Author View (Richard Parker)

On January 17, Trump University Professor Richard Parker wrote a post on this blog, entitled, “Seven Reasons Why Buying a New Franchise Business Is a Disastrous Mistake.” It triggered a strong response from Trump University Member 1711781, who offered arguments in support of franchise ownership. Professor Parker has now responded to member 1711781. The result is an exchange that contains a lot of valuable information for anyone contemplating business ownership. So much good information, we decided to publish it on this blog. The first installment has appeared on this blog. Today, we publish the second and final installment. Put on your thinking cap and more...

On January 17, Trump University Professor Richard Parker wrote a post on this blog, entitled Seven Reasons Why Buying a New Franchise Business Is a Disastrous Mistake. It triggered a strong response from Trump University Member 1711781, who offered arguments in support of franchise ownership. Professor Parker has now responded to member 1711781. The result is an exchange that contains a lot of valuable information for anyone contemplating business ownership. So much good information, we are publishing it today on this blog. Due to the length of this post, the post will appear in two installments: the first half today, and the second half more...

Jeff Elgin’s recent article in Entrepreneur, “Top 10 Reasons for Buying a Franchise,” takes my breath away.  Sure, there is logic behind some of the reasons he spells out for buying a franchise  - you’re also buying a recognized brand, he writes, plus receiving promises of training and advertising. But I have heard them all before and my experience tells me that buying a non-franchised business is a vastly wiser business decision every time. Further, reality dictates that not all franchisors come close to living up to the representations they make when “selling” you the concept. In fact, I put together a more...

It happens often when people are buying a business - and generally quite early in the negotiating process. The seller takes the prospective buyer aside and quietly makes a statement that goes something like this:  “Well there is the income you will see in the books. But you also need to know that we also get a substantial amount of unreported cash income too (wink, wink). When you buy the business, you can count on that too, so make sure you figure that into your valuation.”  All I can say is that if the seller has been taking unreported cash from the business, more...

You’ve read articles and books that explain all the things you must do when you're negotiating. But how about the things you should never do? Here’s my personal list, developed through my many years of wealth creation by selling and buying businesses. You will find these tips to be effective in almost any other kind of negotiation too.   Don't beat an issue to death. If you can't agree, move on and come back to it. Don't quote facts that you can't back up. Don't try to be something you are not. Don't think you have to give in on one point because you won the previous one. Don't hold a more...

A business is a living, breathing entity, and it is subject to certain life cycles, which I describe as “Three G’s to the Top of the Hill.” The bottom of the hill is Garbage, the middle of the hill is Good and the top of the hill is Great. For the purposes of this explanation, I want you to think of Garbage in two ways. First, every new business starts out as Garbage. Second, it’s where every business will wind up if it falls backwards. You may be saying that if a business is Garbage, it represents opportunity because there’s only one way more...

If you visit this blog often, you already have read my many posts about the advantages of buying a business. You know that buying a business, in nearly all cases, is far wiser than starting one. (On the first day you own a business, a customer will call. You can’t say that about a new business you just started.) But did you know that there is a low-cost way to enjoy all the benefits of buying a business at a fraction of the cost? There is, and it all starts when you ask a very simple question about the business you are considering more...

I’m known as the “Buy a Business Guy” at Trump University. And with good reason. I’m the professor who developed Trump U’s premier course, The Art of Buying a Business. I’ve also bought and sold many businesses over the years.  But between the purchase and the sale of the businesses I've owned, I’ve also run those enterprises - and I have run them well, too. I’ve also cultivated the habit of writing down my thoughts over the years - thoughts that I believe can help you run your business better and maybe even grasp that golden ring known as “success.”  I’d like to share some more...

Imagine you are given a huge list of ingredients and asked to use them in any way you want to prepare an elaborate dish. What do you think your chances would be of completing it successfully without a recipe or any guidance whatsoever?  Or let’s say that someone laid out 300 nuts, bolts, and assorted metal pieces and told you to “put it together” without even telling you what “it” is. Without any instructions, do you think you would wind up building the right thing?  Those situations are a lot like what many people do when they buy a business. They have ingredients more...

