April 16, 2025 • 16 mins
What happens when you sell the business you've built from the ground up? More importantly, who will take care of the clients who’ve trusted you for years?
These questions lie at the heart of a powerful conversation about the human side of business exits. While most discussions around mergers and acquisitions focus on valuation multiples and deal structures, this one dives into the relationship dynamics that truly define success.
When fielding acquisition calls, savvy business owners flip the script. Yes, potential buyers are evaluating your business—but you should be interviewing them just as thoroughly. Will they maintain your service standards? Will your clients enjoy working with them? The sale becomes less about walking away and more about ensuring continuity for those who helped build your success.
Most sellers focus solely on the financial payday, but this narrow lens overlooks the bigger picture. Your business isn’t just an asset—it’s a living entity with stakeholders who rely on it. The real shift happens when you begin seeing yourself not just as the owner, but as a shareholder. This mindset change can transform your approach, helping you extract value while preserving what you’ve built.
For small business owners whose net worth is largely tied to their company, exit planning is critical. Working with financial advisors, attorneys, and accountants on a regular basis opens up options beyond simply “staying in the seat until you pass.” There are multiple ways to secure your future while ensuring the business thrives without you.
Ready to think differently about your future? Start by viewing yourself as a shareholder in your own enterprise—and begin planning for the day your business continues its journey, with or without you at the helm.
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/michealmckeen
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Hi, I’m Marc Thomas, Founder and CEO of Current TEK Solutions and CYBER GUARDIANS. If you or someone you know could benefit from our cutting-edge IT and cybersecurity services, we’d love to help. Reach out to us today to learn how we can secure and elevate your business. https://www.currentTEKsolutions.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
At the end of the day .
Speaker 2 (00:00):
ultimately, we need to be looking at who's the right
fit for us, and so part of thatconversation is is this a
person that I would want to workwith?
Is this person that's on theother side of the line going to
provide the same service thatwe're providing our customers
now, so their customerexperience doesn't change?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
So, when you talked about how you took these calls
and you learned something fromevery one of those, right, what
are some of the things you werelearning along the way by taking
those calls?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
A lot of you know it's really about business
negotiation, or what are thepeople that are buying a company
looking for?
Are we a good fit In the MSPspace?
A lot of conversation aroundtarget client profile, because a
(00:56):
lot of times when we start MSPbusinesses frankly, any business
we take whatever opportunitiescome to us because the dollars
are important and we that's howwe tend to build our business,
and it's not just IT businessesright, it's freight brokerages
and financial planners andwhatever else.
(01:17):
We just take the money thatcomes to us because we want some
sort of income right.
But the end of the day,ultimately we need to be looking
at who's the right fit for us,and so part of that conversation
is is this a person that Iwould want to work with?
Is this person that's on theother side of the line going to
(01:37):
provide the same service thatwe're providing our customers
now?
So their customer experiencedoesn't change.
What are they looking for froma documentation perspective?
What are they seeing in mybusiness?
That's a detriment that theywouldn't want to buy it.
There's a lot of talk aboutcontracted revenue versus time
and materials revenue when itcomes to M&A in the MSP space,
(02:02):
and the reality is both of thosebusinesses are saleable, but
you know if, if they are ahundred percent time of
materials and I was almost ahundred percent recurring
revenue, that's not a good fitfor the the customer.
Right, these are two differentmodels, two different directions
, and so the customers are goingto get a different experience
(02:24):
after the sale.
So more it was going to get adifferent experience after the
sale.
So Mario was really trying tofigure out what are the
questions they're asking.
Do I like this person?
Because if I don't like them,how do I expect any of my
clients to like them either?
Right, so it's really justtrying to flip the script on
them.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
They're asking questions about my business, but
I'm actually interviewing themto make sure that they're a fit
for my clients definitely so, ina sense, in just like that,
we're talking about therelationship aspect, right,
providing, continue to provide,this service, that that you have
built, and, um, in a sense,kind of like dating, right,
(03:00):
you're going back and seeing,going, hey, is this a good fit,
right, even though chances are,whether you stay on after the
sale or you immediately exit, ora period of time and then exit,
you know, um is a good fit foryour, for your client base, and
is it a good fit for yourorganization and the culture and
those things?
