Raising kids doesn’t come easy. Neither does running your own business.

So, what about combining the two?

No, I don’t mean raising kids AND running your own business.  Many of us do that already.

I mean having your kids run their own business.  Or at least learn the ropes of what being in business means.

I was recently shown two articles on just that.  One was "The Values Entrepreneurship Teaches Children" by Dale Turken;   the other  "Why I Challenged My Kids to Start Companies Before College"  by Ray Sheen.

The key life lessons in Turken's article were:

Proper pricing is a must when you go to sell your business. And that means an asking price that is reasonable and correct.

In a recent 2015 post, I noted that more mid-sized businesses in the Canadian market are turning to complementary acquisitions with fold-ins or add-ons that allow the buyer to add on the revenue of the acquisition without the costs the seller (and their smaller business) had.

As we enter the New Year with renewed resolve and resolutions, I've been asked to say more about these financial benefits. Think of them as goals for fiscal fitness!

Here are some 20 ways companies acquiring smaller firms reduce costs and gain operational efficiencies:

“Where Are All the Baby Boomer Sellers?” asks a new Axial Forum article by Robert Flynn.

In Canada?

Maybe.

Flynn notes that in the U.S., “business for sale listings (mostly Main Street and often with less than $500,000 annual revenues) on the major transaction sites, as well as the middle market business brokerage firm listings are down in almost every North East state we track compared to five ago.” Yet “the 2013-15 period was predicted to be the peak of the baby boomer selling boom.”

On the other hand, while we still have way more buyers than sellers in Canada, our market for buying or selling a business is heating up. And in that market, the older boomers are selling and the younger boomers are buying.

In early December, the Wall Street Journal proclaimed 2015 the biggest year ever in the U.S. for mergers and acquisitions.

At home, Canadian companies have been turning their attention to the domestic market with 66% of respondents in an October Ernst and Young Global Limited survey identifying the Canadian market as their primary focus for M&A. Some 57% were focused on cost reduction and operational efficiency—up from 31% one year prior—consistent with what our offices are seeing.

When real estate is owned by the business or business owner

You own a business. You or the business also own the real estate used by the business. You do not have to include this real estate when selling your business. Retaining or selling the real estate separate from the business has its advantages.

Often the business itself is sold and a lease then put in place at market rent. This reduces the amount of capital that a potential purchaser requires and creates a wider market for the business. The owner can then sell the building with the lease in place and the purchaser does not have to be someone who wants to run or own the business that it houses.

As a result, there is a larger group of prospective buyers and the building sells for a higher price than could have been realized if sold along with the business. The goal is to sell the business before selling the real estate, or if it is listed in combination with the business, at the same time.