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I had a nice conversation last week with Pat Ennis of Ennis Legacy Partners and Walter H. Deyhle of Gelman, Rosenberg and Freeman,CPAs, both in Maryland. Thanks for the invitation, Pat! Read More

The driving forces for an emergency sale of a business, usually far below the fair market value are Disaster, Disease, Disability and Death. Sooner or later every owner leaves his or her business. If you wait long enough, one of these four horsemen of business apocalypse will claim your transition. Read More

Many owners are reluctant to plan for their departure from the business. In some cases it’s because they are too comfortable with ambiguity (see my previous post.) For others it is because they fear losing control. They believe that setting a final date for their departure, even tentatively, starts Read More

Ambiguity kills value. That was a key point in a white paper from Orange Kiwi that I read over the holidays. Taken from the PhD thesis of Dr. Allie Taylor, the paper describes the psychological profile of entrepreneurs, and their historical reluctance to begin an exit planning process. Read More

Your professional team is the fourth component of exit planning preparation. We’ve already discussed valuation, distance to goal and classes of buyers. Taken together, these basics aren’t enough by themselves to execute an exit plan, but understanding the first three and assembling the fourth will Read More

Know your buyer? Your initial reaction to this title may be “How can I know my buyer? I haven’t even decided to sell yet!” Nonetheless, understanding the type of buyer that your company will attract is vital. More importantly, gaining that understanding long before you go to market will impact many Read More

Once you understand your company’s value, the next step in planning is to calculate your Distance to Goal. As the Cheshire Cat said, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

“Any road” is not the way you want to approach the biggest financial event of a car Read More

There are four basics an owner should address before beginning any exit, succession or transition plan. They are Valuation, Distance to Goal, Prospective Buyers and Professional Team. Value is the starting point for all transition planning. Any decision, any business plan, and every retirement Read More

When selling your business to employees or family, ownership lessons rise to a special level of importance. Regardless of the financial, inheritance, estate or valuation aspects of the plan, the real question is how to prepare your successors to run the company. Read More

Owners feel loyalty to the trusted advisors they already have relationships with. “He’s the attorney who handles all my legal problems,” is a bit like saying “He’s the doctor I always go to when I feel sick.” That is fine, but what if you needed a heart transplant? Read More