Legal Propulsion Lab
Mark Toohey is an experienced commercial lawyer who has worked with both major law firms and as general counsel in the media, telecommunications, software and IT industries. He has been a lawyer, company director, marketing director, company secretary and entrepreneur. Mark's commercial experience extends way beyond the theoretical. He has helped launch a number of start-up businesses and his hands on experience was gained from negotiating and documenting deals for a wide variety of business initiatives.
Bomb, Book and Compass By Simon Winchester Rating: Silver Understanding the depth of China’s history seems particularly important as we enter the Asian Century. Winchester, in his entertaining style, takes us on a discovery of Chinese scientific progress through the ages. The book was released with an alternative title, The Man who Loved China. It [...]
Great business ideas are a wonderful thing. There is tremendous energy in finding yourself passionately believing in an idea. It is one of the great creative moments of life. A lot of satisfaction and fulfilment can be squeezed out of the creative challenge of dreaming up a new business. The big question though is: What [...]
American Caesar By William Manchester Rating: Gold Few lives have been writ larger in human history than the life of Douglas MacArthur. While legions of critics denounced him, there were times when MacArthur was one of the most popular people in America. He had a tendency towards theatrics and was suspected of majestic aspirations. Some [...]
Hope and visions of a better future are essential when deciding to buy a business. Without that ray of hope, we’d never dare take any risks. Buying a business is usually a life-changing event – for better or worse. So, do everything you can to make sure when you take that plunge, it actually improves [...]
Disputes rarely depend on the facts. They are often more about the personalities involved. That is why it is always a tough call to predict how they other party will act. Particularly, if there is a lot of fire in their belly. How that can translate into action is always uncertain. If the trading relationship [...]
If you are thinking of joining Groupon or a similar discount program be wary. The sales pitch sounds good and the lure of new customers is understandable, but you must get the maths right. Many businesses have ended up on the rocks because they didn’t understand all the costs that went into the sale of [...]
Buying a business is horse trading. As any good haggler knows, you need to go into the negotiations armed with reasons why the sale price should be lowered. Here are some tips that may help you to pay less to buy a business. Some of these tips are ways to justify your insistence on a [...]
Earnings Before Interest and Tax or EBIT measures a company’s profitability. EBIT is simply all profits (before interest payments and income taxes are taken into account). Accountants like EBIT and consider it to be an important indicator. It measures profits and avoids distortions that result if companies use different capital structures or tax rates. That makes it [...]
Knowing how to convince an investor is a crucial importance to any venture. The place to start is by considering the investor’s goals. You will never win over an investor unless you understand the offer from their perspective. If you are pitching to an investor it is crucial that you understand their concerns and what it will [...]
Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis By James Rickards Rating: Gold The Pentagon recently conducted its first war game where the battlefield was the global financial markets. Gold, currencies, stocks, bonds, derivatives, and other financial instruments were the only weapons deployed. The author was selected to advise on strategic planning and to select Wall Street experts [...]
Great business ideas are a wonderful thing. There is tremendous energy in finding yourself passionately believing in an idea. It is one of the great creative moments of life. A lot of satisfaction and fulfilment can be squeezed out of the creative Continue Reading
This due diligence checklist provides a summary of the issues that a due diligence team will consider when conducting a due diligence audit of your business. It is only an overview to the core areas addressed in the corporate due diligence Continue Reading