Author: rickandrade121

By Rick Andrade – Los Angeles

 

As a middle market investment banker I am constantly hearing about employee horror stories when seasoned business owners call me to sell a business for top dollar. Often these clients face serious issues when new buyers come in and look to upgrade: the people, process, and technologies. So I got to thinking, and writing about the value of each employee from the standpoint of a new buyer with an upgrade choice: hire a human or a machine. Which would you choose?

So I wrote about it and published it at Vistage Village, where it is generating a lot of buzz about where CEOs stand when it comes to people vs technology.

Here’s the article: BY Rick Andrade, Los Angeles, Ca

It’s 5:00am Monday morning and you’re at the office early because today you’ll need all hands on deck. Your largest customer is expecting on-time delivery today and you hope everyone on staff shows up. But they don’t. Four label & pack clerks have the flu. It’s the third time this month. You throw up your hands, pull up your sleeves, and get packing. You recall reading an article in Automation Nation Magazine about new worker productivity machines. Hmmm… But you still love having employees, right?

Sound familiar? It seems to me that as 2014 looms on the horizon, most business owners are not only reading more articles, but also buying into options to do more with less. And that’s not good for human beings looking for work if you follow me. Why? Because Human labor is a really tough hire these days, especially as demand improves.  According to the US Labor Dept., Worker Productivity (the value of goods and services produced in a period of time, divided by the hours of labor used) has doubled in the last 40 years, and combining that with Outsourcing means employers have serious alternatives to hiring US workers to get the job done; which begs the old question anew; Are employees worth it?

Of course part of the answer is related to how a business owner perceives the Value of an employee. As a result, I thought now was a good time to take a closer look at how we got here.

To frame the discussion, the Value of an employee is clearly both quantitative and qualitative in measure. If you ask a Wall Street Analyst the value of your employees, he or she will say that’s easy. Take your total annual sales and divide that by the number of employees you have, and Bingo! That’s the value. The higher the ratio of sales to staffer, the more valuable each employee should be to the enterprise. The lower the figure the less valuable and less productive to the enterprise each staffer is. This is called the Sales per Employee ratio (SPE), and it can vary a lot depending on your industry:

Sales Per Employee (SPE) Ratio

SPE is one of the most widely used performance metrics to measure the value of staffers to total revenue. For example, Wal-Mart with $450bil in annual sales as of 2012 and over 2 million employees has a $214k per staffer SPE metric, while service industry employees like those at Morgan Stanley with $34bil in sales and 57,000 employees in 2012 generates $598k in sales per staffer.  Facebook  meanwhile generates $5bil in revenues with just 4,600 employees according to filings. That’s over $1.3million per human there. From a stock market point of view, a firm with a higher SPE ratio over its competition should have a higher overall valuation, all else being equal. In fact, companies that outsource manufacturing to a lower cost domicile (think China and India) can also increase its SPE ratio, and hence market value for shareholders. Take a look at this table and see if you can spot a pattern:

SPE Ratios for select companies: 12months Ending June 2013:

Company …………………………..Sales per Employee

Exxon Mobil:………………………….$ 5,801,756

FaceBook:………………………………$ 1,324,529

Microsoft:………………………………$   828,181

GM:………………………………………$   717,568

Morgan Stanley:………………………$   598,570

Intel:……………………………………..$   498,333

Boeing:………………………………….$   476,021

Kraft:…………………………………….$   430,897

B of A:……………………………………$   372,322

Walt Disney:………………………….$   283,686

Wal-Mart:……………………………..$   214,991

McDonalds:……………………………$     63,167

Of course these figures can be misleading and don’t illuminate the full picture. But in general with the exception of Exxon Mobil, higher SPEs come from higher technology companies’ output. These companies are very productive at what they do. But even in manufacturing, higher technology often translates into doing more with less. Take auto manufacturing. In 1993, GM generated $110bil in US auto sales with 448k employees which equals a $245k SPE.  Today GM sales are $153bil with 213k staffers resulting in a $717k SPE, almost 3 times the value per worker as compared to 20 years ago. So how did GM nearly triple its worker productivity in the US? One word: Robots.

