One of the most common misconceptions in the global market is that mergers and acquisitions (M&A) only work for large and multinational businesses due to capital capabilities. 

On the contrary, present studies have shown that small to medium businesses can also benefit from M&A. For instance,  McKinsey & Company‘s report shows how programmatic – many small deals over time – M&A provides excess returns.

Source: www.mckinsey.com

For average small businesses owners, this is the key starting point for strategic development. Mergers and acquisitions are essential factors in business development and growth.

How can your average small business benefit from M&A?

Mergers and acquisitions are viewed by others as tricky. But M&A brings more opportunities for entrepreneurs.

• Growth of income and market share. For instance, your small business of cement block manufacturing takes over a cement tile business. Through this acquisition, you can get more projects, expand your network, and increase profit.

• Survival. Partnerships can prevent the end of an average small business through acquiring the business or merging with it. In this way, the declining business will not suffer a complete loss. 

• Restructure and open profitable opportunities. M&A can help small businesses in terms of financial freedom and recovery from debt. It is also a long-term business opportunity with other companies that supports the goals of your startup.

Steps to take in ensuring business growth with M&A

There are practical strategies for the growth of small businesses. This includes security and backup for legal purposes.

• Find an M&A advisory firm that can address your business needs. It serves as the backbone dealer in M&A transactions. They can finalize legal terms and deal contracts. Most importantly, M&A advisory firms can structure and provide services such as creating financial statements and run deal-making processes.

• Find an M&A legal team that specializes in your business scale. They can assist you with your tax, benefits, financial privacy, and related concerns with your M&A strategies. Your M&A legal team can help you ensure that the transaction is legal and profitable at the same time.

“Small business makes up 50% of the economy in most developed countries and yet there are very few buyers focussed on that sector meaning it is a buyer’s market and great for consolidations and roll ups.” – Jeremy Harbour

• Set your objectives. As a small business owner, your long-term goals should always be considered in every action you take. Your small business should set goals for the future. In this way, your growth with M&A is stable, thriving, and competitive.

Key Insights

Mergers and acquisitions can sustain your business and increase its synergy valuation. The process can be challenging, but the opportunities are abundant. M&A is a solid key feature for development — it’s an option for companies when making significant business decisions.

The internet would be a tough place without search engines such as Google, DuckDuckGo, and Bing that help us find practically anything that we need online.  

Thanks to search engines, finding a product or service that you need takes nothing more than a few keywords and looking at the first few search results. Conversely, if you are an entrepreneur running an online business, you might want to ensure that your website shows up first when users search for what you offer. This is where the concept of search engine optimization or SEO comes into play. 

What is SEO?

SEO is what you do if you want your website to place on top of the search results for specific target keywords. The optimization of your site affects its search engine ranking. 

Why Do You Need SEO?

SEO makes it easier for your audience to find your website through the search engines. 61% of marketers believe that boosting SEO and improving organic presence is their top inbound marketing goal. The more visible your website is in the search results, the more likely your audience will visit it. In turn, you get more profitable opportunities.

Key Components of SEO

While proper SEO relies on various technical factors, its foundations are built on three  four things: technical optimization, keyword optimization, content, and backlinks. 

Technical

Technical SEO is a crucial element of the process. It ensures the necessary investigatory work and implementation of enhancements to the technical parts of the website and server. Allowing the search engines to crawl and index the website and pages much more effectively.

Keywords

Keywords are words or phrases that people use to find what they need. For a website to be discovered quickly, it should strategically use a mixture of top-ranking keywords and long-tail phrases. This tells the search engine that your page has content that your audience may be looking for. 

That said, optimizing keywords is an important aspect of SEO. This involves knowing the right keywords to target and ensuring that keywords are found in the right places throughout your website. 

Content

“Content is king” is a phrase that you probably often hear when people talk about SEO in 2021. Your site’s content serves as your brand’s voice. It helps engage with your audience. Your content will show up on the search results to address their query. 

Search engines have made it a priority to consider the quality of content that shows up in their search results when ranking your website. In this case, good content should be readable, unique, and offer actual value to your audience. 

Backlinks

Backlinks are links pointing back to your web pages. Backlinks found in external websites tell the search engines that your site is credible enough that other sites link back to you. 

