees, a recurring retainer fee, technology license, etc. are much more powerful value drivers than new sales revenue, time and materials revenue, or other non-recurring revenue streams. It’s all about risk. The higherrepparttar 104070 risk (future sales)repparttar 104071 lowerrepparttar 104072 return. The lowerrepparttar 104073 risk (contracted revenue stream)repparttar 104074 higherrepparttar 104075 return. The most extreme case of this occurs inrepparttar 104076 software industry where companies are typically sold at a multiple of recurring maintenance revenue. New license sales, historical levels of project work and projected install revenue are virtually eliminated fromrepparttar 104077 valuation formula. The lesson here is that if you can turn a T&M situation into an annual contract, you will be greatly rewarded when it comes time to sell your business.

4.PROPRIETARY PRODUCTS/TECHNOLOGY – This isrepparttar 104078 area whererepparttar 104079 valuation rules do not necessarily apply. Strategic acquirers buy other companies to grow. If they believe that a new technology can be acquired and integrated with their superior distribution channel, they may value your company on a post acquisition performance basis. The marketplace rewards effective innovation. Onrepparttar 104080 flip side, however,repparttar 104081 market yawns at “me too” commodity type products or services. That business is vulnerable to competition, especially afterrepparttar 104082 owner leaves. Continue to look for ways to innovate in what ever industry you are in. Your innovation should not be limited to product improvements. The marketplace values innovations in distribution systems, collaborative product design process, customer service and other functional areas that can provide a competitive advantage. If you create a technology advantage in your company, think what that could mean to a much larger company.

5.PENETRATION OF BARRIERS TO ENTRY – A wise buyer told me once, “I want to own companies where I have an edge.” He happened to be a buyer of Waste Facilities. Allrepparttar 104083 regulations and approvals required tend to limit competition. In its simplest form, a large restaurant chain buys a small family owned restaurant to acquire a grand fathered liquor license. Owning hard to get permits, zoning, licenses, or regulatory approvals can be worth a great deal torepparttar 104084 right buyer. Your company may be able to secure approvals onrepparttar 104085 local level that a national player may have difficulty obtaining. Selling your product or service torepparttar 104086 government can be quite lucrative, butrepparttar 104087 government market is extremely difficult to penetrate. If your product or service applies and you can break throughrepparttar 104088 barriers, you become a more attractive acquisition candidate. The same holds true of a local marquee account that would be desirable for a larger supplier to crack. One strategy for penetrating these accounts is to askrepparttar 104089 buyer to identifyrepparttar 104090 best salesman that calls on him. Go hire that salesman to sell your product to that account.

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