Productivity in the US

According to the Heritage Foundation and US labor statistics, Worker Productivity in the US has doubled since 1973. That’s a 100% increase in 40 years. Consequently, one employee today can now do the work of 2 staffers 40 years ago. While this massive productivity wave continues to spread across all business sectors in the economy it technically suggests American businesses only need one-half the workers to produce similar goods and services. Along the way this tends to wipe out unskilled labor in the wake, and can turn many full-timers into part-timers.  In fact, the NY Times reported 70% of jobs created through June 2013 are indeed part time. As employers seek increasingly higher skilled human beings this trend further decreases the US Labor Force Participation Rate (those working and looking for work), which stands at a record low 63% in August 2013, down from 66% in 1993 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Part of the reason for the decline is the growing number of unskilled or mis-skilled workers who can’t find work. And this gap is a problem.

But let’s be fair. If as an employer you had the choice between human or machine, which should come out on top? That’s easy, right? Grab a pencil and try it. Make a quick list, 2-columns: Reasons to Hire, Reasons Not to Hire. Click on my list:

Now ask yourself, given the choice man or machine, which is better?

In other words as the cost of finding and hiring and training and managing a human being on the planet in any “for-profit” business increases, why would an employer in a competitive market be compelled to do it? In a free market they wouldn’t. But is the pendulum of technology swinging past its own purpose? Some anti-free-market socialists might argue there should be a regulatory obligation by employers of ‘size and capability’ to hire and maintain a specific number of staff? They cite that in 1973 S&P 500 earnings per share (EPS) was $40, as of mid-year 2013 S&P EPS is nearing $90. And while even in times with very little top line revenue growth, S&P 500 companies continue their climb by cost cutting and productivity increases. So where does this end, The Matrix? As the landscape changes and our economy becomes one driven more by ‘knowledge workers,’ fewer and fewer are needed. Hence the gap between man and machine could threaten the entire US economy where 70% of US GDP is driven by consumers spending their hard earned cash one job at a time.

So are employees still worth it? If you’re an employer in the U.S. it’s your choice; hire a human and take the plunge, or instead hire a tireless metal monster or digital demon and add to our nation’s increasing Productivity rate. That is, a technology pendulum that I estimate could feasibly replace as much as 30% of the remaining U.S. workforce by automating or outsourcing jobs in the next 20 years.

So whether or not the value of your employees is measured in sales or service or love of human interaction, each business owner will continue to face the difficult choice of man or machine as an individual decision. But if nothing is done to ebb the flow of automation without a concern for the human part of the equation, we may all accidentally find ourselves online buying that fancy new can-opener robot on sale that also cleans windows, walks the dog, and does our taxes. Think about how much money that could save your old employees, once they find a new job.

About the author: Rick Andrade is an investment banker and finance writer in Los Angeles helping CEOs buy, sell and finance middle market companies. Rick has earned his BA and MBA from UCLA along with his Series 7, 63 & 79 FINRA securities licenses. He is also a Real Estate Broker, a volunteer SBA/SCORE instructor, and blogs at www.RickAndrade.com on issues important to middle market business owners. He can be reached at rickandrade@earthlink.net. This article should not be considered in anyway an offer to buy or sell a security.  This is for informational purposes only. 

 

I had the honor of participating on a recent webinar panel with 3 other guest speakers discussing how and why business owners should pre-plan their exit before they sell their most valuable asset.

Click on the link below for a Free copy and hear from experts on the subject as well as my take on the difference between Price and Valuation Multiples.