The SEO score you gain through backlinks depends on the site that endorses your content, the quality of the content where your link is found, and whether or not the link is do-follow — that is, one that the search engine’s crawlers are allowed to follow and index. 

Link building, or the generation of backlinks for this very purpose, is done through the following means:

• Requesting link placements in content or pages where your site is relevant
• Guest posting articles that contain a link to your site
• Creating high-quality content that other sites find good enough to reference

SEO is Essential in Modern Business

SEO provides businesses with much-needed visibility that draws in clients. Taking care of this is important if you don’t want your business to sink into online obscurity or get buried by the competition.

“All in all, great SEO doesn’t always have to be complicated. A well built and optimised site, that is easy and efficient for search engines to crawl, as well as have a fast load time, with well thought through content that engages its visitors, answers their questions and adds value, will deliver positive results. The more competitive your digital landscape, the more SEO effort you’ll require. And SEO should be a component of your marketing, not the be-all and end-all”.  

Karl Paul, Executive Chairman, Smarter Media Ltd

Most people enjoy watching films. It can help them relieve their stress and feel relaxed after a long, tiring day. Watching movies can also be a great bonding experience for families and friends. Movies can also help you learn, or inspire you to do something new. 

If you are beginning to explore the world of entrepreneurship or are already in the industry, watching business films can be a great way to learn more about business management. This is comparable to reading self-help and motivational books or books about business and leadership. 

Here’s our list of the top movies to watch to inspire you to get moving in your dream business. 

The Social Network

Find out how Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook while studying at Harvard, his struggles, and how the platform rose into one of the biggest social media sites. The movie reminds us that all big businesses came from humble beginnings.

The Founder

Currently, McDonald’s is the biggest fast-food chain in the world, thanks to Ray Kroc. He may be a controversial person, but his story is an inspiring one. Moreover, this story shows how difficult it is to stay in business even though you started the trend. The movie also teaches how to value and take advantage of the opportunities given to us.

Steve Jobs

Not the film starring Ashton Kutcher; the one with Michael Fassbender playing the role of the tech-mogul Steve Jobs. You will see the crucial points of the Apple co-founder’s life and his journey in building the company.

Thank You For Smoking

This movie will show you the best techniques to market or sell any product. In addition, it will teach you the right attitude you need to have to succeed in your chosen niche.

The Pursuit of Happyness

Based on Chris Gardner’s life and his struggle as a homeless person for almost a year, this flick shows how he overcame unimaginable situations to achieve his dreams.

The Wolf of Wall Street

Based on a true story that follows the story of Jordan Belfort and the ups and downs of life being an entrepreneur. The Wolf of Wall Street shows us what characteristics we should not possess as an entrepreneur. 

The Aviator

A biopic of Howard Hughes, focuses on how this unconventional billionaire rose to fame. It also depicts his battles against other giant companies while dealing with a mental illness. The movie will help you realize that struggles and problems will toughen you and bring you closer to success.

Regardless of which movie you watch first, you will not be disappointed as they all give entrepreneurs valuable lessons.

Have you watched any of these films? Are there movies we haven’t included in the list? Share your thoughts, and we will gladly try your recommendations as well.

Company culture is a vital part of any business. It affects not only your employee’s well-being but their output as well. If one does not have a positive office culture, employees will find it hard to see value in their work and in the company itself. If employees continue to struggle because of negative company culture, it could lead to a lot of problems down the line.

As the saying goes, “Positive working environments lead to productive employees.” But does positive company culture correlate with employee behavior? Take a look at several results of positive company culture:

Competitive Recruits. Many HR personnel would say that the best way to draw interest to potential employees is good company culture. When a company, either big or small, has a positive company culture, people will hear about it from previous and current employees. Organizations with a positive culture will attract capable people who prefer a job where they can not only grow but also feel at home.

Loyalty. Businesses with a good corporate culture encourage loyalty among their employees. When employers care for their workforce, employees feel valued and satisfied at work regardless of their compensation. This will improve employee retention.

Performance. Companies that have a positive culture most often inspire their employees to do well, because when employees are happy, they are driven to be more productive and to come up with great ideas that will benefit the company.

Stress-Free Environment. Employees are happier when they are surrounded with positive energy at work. A positive company culture ensures staff do not have to endure physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion because of excessive stress. After all, “happy employees are healthy employees”.

