Top 5 annoying jargon for Private Equity

When reading a business plan, I concede that jargon words are used to simplify complex businesses. "Platform" or "solution" or  "best of breed" are common, but there are so many I hear on a daily basis that make me cringe - at the end of the day, we are all in this together. Let’s collectively pull on the rope, see if we can stretch the envelope, reach a higher plain, chase our dreams, grasp the nettle and take a bird’s eye view of our collective responsibilities. Let’s reach for the stars and remember there are no problems there are only opportunities, another day another opportunity. If we outsource and offshore nothing is beyond our grasp, pick the low hanging fruit, seize the moment and if you have to ask where we are going you aren't there yet - we definitely need a road map.

Here, we list the 5 words and phrases these executives would outlaw:

1. Reaching out

– Michael De Pencier, managing director, Investico

2. Downsizing

– John Loewen, private equity financier, Loewen and Partners

3. Underlying

– Martin McCourt, chief executive, Dyson

4. "Run this up the flagpole and see who salutes."

– Cathy Turner, group HR director, BMO

5. "Soft skills."

– Sandra Porter, HR director, Starbucks

A professional writer has a few words of his own that he sees as lazy. Maybe, this non-business writer can even give you a fresh perspective on your Twitter writing:

Words are the lifeblood of your writing. They’re what you use to build credibility or diminish it. Words matter. They’re what make your arguments more compelling, your prose stronger, and your craft more captivating. Untrained writers can be careless with their words. It takes discipline to use these tools well.

“Stuff” Stuff is a lazy word. Only use it sparingly when you’re intentionally trying to be informal. Instead, use a more descriptive noun.

“Things” Things is another lazy word. People often overuse it. While not always inappropriate, it also should be used on rare occasions.
Things is nondescript and can often be replaced with much better nouns, such as “reasons” or “elements” or “issues” and so on… 

“Got” Got is a terrible verb. It mean obtaining something or as a helping verb like have. More often than not, got can usually go away.
Instead of saying “I got up”, say “I woke up.”
Instead of saying, “I got a baseball”, say, “I have a baseball”.

Read more writing tips by Jeff Goins here: 

3 Reasons for business owners to listen to Rick Nathan

Recently, on BNN The Pitch, Andrew Bell asked a very good question about what private equity judges to be their most important reason to do a deal. Rick Nathan answered. Now Rick runs Kensington, one of Canada's best funds, and he built the CVCA, so we are talking about a deep experience of great partnerships with business owners. Anyone watching the show, deep down in their bones, would also have known the answer.
Quite simply, it is the people.
Early stage owners nod their heads - I'm a good guy, my golf buddies like a beer with me after a game.
Well, that was not Rick means. He judges their business readiness. Rick tends to focus his questions on The Pitch around these three points:

1. What have they accomplished in the past? 
2. What networks do they operate within - is there a top level adviser involved? 
3. How much business acumen is in their team and are they to really grow their business? Have they really analysed their competition and how they can build a niche market and expand from there.

To give Rick's focus on the people a bit of meaning, let me run through a personal example that happened to me after The Pitch went on air. I got a call from an entrepreneur who had a product and wanted help. As I gently probed, he revealed that he had not even drafted one page of information about his concept, did not have any social media accounts where we could connect, was still using hotmail for his email and did not even have a professional signature line in his email where you have a phone number and your name in full.
Why bother phoning then? Why not just chat to your golf buddy? How am I going to take a few minutes to help someone not in my client segment? I enjoy helping but if there is nothing for me to email to someone else, then there is not a starting point.
I also asked if he would go on The Pitch to just even discuss his business idea, but that was a damp squid too.
To all those entrepreneurs, to get Rick Nathan to help you, have a full business plan, a full PowerPoint deck. At least read one book on how to attract money. An easy book that is popular with the BDC and the VCs, a go-to-guide as you develop a business, is Money Magnet. Otherwise, browse the Internet.
At least set up a Twitter account.

Jacoline Loewen is an expert in private equity and you can see her on BNN The Pitch

More companies come off the stock exchanges - thank goodness

Reading about the 2008 crash is interesting as all the signs were visible. There were certainly steps that could have been taken before 2008. 

Getting the financial analysts off the backs of the corporations, for example. 

It was almost as if companies were being managed from the offices of such people, who insisted on major changes with barely any knowledge of what really went on in these massive enterprises, let alone caring about their long-term future. More companies could have come off the stock exchanges, or never have gone on to them in the first place. There were other, more patient and sensible ways to finance enterprises.

Private equity, for example.

The game changer is private equity. My favourite money people act as a mini bank but who deal with flesh and blood people. This private equity actually looks for company owners who treat their customers as worthwhile serving repeatedly for many, many years. The best private equity are owners themselves and tend to take a non control position and let the owners get on with serving their clients.

5 Questions you need to answer if you go on BNN "The Pitch"

This Wednesday, I am on BNN, The Pitch with realSociable and BuyandBrag.

Many entrepreneurs ask me about going on the show and I would encourage it strongly. Think of it as marketing and what an audience to reach for free.

THE PITCH – SHOW DETAILS

BNN asks each potential entrepreneur to create a well-organized, one or two-page handout that includes your business name, your name, position, contact info, summary of your business plan and a brief bio.

We also ask that you answer the following questions:

1. The ask - how much $ do you need and what will it be used for?
2. Who are your competitors and why are you going to be a market leader?
3. What is the overall market potential for your business/product?
4. What is your bench strength (i.e. mgmt)?
5. What is your cost structure / technology advantage?

The 3 Planes of Managing

Basically, managing is about influencing action. 

Managing is about helping organizations and units to get things done, which means action. Sometimes managers manage actions directly. They fight fires. They manage projects. They negotiate contracts. 

One step removed, they manage people. Managers deal with people who take the action, so they motivate them and they build teams and they enhance the culture and train them and do things to get people to take more effective actions.

And two steps removed from that, managers manage information to drive people to take

action—through budgets and objectives and delegating tasks and designing organization

structure and all those sorts of things.

Today I think we have much too much managing through information. Henry Mintzberg calls this "deeming." In other words, people sit in their offices and think they're very clever because they deem that you will increase sales by 10%, or out the door you go. Mintzberg says:

Well, I can do that. My granddaughter could do that; she's four. It doesn't take genius to say: Increase sales or out you go. That's the worst of managing through information.