Right, and what?
How does it align?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
That makes a huge difference.
A lot of times when people areselling, they're selling for the
purposes of getting out of work.
The thought in a lot of casesis retirement or it's how do I
free up these dollars?
Because I want to go dosomething else.
But I think ultimately a lot ofbusinesses, when they're
(03:40):
selling, it's just a I'm lookingfor the payday.
They're selling it's just a I'mlooking for the payday and
given, uh, where I'm at in life?
Uh, at the time that I sold, Istill had kids in school, in in
primary school, right.
So I I wasn't at a place whereI was like, oh, I'm ready to
throw in the towel and just gogoof off, right I sail the world
(04:02):
yeah, exactly, uh.
So we and we don't think aboutthose things of you know what
the sell is right, because it'sjust I'm trying to get these
dollars.
I think that that's the averageconversation or the average
sale that happens I'm justtrying to get the dollars.
So there's not that many peoplethat sell and stay on with that
(04:24):
business and the time that theystay on if they stay on tends
to be pretty short In a lot ofcases.
Excuse me, less than 30 days,less than 90 days.
I stayed on for 14 months andwhen I was talking to another
friend who was in the industrythat has regular M&A types of
(04:44):
conversations, he was amazedlike wow, nobody stays on that
long.
And don't get me wrong, somepeople specifically sell because
they're tired of being thatleader and they just want to
stop making those decisions.
Right, like I was a greattechnician, I used to do server
projects that I love.
I want to get doing that againand not have to deal with P&L or
(05:06):
whining employees or whateverthat problem is.
So there are a number ofbusinesses that when I sell, the
intention is give me a job thatI have less responsibility and
we'll keep moving forwardtogether.
But those are, I think are fewand far between.
So it's's like we need tofigure out the what is the path?
(05:27):
And um, you know really, whatis that motivation?
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah, so when you went I guess when you got into
business um and the businessthat you've sold, when you
started, that um was M&A a topicthat was discussed in the very
beginning you sort of say, like,what does this look like down
the road for us, you and yourpartner, and for the business?
Or at what point did thatreally become a thought?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, I would say there's kind of two milestones,
to answer your question directly.
No, not at all.
Right, you're so gung-ho aboutstarting this new thing and
going out on your own right theOregon Trail.
It's kind of like this is funand exciting, so you're not
thinking with the end in mind.
(06:11):
And I would say the morebusiness owners that I've talked
to that's a very common theme,right, we just want to keep, we
want to build something and wewant to have an impact, whatever
that impact means.
So we're not thinking with theend of mind.
Don't get me wrong.
There's just as many of thoseuh, high d disc profile people
(06:31):
that are like I need to sellthis business for five million
dollars and I need to do it bythis age.
Right, so when they start,they've got a goal in mind yeah
and those are the people I lovemeeting now, right, because
they're very goal focused andthey're trying to get somewhere.
Sure, a sale at all, no, no, Isaid sure.
(06:54):
We're two milestones though.
Um, the first one was as youstart to mature, um, you start
realizing that this business ismore than just me and my trunk,
uh, fixing computers.
You know what I mean.
Um, now we've got an office,we've got employees those
employees have children.
Um, you got all of these thingsgoing.
(07:15):
And then there's kind of a weprobably need to make sure that,
if I get hit by a bus today,that we've got things in place.
So one of the milestones Iwould say is the buy-sell.
Again, I had a business partnerand we were just doing
something good together, right.
(07:36):
So, and we're not thinking ofthe breakup, we're not thinking
of the divorce or whatever-You're too busy living in the
moment.
Yeah, exactly, and it's fun andexciting, right?
So you're just kind of outthere doing it and and this.
In this scenario, we just feltlike we had to have something in
place in case there wassomething broken, right?
(07:56):
I think at that point I wasstarting to work myself.
I was certainly doing the vastmajority of the sales, but I was
working myself more towardsdoing just sales.
And he's a fabulous technician,right.
So he spent a lot of timebuilding up the service team.
So good split between the twoof us.
But if something happened to me, what happens to the sales?
