Topic: How To Invest

What is Pat’s commentary for the week of November 10, 2015

Article Excerpt

If you own and operate your own small, successful business—or invest in one—you can earn much better returns than you get from investing in the stock market. That’s because risk is higher in small private companies, so they sell at a lower average P/E ratios than public companies. In addition, as the owner of such a company (or a favoured insider), you have a lot of tax deferral opportunities that are unavailable to a public investor. However, along with higher overall risk, private business has other negatives. One key drawback is that private businesses are illiquid. It’s far harder and costlier to sell a private business than a publicly traded stock. If you sell anything less than control of your company, you get a low price. This reflects the high risk of holding a minority interest in a private company. If you sell control of the company but retain 49% or less, you become the minority investor. If you disagree…