HOW TO INCREASE THE VALUE OF YOUR COMPANY -- Benchmarking and Rules of Thumb to Prepare Your Company for a Profitable Sale tells how to implement professional management practices in your company. This is important because a professionally managed company is more attractive to buyers than one with less sophistication. What is benchmarking? A benchmark is a standard by which something can be measured or judged. In business, it's a process of finding world-class examples of a product, service or system and then adjusting your operations to meet or beat those standards. Rules of Thumb... One dictionary says Rules of Thumb are "a rough and practical approach, based on experience, rather than theory." On a personal note, the author successfully applied most of the "Rules of Thumb" ideas in this book to better organize and operate his own companies. And he has helped other business owners adapt and apply the principles in their operations. How these Ideas can Help You... Benchmarks and Rules of Thumb in the book are intended to provide you with an easy-to-follow framework for achieving results within your own business, which -- when you sell -- should enhance its value. Or you can use the book as an "auditing tool" to verify that your company is, indeed, being operated using generally accepted management practices. A professionally managed business that is well-run is more valuable because a potential buyer will not be required to do much "heavy lifting" after buying it. "Heavy lifting" means -- among other things -- establishing formalized procedures in these functional areas of a company: * Finance * Human Resources * Operations * Purchasing/Material Control * Sales & Marketing * Research & Development * Engineering * Information Technology (computerization) * Public Relations. These topics are covered in the book. An Added Benefit... The job of selling your company can't begin until certain paperwork is assembled. This is because prospective buyers want to see facts. They want to know that your business will be a good investment. In business transaction and M&A parlance, buyers look for information contained in what's called a "Seller's Memorandum." This is sales material that's used to market your company. Information on the topics in this book can be used to write up your "Seller's Memorandum." In fact, it can be used as an outline to prepare this crucial document.