(08:19):
Or if something happens to him,if you have ever been in
technology, if you don't use it,you lose it.
It's like working out If youdon't use it, you lose it.
So, yeah, so if I'm not doingthese whatever server network
projects on a regular basis, andfive seconds later.
That technology has changed andit's not because I lost the
(08:42):
skill set there's definitelysome of that but it's also the
technology changed.
It's different.
It's different than what it waswhen you last touched it, right,
I mean it's always evolving andchanging Absolutely, so you've
got to it's absolutely differentin order to go forward with
some sort of fix right.
So that was one milestone isthe buy sell of hey, we need to
just put some things in place.
And then the other was um, Iwas a part of a networking group
(09:07):
, um, that was part of thechamber of commerce, and in the
chamber of Commerce they have athing called business owners
roundtable, and so thisparticular chamber had two
different business ownerroundtables and the group that I
was in we just met at a coffeeshop and we, for several weeks,
(09:31):
we were just meeting and it wasjust getting together and I was
like this is dumb, we need to bedoing something productive if
we're going to be here.
Right, like it was not just asocial hour.
There's actually a goal yeah,part of that is I like being in
front of business owners becausethose are my prospects, those
are the people that I'mtargeting when I'm trying to
(09:51):
sell my it services.
So I figure, just the morebusiness owners that I meet and
have a social connection with,it's easier to parlay into a
business relationship.
But I was just, it was justspinning wheels, right, we were
just going there and, like yousaid, social hour.
So we started becoming moreformal, started talking about
(10:13):
what our problems are in ourbusiness and solving some
solutions.
But again, that didn't reallyhave a plan, it didn't really
have a path, it didn't reallyhave a destination.
So, as a group, we hired abusiness coach and the business
coach he had his challengesbecause we were completely
different businesses.
(10:33):
I was in it.
We had a guy that was umcommercial insurance.
We had a gal that ran, um, Iguess you'd call it a physical
therapy office, um, in town,right, just completely different
businesses.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
All in business is different.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
different obviously focus or a hundred percent focus
, 100 so yeah, and so typically,when you think business coach,
it's like business coach withmark, business coach with mike
right, it's kind of a one-to-oneand I'm tailoring my
conversation to that business.
And this guy had multiplebusinesses that were at
different stages of growth,different types of problems.
(11:13):
So one of the early exerciseshe had us do was create an
accountability chart for ourbusinesses and he's like, just
throw names on it.
I get it that you guys don'thave hundreds of employees.
So, regardless though, everybusiness has these different
roles.
We got finance admin, we got HR, we've got service, we've got
(11:36):
whatever else All thesebusinesses have these same roles
.
Your name might be on all ofthe roles, but the bigger you
get, you're going to have tofigure out who to put into that
seat.
One of the guys in the group, hedoes product design.
When he brought his back, hedrew a line up from the
(11:58):
accountability chart and wroteshareholder and circled that,
and that one line and circleblew my mind Right.
It was like holy smokes, thisthing is its own living
breathing entity, right?
Like early on when I was a kid,my dad was into technology, um,
(12:18):
and so I was interested in it,and so he was also interested in
stocks, and so I had intelstock when I was a kid.
Um, right, and it didn't.
It didn't even dawn on me that Iowned a piece of a business
when I was a kid and now I'm abusiness owner.
I own all of the business, butthere's still this thing called
(12:42):
shareholder that Intel is doingthat, this private business, I'm
not doing so.
Just having that mentality ofthere's this thing above the
accountability chart, above theorg chart, called shareholder,
that thing just kind of made methink differently about the
business, and it really changedthe conversations that adam and
(13:04):
I had, you know.
Shortly thereafter, um, him andI started meeting with a
financial planner, an incomeattorney, attorney and our
accountant.
All five of us were in ameeting every single month
looking at the finances of thebusiness and how we can improve
it.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Wow, that's impressive yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I don't know about impressive, but it just Most
small businesses, and I saysmall, right, we get first.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
What category is a small business?
And most everyone I know is ina small business, right.
