Book Review: The Business of Business Notes by Ed Lisogar, National Capital Corporation

By Jon Richards

The Business of Business Notes: High Profits in the Industry’s Best Kept Secret is a 200+ page book including software that explains business notes with enough detail, information and clarity that readers can easily add this cash flow to their current note business. The author, Ed Lisogar of National Capital, has made a great contribution to the sparse literature available to note brokers.

This twenty-five-chapter book takes the reader through the sale of a business and creation of the note to the final sale to a note buyer. You will learn how to find business notes and then how to buy them. Ed includes some very useful scripts to help you answer note seller’s objections and to develop the rapport necessary to buy a business note at a huge discount. He explains why these discounts are so high and why business notes are so very risky. He describes what the underwriting standards are for buyers of these notes.

The book includes documents that show what a business note is and how it is secured. It helps you understand the math of a business note, an important aspect, since partial purchases and what Ed calls a hybrid, note with real estate, require an understanding of the financial calculator. The manipulations can be very complex. His math sections are fairly well laid out, but will take study.

It is important for Note Brokers to understand the details of a business note, but the strength of this book is in its marketing ideas. After all, marketing is the secret of success in this, and probably any, business. You can get ideas for flyers, brochures and advertising material, and the book is full of ways to find business notes; many never discussed before in any publication I have seen.

The Business of Business Notes effectively uses a case study method to help readers deal with the intricacies involved in these transactions. If you start working with Business Opportunity brokers you need to “talk the talk” but Ed Lisogar’s book can help you “walk the walk” as well. Being able to discuss business notes intelligently with the Realtors who create them is a powerful marketing advantage.

Most note brokers use business notes as a small adjunct to their regular business, but I know that this untapped field has more notes for sale than any other. Business brokers, he explains, are your keys to finding these notes. The only thing keeping note brokers from finding business notes has been a good instructional manual. This book fills the bill. I fully expect that Mr. Lisogar’s book to help more people sell more businesses, and more brokers earn more commissions than was possible before its publication.

The writing style may be a little too “cutesy” for some readers. The smiley faces J can be irritating. It’s clear, though, he is trying to retain your interest in what can become a dull subject. However, I feel you will see the value in the book is in helping you learn to earn large commissions brokering business notes. I recommend the book highly and think you will find new ways to get the most out of this under-explored area of the cash flow industry.

Price: $84 plus shipping and handling. Includes software with calculator forms, the written proposals and cold call letters discussed in the book.