Industry Trends

行业趋势

Businesses Changing Hands

企业转手

For business consulting franchises that specialize in brokerage, we could be entering a time period ripe with opportunity. At any given time, there are approximately four to five million businesses in the U.S. up for sale, and “a recent study projects that during the next 10 years there will be 8 million small to mid-size businesses owned by Baby Boomers for sale, and a remarkably lower amount of buyers – only 6.2 million,” according to Murphy. “There will be a lot of people retiring, which will create a lot of good saleable business investment opportunities.”

对于专营经纪业务的商业咨询连锁加盟而言，我们可以进入一个时机成熟的时期。任何时候美国都有大约四到五百万的企业可供出售，而且“最近的一项研究显示，接下来的10年里生于生育高峰期的人将会出售800万中小型企业，而购买者的人数则少得多，只有620万，”墨菲表示，“许多人退休，这将创造许多好的可供出售的商业投资机会。”

However, according to a recent New York Times article, the results of a 2008 study conducted by Atlanta-based White Horse Advisors and Vistage International found that 87 percent of business owners who are a part of the baby boomer generation do not have a written exit plan, in spite of 96 percent of them agreeing that having an exit strategy was important.

然而，从《纽约时报》一篇近期发表的文章来看，总部位于亚特兰大的白马顾问和伟事达国际所进行的2008年研究结果表明，87%出生于生育高峰期的企业主并没有书面的退出计划，尽管他们中有96%的人认同退出策略十分重要。

The disparity in these numbers represents a marked opportunity for consultants in related areas to have an impact.3

这些数字上的差异表明相关领域内的顾问明显有机会发挥作用。3

In addition, according to Murphy Business and Financial, the current state of the economy has also provided us with many more buyers. As jobs have disappeared, a number of unemployed workers have been becoming buyers of businesses as a result of their weariness of seeking work from others to earn a living.

此外，墨菲商业和金融公司表示，目前的经济状态也为我们提供了更多的购买者。许多失业人员正逐渐成为这类企业的购买者，因为他们已经厌倦了向他人寻求工作来维持生计。

转守为攻

Tired of playing defense as a result of the recent financial crisis, there is a growing expectation of business owners being more proactive in their pursuit of increased profits. Many methods will undoubtedly be used, and consultants who focus in prime areas, a few of which are described below, will have an edge in courting clients:

由于最近的金融危机，人们已经厌倦了处于防守地位，而越来越期望成为企业主，更加积极主动地追求更高的利润。毫无疑问，这期间许多方法会施展作用，而专注于主要领域(下面会对其中一些领域进行描述)的顾问公司在获得客户的青睐方面将具有优势：

Social Media: The demands of running a business are many, and they consume a vast amount of a manager’s time. These demands stemming from the basic operation of a business leave very little time, if any, for learning new technologies crucial to staying relevant in the marketplace. Opportunities exist for consultants able to help companies understand how to use social media and the related analytics.

社会媒体：经营企业有许多需求，会耗费管理人员的大量时间。这些需求来源于企业的基本运作，会让人没有时间或只有极少时间学习新技术，而这类新技术对于企业在市场维持相关地位至关重要。这使得顾问有机会施展能力，帮助企业了解如何运用社会媒体和相关的分析方法。

Focus on Productivity: By coming in as an outsider, business consultants can see ways to improve that those within a business are just too close to the operation to notice. Franchises that offer coaching services to business owners and others within a business can help deliver methods to assist their clients to achieve improved results that are sustainable.

强调生产力：由于站在局外人的角度，商业顾问能够看到企业内部人员因为太过于接近而无法注意到的提高运营的方法。向企业主和企业内部的其他人提供辅导服务的连锁加盟能够帮助传授方法，协助客户取得更好的可持续的成果。

Green Initiatives: Becoming more environmentally-friendly is a trend that goes well beyond business. However, the planetary benefits aren’t just the only reason for green efforts. Potential monetary savings from the reduction of water and energy usage, for example, are also a by-product of green initiatives.

绿色倡议：越来越环保是一种远远超出个体企业的趋势。然而，保护地球并非是进行环保的唯一原因。举例来说，因减少水和能源的使用而节省下来的费用也是绿色倡议的一种副产品。