Here was the agenda:

– Creating a Check List is your first move

– Pre-planning (>2 yrs before transition)

– Short term planning (<2 yrs before transition)

– Exit strategy

– How to execute the plan

 Who attended:

CEOs, CFOs, business owners and advisors

The Panel:

Rick Andrade, Managing Director – Janas Associates M&A Investment Banking firm

Andy Horowitz, VP with Morgan Stanley Wealth Management

Ronald S. Friedman CPA Partner with Marcum LLP

Lewis Stanton, Managing Partner at Stanton Associates LLC

 

Audio:

http://lighthouseconsulting.org/openline/091013/OpenLine091013.mp3

Slides:

http://lighthouseconsulting.org/openline/091013/OpenLine091013.pdf

 

After years in the making, this coming October 2013 marks the beginning of the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare. Given the sweeping changes of the new law much mis-information and media hype trying to explain it has only fueled the flames of confusion and distrust as to what actions small business owners must take. Congressman Waxman’s office recently offered to help by sending me a link to the SBA which is now conducting Free Webinar updates on their website to help clarify employee vs employer impacts starting this fall.

The SBA is offering several Free LIVE Webinar opportunities so business owners can ask questions and get answers. Here’s the link http://www.sba.gov/community/blogs/community-blogs/health-care-business-pulse/affordable-care-act-101-weekly-webinar-se

Remember the “employer mandate” component of the law has been postponed 1-year to January 2015. Meaning businesses with more than 50 employees will have one more year to prepare to offer health insurance to their employees. Recall the actual number of small businesses with more than 50 employees that currently DO NOT offer health insurance is below 5% nationally. So for the vast majority of small businesses in the U.S. nothing will change.

The “individual mandate” on the other hand, will roll-out this fall as scheduled, unchanged by the 1-year delay. That means by January 2014 uninsured Americans en masse will be expected to participate in the market by purchasing healthcare insurance on the new state Healthcare Exchanges popping up across the country. For those in California the new H/C exchange is called www.CoveredCalifornia.com

Given this new law will likely impact you or somebody you know, aka your employees, I suggest each CEO get better educated on the subject before employees come asking about their options. These new SBA Webinars as a result offer an easy opportunity to get up to speed quickly.

Rick

My latest article published by CEO Magazine briefly juxtaposes traditional M&A finance with Crowdfunding.

 

As middle market mergers and acquisitions heat up this year, the value of your company could be viewed more specifically if you are near the employee threshold of 50 Full Time Equivalents (FTEs).

From a middle market investment banker point of view putting your finger on how these issues for business owners will impact valuations and buyer perspectives is in the DCF assumptions, right? Let’s say you come to me and want to sell your company. You have 60 FTEs and spend $360,000/yr ($6,000/employee) for benefits and expenses. Under the new laws a new owner could cut that expense down to $30,000. That’s a savings of $330,000 each year. How?

According to the ACA (Affordable Care Act) employers on the 50 person cusp are given a 30 person exemption, and penalized only 2.5% over $9500 in salary per employee for the remaining 30 staffers. Depending on how much you pay your staffers, ie) Salaries in the $50,000/yr range will incur roughly a $1,000 penalty, you can see where this is going. In other words if a small business owner decides to sell the business, there could be a tempting maneuver to increase take home earnings immediately by pushing health care costs onto the public at a huge discount. Notwithstanding the inherent risks of the switch, saving over $300,000/yr could be irresistible. For a seller that is approached under this scenario the increase in enterprise value could conservatively exceed $1.5mil in today’s deal dollars. Add that to the deal value and many sellers might blink.

While I have not seen this M&A scenario baked into any new deals yet in 2013, it will certainly become a growing question between middle market business owners on the cusp looking to sell later this year. If you’re interested in how a few real world companies are expecting to deal with the new Obamacare rules, take a look at Adam Bluestein’s article in Inc Magazine this month where he takes a close look at 4 case study company CEOs on the edge.