So if for most small businessesthey're not meeting with that,
let alone that regular, but withthose type of three individuals
on a monthly basis, most arelucky to talk to a CPA once a
year when they talk aboutfinancial side of the business
right For a loan, a planner andlegal, and that's just you, just
(13:55):
something you just don't hearat our size and all it took was
that line up to shareholder tokind of start that snowball, to
start thinking about it.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
And the the income attorney.
He gave us a book trying toremember the name.
It's something about privateequity.
I'll come up with it.
I'll come up with the name,I'll send it to you.
But, um, that book is reallytalking to small business owners
that that business is theirbaby.
(14:26):
Right, you have to do somethingwith this business.
At some point you can die inthat seat and then it's a
hundred percent somebody else'sproblem.
But that's the only instancewhere you don't deal with it.
Every other instance you've gotto do something.
Right, it might be poor health,right, if I'm in poor health
(14:49):
and I can't come to work, thatbusiness still needs to operate
and the people that are gettingw-2 wages from you still need to
keep a roof over their head andstill need to feed their kids.
And a lot of these smallbusiness owners, they, their net
worth, is tied up in thisbusiness.
(15:11):
So at some point, if you're um,you can have this business
until you die for sure.
But at some point you have torealize that I need to get this
money out of the business inorder to be able to retire.
So how am I going to go aboutdoing that?
Um and unfortunately it seemslike a large percentage is I
(15:33):
just stay in the seat and showup every day until I pass right,
right and you know frequently.
Well, yeah, I think a lot oftimes it's because we don't know
how to get the dollars out ofthe business, either while we're
doing it or planning for whenwe're going to do it.
And so that book really helpedme realize that there are
(15:55):
multiple paths to get your networth to where it needs to be so
that the business can live onwithout you.
Your net worth to where itneeds to be so that the business
can live on without you.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Hi, I'm Mark Thomas, founder and CEO of Current Tech
Solutions and CyberGuardians.
We know business owners likeyou want to focus on growing
your company, not worrying aboutIT problems or security threats
.
That's where we come in.
Our team uses AI to protectyour business from cyber risks
and keep everything runningsmoothly.
If you're ready for peace ofmind and a stronger future,
(16:26):
reach out to us today.
Let's secure and elevate yourbusiness together.
Oh oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
(16:49):
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh.
At the end of the day .
Speaker 2 (00:00):
ultimately, we need to be looking at who's the right
fit for us, and so part of thatconversation is is this a
person that I would want to workwith?
Is this person that's on theother side of the line going to
provide the same service thatwe're providing our customers
now, so their customerexperience doesn't change?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
So, when you talked about how you took these calls
and you learned something fromevery one of those, right, what
are some of the things you werelearning along the way by taking
those calls?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
A lot of you know it's really about business
negotiation, or what are thepeople that are buying a company
looking for?
Are we a good fit In the MSPspace?
A lot of conversation aroundtarget client profile, because a
(00:56):
lot of times when we start MSPbusinesses frankly, any business
we take whatever opportunitiescome to us because the dollars
are important and we that's howwe tend to build our business,
and it's not just IT businessesright, it's freight brokerages
and financial planners andwhatever else.
(01:17):
We just take the money thatcomes to us because we want some
sort of income right.
But the end of the day,ultimately we need to be looking
at who's the right fit for us,and so part of that conversation
is is this a person that Iwould want to work with?
Is this person that's on theother side of the line going to
(01:37):
provide the same service thatwe're providing our customers
now?
So their customer experiencedoesn't change.
What are they looking for froma documentation perspective?
What are they seeing in mybusiness?
That's a detriment that theywouldn't want to buy it.
There's a lot of talk aboutcontracted revenue versus time
and materials revenue when itcomes to M&A in the MSP space,
(02:02):
and the reality is both of thosebusinesses are saleable, but
you know if, if they are ahundred percent time of
materials and I was almost ahundred percent recurring
revenue, that's not a good fitfor the the customer.
Right, these are two differentmodels, two different directions
, and so the customers are goingto get a different experience
(02:24):
after the sale.
So more it was going to get adifferent experience after the
sale.
So Mario was really trying tofigure out what are the
questions they're asking.
Do I like this person?
Because if I don't like them,how do I expect any of my
clients to like them either?
