Resources

A comprehensive guide to more information on subjects and articles found in the Sept. issue of Inc. magazine.

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Resources is the Inc. guide to more information on subjects in this issue. This information is intended to help our readers; Inc. does not profit from the sale of any of the resources listed.

Upstart: Start-up Mambos to Beat of Booming Market

For information on Hispanic publications, call Kirk Whisler, publisher and coauthor of The 1997 National Hispanic Media Directory, at 619-434-7474. For statistical data on America's growing Hispanic population, contact the Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, DC 20233, 301-457-3030. For information on Latina businesses, contact the Business Women Leadership Foundation, 1700 K St. NW, Suite 1005, Washington, DC 20006; 202-822-5010.

Managing: Treating Temporary Work as a Permanent Fixture

The first 53 pages of William Bridges's JobShift: How to Prosper in a Workplace Without Jobs (Addison Wesley, 800-552-2259, 1994, $13) offer a clear-eyed account of the disappearance of the traditional job. The rest of the book provides prescriptions for thriving in our increasingly "jobless" economy: consider yourself a corporation with many assets, market yourself to employers, create your own job security, and so on. This month Addison Wesley publishes Bridges's follow-up, Creating You & Co.: Learn to Think Like the CEO of Your Own Career ($22).

Cover Story: The Richest Man You've Never Heard Of

Looking to get up to speed on the buying and selling of bad debt? Or to sell off some of your own tardy accounts receivable? Here are some useful contacts:

• American Collectors Association, in Minneapolis (612-926-6547). Carissa Hoffman (hoffman@collector.com) is the resident expert on the purchasing of receivables.
• Faulkner & Grey (800-535-8403), in New York City. It publishes two monthlies, Collections and Credit Risk magazine ($79 a year) and Credit Collections News ($295 a year).
• The Debt Marketplace (562-903-7220), in Santa Fe Springs, Calif. Founders Dennis and Judy Hammond educate both buyers and sellers about how to value bad debt properly.
• First Financial Network (405-748-4100), in Oklahoma City. Founder Bliss Morris serves as a broker and portfolio adviser to institutions that want to sell their delinquent debts. Working on commission, she stratifies, bundles, and prices the portfolios of debt, and then markets them.
• Heritage Financial Services (405-722-1409), also in Oklahoma City. This is another repackager, only it works as a reseller of nonperforming debt rather than as a commission-based broker. It buys debt wholesale from the source and cuts it into smaller fillets for sale to collection agencies and lawyers.
• Unifund CCR Partners (513-489-8877), in Cincinnati. David Rosenberg's operation buys and collects on various forms of bad debt, including credit-card debt.
• The Nilson Report (805-983-0448), published out of Oxnard, Calif. H. Spencer Nilson's bimonthly journal is a good source of information on credit-card debt; a subscription costs $745 a year. For more information on that topic, also visit www.ramresearch.com on the Web.

Face-off: Starstruck

"I really like Player Piano [Dell, 800-223-5780, 1952, $6.95], Kurt Vonnegut's first novel," says Nancy Austin. "Originally published in 1952, it seems current even now--it's all about managers and engineers and a supercomputer that controls everybody. A cautionary tale about what happens when the journeymen revolt.

"Also," continues Austin, "to show I really do like the Chicago Bulls [see 'What Do AOL and Dennis Rodman Have in Common?' July 1997], but mostly because this resource is right on, I recommend Phil Jackson's Sacred Hoops: Spiritual Lessons of a Hardwood Warrior [Hyperion, 800-343-9204, 1995, $12.95]. Coauthored with Hugh Delehanty, it's worth it for chapter 10 alone, 'Coaching Michelangelo.' In the book Jackson writes all about stars and journeymen and coaching and leadership."

Steven Berglas contends that "the best analysis of the conflicts aroused by attempting to prescribe how to lead and what behaviors should be fostered within groups" is by Ronald A. Heifetz in Leadership Without Easy Answers (Harvard University Press, 800-448-2242, 1994, $24.95).

Anatomy: No Experience Required

The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) offers a variety of resources for lovers of coffee as well as tea, including books, training manuals, and conferences. The SCAA also runs the University of Specialty Coffee program, which features an extensive curriculum, complete with espresso labs and brewer-technician-certification training classes. You can contact the SCAA by phone (562-624-4100) or E-mail (coffee@scaa.org), or visit its Web site.

The Republic of Tea: The Story of the Creation of a Business, As Told Through the Personal Letters of Its Founders, by Bill Rosenzweig and Mel and Patricia Ziegler (Doubleday, 800-223-6834, 1992, $15), chronicles the rise of one of the most successful new beverage companies of all time.

Inc. Update: Selling Out

Selling or buying a private company is hard to do. So don't rely simply on whatever your emotions (or business brokers) tell you. Here are three top-notch books that can quickly boost your expertise:

• How to Buy a Business: Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition, by Richard A. Joseph, Anna M. Nekoranec, and Carl H. Steffens (Dearborn Trade, 800-245-2665, 1993, $19.95), offers a shrewd look at key considerations to keep in mind when purchasing a small business. (Among them: the benefits of broadening your search beyond your fantasies.) It also details how to find and evaluate prospective acquisition candidates. Would-be buyers should find the long chapter on financing the acquisition especially helpful. Don't make an offer without it.
• The Buying and Selling a Company Handbook (Price Waterhouse, 1995, $3) can't be beaten when it comes to explaining the tax and other financial considerations relating to company sales and purchases. True, it's technical and can get so complicated it's off-putting. But if you spend some time working your way through it, your chances of success will inevitably improve. Isn't that worth a migraine? For a copy, call the communications department of your local Price Waterhouse, or call 212-819-5000 and ask for the marketing department. Or write to Douglas Calvin, Price Waterhouse, Middle-Market and Growing Cos. Group, 1251 Ave. of the Americas, New York, NY 10124.
• How to Sell Your Business for More Money in Less Time with Fewer Problems, by C.D. Peterson (McGraw-Hill, 1990), is out of print, but it's worth trying to find it at your local library. What Peterson lacks in style, he more than compensates for by quickly and clearly answering an enormous range of questions a prospective seller might ask. Among the most useful chapters is one that addresses an all-too-typical quandary: "I did everything within legal bounds to keep my reported earnings--and therefore my taxes--as low as possible. How can I show buyers what my business is really worth when my books show such low earnings?" If the work sheets and sections describing the intricacies of business-valuation methods seem too complex, skip them and focus on meatier matters.

If you'd like to read the original Business for Sale columns covered in this story, they appear in the magazine, April 1996 through May 1997. You can also find the stories in our on-line archives; type Business for Sale for keyword search and select Sort by date.

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