Last month E&Y reported a near 50% drop in global M&A from $4Trillion in 2007 to $2Trillion last year, and while that may not be a fair comparison as M&A crawls back from the depths, the perennial fear and anxiety buyers have of overpaying for mergers and acquisitions has probably never been higher. Often missing is the acquirer’s ability to accurately measure the value of the Seller’s customer base and its recurring revenue streams.

The reason for the error according to Walker Research, an Indianapolis based customer research firm, is the acquirer’s inability to properly survey the top 80% of the Seller’s customer base and categorize them into 4 Key Value groups:

Properly identifying the “customer type” and matching it up with the likelihood that those customers will stick around can help avoid overpaying for an M&A target sometimes by $millions. The simple rule of thumb or takeaway is to recognize when you the CEO of the acquiring company may need to hire a 3^rd party to re-evaluate and re-value the Seller’s customer base more closely in a riskier transaction.

Walker Research recently gave members of the ACG (Association for Corporate Growth) an informative webinar explaining the importance of Advanced Customer Due Diligence – which is now available to the public.

Ladies and Gentlemen, our first New Year’s present has arrived.

It’s another gift from our kids; a generation feverishly bent on serious change. And this time they’re re-engineering the perennial landscape of small business financing. It’s the Internet meets Crowd Funding part 2, courtesy of the Jobs Act in Washington. You’ve heard of it, Crowd Funding, where budding entrepreneurs raise money on the internet for new sticky-wand hair removers and degravitizing dust particle vacuums, right? There is that. But what if, as well, it was soon to become the most measureable small business economic payoff from Social Media of all time? Would that get more attention?

Until now, for most of my clients (and me) crowd funding has been little more than a mere curiosity. Most business owners I know still think to raise money the old fashioned way, they borrow it, from a bank, with thick walls and a vault. But what if that were not the right way anymore? Enter the rise of the CFPs (crowd funding platforms) in 2013. That is when under the Jobs Act crowd funding platforms are expecting to expand beyond facilitating donations and rewards. The new options which include debt and equity raises may begin to ruffle old feathers. Why? Think of it. One company has already seen over $10 million in crowd funds pledged for their product line! That’s serious coin. But how is that possible without Gangnam Style you wonder??

In business school we all learned about how innovations like Facebook can dramatically disrupt an industry’s rate of change. Well, perhaps on some smaller level it’s proper to say, like it or not here we go again. This time, it’s not brick and mortar bookstores going down, it’s brick and mortar banks. Especially small local banks, they better watch out. Is that a stretch? Maybe. But at some point the key question becomes obvious: why would anyone (like a small company) let a local bank have all the fun (so to speak) when you can now tap into a growing planet of online users (you don’t even know) to help finance your company’s next big thing?

Well, 2013 could be just that bell ringing, and the year this thing takes off. According to crowdsourcing.org there are already over 500 CFPs (crowd funding platforms) worldwide. Most are in the US where new rules have been written, lessons have been learned, and it’s where over $800mil in crowd funds were raised in 2011. So maybe it’s time to get more familiar with it and in what better way than by using a recent SCORE Crowd Funding webinar to spread the word. It’s a 1-hour moderated prerecorded online webinar from SCORE.ORG (where I too am a proud Business workshop instructor). The program is a moderated slide show discussion between two crowd funding companies, Indiegogo and Somolend, who (like Kickstarter) facilitate specific crowd fund-raising processes for a fee of about 4%, although pricing varies.

They use a few simple real-life case studies to explain exactly how crowd funding successes are achieved… start to finish. I would consider the info an early 2013 heads up present for small business owners, and it’s free: You’ll quickly learn:

• What      is Crowd Funding & How it Works
• Types      of CF: new Debt/Equity option vs Donation/Reward
• Why      the 30-Day Campaign is a big hit
• Best      Practice Case Studies & Tips for Success
• SEC      and FINRA views and rules

Is it a global tide change for small business lending; a disruptive evolution in the making? It could be that. But on the face of it, do I see crowd funding platforms replacing Wall Street bankers anytime soon? Not really. But then $10 million isn’t play money either.