It has been said that a positive company culture plays a huge role in a company’s success. According to Gallup research, companies who make their employees feel happy and valued at work tend to draw their employees’ full potential which then leads to producing better results. Like giving credit to where credit is due. Unfortunately roughly 65% feel that they do not get any form of recognition for a job done at work. When an employee feels disillusioned with their employer chances are they’ll find a place where appreciation and acknowledgment are generously given.

According to MBH Corporation PLC* CEO Callum Laing, “A great company culture separates the best companies from the ‘also rans’. Lots of companies think they have a good culture when things are going well, but it’s only when the chips are down that you really discover whether that culture really means anything.

“Often company cultures are tied closely to the founder. It’s important if you want to maintain that culture as the company grows that habits and processes are formed throughout the business to actively maintain that culture.”

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*MBH Corporation PLC is MBH Corporation plc is a diversified investment holding company, listed on the Frankfurt and Dusseldorf Stock Exchanges. The company acquires small to medium enterprises across multiple geographies and sectors that are well established, profitable and looking to scale. By leveraging the Agglomeration strategy, MBH Corporation plc is able to create substantial shareholder value through the consistent and accretive acquisition of excellent companies. If you are a small business owner that would like to learn how you can benefit from being part of a public company without losing control please click here

Small businesses are optimistic to get back on track as the COVID-19 vaccines continue to roll out. 2020 was a challenging year for everyone. Countries from all over the world implemented community lockdowns with specified restrictions depending on the spikes of COVID cases in their country. Guidelines were imposed to get citizens acquainted with the ‘new normal’. 

The pandemic made a strong impact as the global economy shrunk by 5.2% at the end of 2020. Businesses were unable to operate as the virus infected people at an unimaginable speed. Both small and large-scale businesses experienced difficult times. Some didn’t survive, others struggled on but had to lay off some of their employees to make up for their losses.

Pandemic pivots

Unfortunate events like employees being laid off, business closures, and alternate shifting encouraged startup owners to be more creative and resilient. Operations adapted to the new normal and social distancing policies by lesser person-to-person interaction.

Surviving industries took advantage of other methods to attract consumers without being physically present in an actual store. Entrepreneurs resorted to online selling apps and deliveries to keep people purchasing despite the pandemic. Establishments opted for this method to avoid unnecessary human contact and continue the circulation of the business.

The effect of COVID 19 vaccines on small businesses

Evidently, the rollout of COVID 19 vaccines will help small businesses regain their capability to operate. If the entire population gets vaccinated, people won’t have to worry about the comorbidity risk of the virus. 

Primary health protocols like social distancing will not hinder the full manpower shifting. Operations can go back to normal since everyone has immunity to the virus. Business establishments won’t have to implement strict protocols for their staff and customers.

The reality of COVID-19 vaccines

Physician Anthony Fauci suggests that it will take countries to vaccinate 70% to 85% of the population for things to go back to normal

‘In the Health Care sector, we care for the most vulnerable in society, the impact on everyone working in the sector has been challenging and profound. Being fully vaccinated can literally mean the difference between life and death, but in all areas of our business vaccinations have given all our staff much more confidence to go about their business, knowing that they are playing their part in keeping people safe.’ | Vicky Smith, Principal Care Manager Samuel Hobson*

Vaccination does not mean the economy will go back to normal in an instant.  Several countries are having difficulties in rolling out the vaccination process. Some vaccines have a short shelf life. And in other nations, there’s a shortage of medical workers who can execute vaccination procedures. 

Merging the old and the new normal

The pandemic caused a lot of negative consequences for small businesses. But it pushed companies to implement new approaches and strategies.

According to Jonas Prising, CEO of ManpowerGroup; “Today, technology breakthroughs are driving mass vaccination programmes, workforce transformation, and flexibility.“*

While everyone is waiting for the economic recovery from the pandemic, combining the business method of the previous generation and the tech-based style of the new generation could be a good idea.

The future of startups relies on the success of the COVID-19 vaccination. It dictates the strategies that companies have to implement moving forward. Small businesses have to work closely with authorities to get back to normal sooner than later.

Let us know how you are doing your part to drive vaccination adoption, and engender trust in the vaccination process.

*Samuel Hobson is a UK based care-home, specialised in dementia care for the elderly, that is part of the MBH Corporation PLC. If you are a small business owner that would like to learn how you can benefit from being part of a public company without the cost or losing control please click here