Ahead of the new health-care law, small firms worry about crossing the crucial 50-person threshold — and about rising premium rates Emily Maltby at the WSJ Law blog reports on increasing concerns about the forthcoming healthcare laws among small business owners. This seems to be a prominent issue and concern among small business owners, and has been noted in most every major media outlet in recent weeks, from the New York Times to Forbes, CNN, US News & World Report, FoxNews, The Economist, The Hill, the Washington Post, and more:
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Health Costs on His Mind, Small Factory Owner Looks for Ways to Cope With New Law Emily Maltby and Sarah E. Needleman at The Wall Street Journal talk with a small business owner outside of Chicago who’s considering ways to manage growth, preserve profit, and comply with the new healthcare law. Automation Systems, with with sales of about $1.6 million for 2012, currently employs 40 full-time workers, mostly low-paid employees who monitor the factory equipment. If sales were to continue to rise, the plant could, conceivably, employ 50 full-time workers in 2014. Under the new health-care law, the Affordable Care Act,…
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Competitive Intelligence is Key to Smart Acquisitions Part of growth is acquisition. To do smart acquisitions, you need insight into a business owner’s thoughts—specifically, her concerns vis-à-vis selling the businesses. These are not questions with simple yes or no answers; it’s more critical to figure out what an owner thought was missing in previous acquisition overtures. What, aside from price, will it take an owner to sit down and discuss a sale? The McLean Groups’s Zane Markowitz offers a case study and blow-by-blow analysis.
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The Wall Street Journal’s Small Business Blog featured recently a guest column by Antone Johnson on the use, misuse, and misvaluation of intellectual property. It’s probably of interest to valuators and financial consultants who are working with small business owners to value and growth their businesses. Venture capitalists, angel investors and start-up lawyers these days tend to be obsessed with “intellectual property,” or IP. And for good reason: In the information economy, the core assets of a new venture are likely to be talented people, the IP they create, and little else. To maximize future value, founders should…