http://www.score.org/workshops/crowdfunding-alternative-source-financing

About the author: Rick Andrade is a Managing Director and investment banker in Los Angeles. He represents active sellers and buyers of middle market companies. Rick has his BA and MBA from UCLA along with his Series 7, 63 & 79 FINRA securities licenses. He is also a Real Estate Broker, a volunteer SBA/SCORE instructor, published writer and blogger at www.RickAndrade.com for issues important to middle market business owners. You can reach him at RickAndrade@earthlink.net

Alas… the chance at a new beginning once more for all of us in the U.S. And at what better time is there than now to re-focus on what’s important going forward. As a writer and business banker I often listen specifically for a client’s go-forward growth strategy, whether it’s global expansion, or in their own backyard. What’s key to remember is in fact the title of this well done article at CEO Magazine Is Your Company Fit for Growth? 

As a strategist I help many CEOs figure this question out. As a buy/sell business banker I insist on having a specific growth plan because having one opens the doors wider for bank financing and investment interest. Your growth plan is part of the language we bankers’ speak… and for those business owners who make the adjustments, the future can be very bright. Have a look at the article and you can tell me if You’re Fit for Growth in 2013 or not.

Here it comes… the last weeks before year end 2012, and what a year. From a financial point of view, it’s the most active time as wealth managers and business owners re-think their strategies and plan ahead.  Meanwhile, a historic hurricane, a historic Election, and a looming Fiscal Cliff and it’s enough to make you dizzy.  So what can we top that with as we wrap up 2012?

 

Well as it turns out nothing as exciting. Because as year end comes to a close it brings forth waves of financial services professionals from all walks of life to your doorstep. Some of these professionals work at major banking institutions, while others work for smaller firms. Most will tend to focus on a specific market segments and/or wealth concentration areas, such as middle market business owners.

These days, however, there seems to be quite the proliferation of new certifications along with their associated acronyms from A to Z covering every conceivable financial service twice over. And on the one hand that’s good, as industry professionals seek to be recognized and stand out more. But on the other hand, when even I can’t follow the number of new 3-letter acronyms I see on business cards these days, something has to give, no?

That’s why as year end approaches and the time comes to hire experts to get your financial house in order, it’s a good time to recognize what you’re getting for your money… And while most business owners know the importance of having a CPA on their management team for accounting and tax issues, beyond that designation, the increasing number of new acronym credentials spreading like wild fire is confusing clients. This is why I am here to help.

A good rule of thumb is to start with the most widely recognized certifications and licenses, like a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), the name says it all right up front.  Or you may run across a Certified Financial Planner (CFP), a top drawer professional designation for financial analysis. But what if you’re looking for someone more specific to help you with estate planning, retirement planning, insurance planning, etc? If that’s the case then you need to know more about which certifications, education, and professional licensing to look for.

Enter a great article here at Investopedia (the online wiki-library resource of financial terms)  which tries to sort it out. You should read it, because the author clearly identifies which key Licenses and Certifications such as a ‘Series 7’ for investment bankers like me who advise business owners on how and when to sell their business, are important.  And it’s not a long list of 3-letter acronyms either, in part because the time, effort, and advanced education coursework required to attain, and maintain these best of breed credentials sort the wheat from the chaff for you.

So be sure to read the article before year end 2012. This way, the next time you get a call from an MBA, CPA, CFP, CBB, ABC or XYZ  professional looking to help you with the most important decisions in your life,  you won’t have to worry about which Certifications and Licenses they have  matter most, and which don’t…

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Not all my CEOs are in perfect shape. These are tough times. Executive leaders I know are juggling quite a bit of uncertainty to say the least this cycle. And while most can take a pounding and snap back… many others won’t.

Remember the old Dale Carnegie words of wisdom that one should try to “live in ‘day-tight’ compartments?” Well what happens if you never read Dale Carnegie?Read my article at CEO Magazine