If ever there was a case to convince you that job security only happens when you own the business, you need only look to Dell Computer. They recently announced results that "blew away" Wall Street expectations. They made $759 million for the quarter and thanked their employees by announcing a planned layoff of 8,000 people, roughly 10% of their workforce. There's no question they have been taking a beating recently and margins continue to erode in their space but that's what makes my blood boil about big business - you have no control of your future cash flow or career when you more...

For years, I’ve been preaching that when you own your own business, you can structure it to make your life easier and a lot more pleasurable. To give you an example, when I went into my first business, I made it a goal to go fishing every Wednesday throughout the summer. I did it. It was wonderful. I also had that goal to leave the office by 3:00 on Fridays. That was wonderful too. I have since stopped working on Friday altogether. Now, there’s no way you could ever do that working for someone else. However, I might have come across someone who more...

If I told you that I know someone who bought a business nine years ago and just sold it for an 80% loss, you would probably think I was describing an individual who doesn’t have one iota of business sense. But you’d be wrong, because that is exactly what Mercedes-Benz did a few days ago when they unloaded Chrysler. Here’s what happened, as reported by Mark Landler on May 14th in “A Corporate Divorce on the Cheap,” his article in The New York Times: “The price of freedom for the soon-to-be-renamed Daimler A.G. is $677 million in cash - its out-of-pocket outlay in more...

For most small businesses, hiring a professional to perform a valuation is not necessary. First of all it is expensive, and more often than not, it simply does not reflect reality. For example, I recently read a valuation on a local company handling specialized telecom components in a very restricted marketplace. This company was doing $700,000 a year in sales and netting $100,000. The valuation started off: “The company is focused upon the B2B telephony segment which is a $42 billion industry in North America.” I threw out the entire report after reading that one sentence. Why? How on earth can you possibly compare more...

If you have any desire to be in business for yourself, then now’s the time to make your move! In fact, there has never been a better time to take that step. So this year, buy yourself the greatest gift of all - a business of your own! Over the past year, I’ve met and spoken with thousands of people worldwide who have reached the point where they’ve said, “enough is enough!” Most hate their jobs. They are terribly uncertain about the future. They’re tired of busting their butts with little or no thanks and they’ve finally realized that controlling their own more...

  One week ago today, this blog ran Part I of a two-part, in-depth interview with Trump University Professor Richard Parker, developer of Trump University’s The Art of Buying a Business course.  In that interview, tackled many of the questions that need to be asked before buying a franchise. Today, Richard Parker talks more with Trump University’s Barry Lenson and brings the issue into even sharper focus.  Barry Lenson: If you own a business, you can deduct the costs of advertising, signage and other expenses. Is that also true with a franchise? Is there an advantage one way or another?  Richard Parker: The expenses can be more...

I have never seen an advertisement that said "Great Jobs for Sale," and I bet you haven't either. But if someone offered to sell you a great job, for a reasonable price, wouldn't you say yes? Imagine receiving the additional job benefits of having a new job with a healthy income stream that would exceed your current salary. To make the deal even sweeter, it would be a job where you would personally receive 100 percent of the income that your ideas and work generated for the firm, not just a small percentage. And once you built the value and equity in more...

Critical knowledge from The 10 Golden Rules for Buying a Business In my blog post of August 30th, I explained why buying a business can be the smartest step you will ever take toward becoming a wealthy and successful entrepreneur. Today, I'd like to take the process one step further by sharing more detailed information, drawn from the free special report, The 10 Golden Rules for Buying a Business, which I wrote for the students of Trump University. What are The 10 Commandments? Let me give them to you in condensed form: Commandment # 1 - Pay for the past, consider the present, but buy more...

Information that can change your life from our free special report, The 10 Golden Rules for Buying a Business.  If you spend any time on this blog, you'll soon catch the excitement about starting your own business. Entrepreneurship is so hot here, it's like a bonfire. Today, I'd like to throw a new log onto that fire for you to consider. It's another kind of entrepreneurship: buying a business. I've been buying and selling businesses all my life. I actually started my first when I was 12 and sold it when I was 13 - a true story. Since then, I have bought more more...