Without any doubt, when it comes to business valuations, profits stand out as the single most important factor. Yet for many medium to large companies, profits can be quite elusive. Even as we land an ever-increasing list of new big deals, oftentimes the costs simply rise up to eat the profits.   As a business buyer, I want to see a reasonable profit. This should be reasonably high as a percentage of turnover. Too close to the bone and a single bad month takes me out. I also want to see that...