Right, so it's really justtrying to flip the script on
them.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
They're asking questions about my business, but
I'm actually interviewing themto make sure that they're a fit
for my clients definitely so, ina sense, in just like that,
we're talking about therelationship aspect, right,
providing, continue to provide,this service, that that you have
built, and, um, in a sense,kind of like dating, right,
(03:00):
you're going back and seeing,going, hey, is this a good fit,
right, even though chances are,whether you stay on after the
sale or you immediately exit, ora period of time and then exit,
you know, um is a good fit foryour, for your client base, and
is it a good fit for yourorganization and the culture and
those things?
Right, and what?
How does it align?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
That makes a huge difference.
A lot of times when people areselling, they're selling for the
purposes of getting out of work.
The thought in a lot of casesis retirement or it's how do I
free up these dollars?
Because I want to go dosomething else.
But I think ultimately a lot ofbusinesses, when they're
(03:40):
selling, it's just a I'm lookingfor the payday.
They're selling it's just a I'mlooking for the payday and
given, uh, where I'm at in life?
Uh, at the time that I sold, Istill had kids in school, in in
primary school, right.
So I I wasn't at a place whereI was like, oh, I'm ready to
throw in the towel and just gogoof off, right I sail the world
(04:02):
yeah, exactly, uh.
So we and we don't think aboutthose things of you know what
the sell is right, because it'sjust I'm trying to get these
dollars.
I think that that's the averageconversation or the average
sale that happens I'm justtrying to get the dollars.
So there's not that many peoplethat sell and stay on with that
(04:24):
business and the time that theystay on if they stay on tends
to be pretty short In a lot ofcases.
Excuse me, less than 30 days,less than 90 days.
I stayed on for 14 months andwhen I was talking to another
friend who was in the industrythat has regular M&A types of
(04:44):
conversations, he was amazedlike wow, nobody stays on that
long.
And don't get me wrong, somepeople specifically sell because
they're tired of being thatleader and they just want to
stop making those decisions.
Right, like I was a greattechnician, I used to do server
projects that I love.
I want to get doing that againand not have to deal with P&L or
(05:06):
whining employees or whateverthat problem is.
So there are a number ofbusinesses that when I sell, the
intention is give me a job thatI have less responsibility and
we'll keep moving forwardtogether.
But those are, I think are fewand far between.
So it's's like we need tofigure out the what is the path?
(05:27):
And um, you know really, whatis that motivation?
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah, so when you went I guess when you got into
business um and the businessthat you've sold, when you
started, that um was M&A a topicthat was discussed in the very
beginning you sort of say, like,what does this look like down
the road for us, you and yourpartner, and for the business?
Or at what point did thatreally become a thought?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, I would say there's kind of two milestones,
to answer your question directly.
No, not at all.
Right, you're so gung-ho aboutstarting this new thing and
going out on your own right theOregon Trail.
It's kind of like this is funand exciting, so you're not
thinking with the end in mind.
(06:11):
And I would say the morebusiness owners that I've talked
to that's a very common theme,right, we just want to keep, we
want to build something and wewant to have an impact, whatever
that impact means.
So we're not thinking with theend of mind.
Don't get me wrong.
There's just as many of thoseuh, high d disc profile people
(06:31):
that are like I need to sellthis business for five million
dollars and I need to do it bythis age.
Right, so when they start,they've got a goal in mind yeah
and those are the people I lovemeeting now, right, because
they're very goal focused andthey're trying to get somewhere.
Sure, a sale at all, no, no, Isaid sure.
(06:54):
We're two milestones though.
Um, the first one was as youstart to mature, um, you start
realizing that this business ismore than just me and my trunk,
uh, fixing computers.
You know what I mean.
Um, now we've got an office,we've got employees those
employees have children.
Um, you got all of these thingsgoing.
(07:15):
And then there's kind of a weprobably need to make sure that,
if I get hit by a bus today,that we've got things in place.
So one of the milestones Iwould say is the buy-sell.
Again, I had a business partnerand we were just doing
something good together, right.
(07:36):
So, and we're not thinking ofthe breakup, we're not thinking
of the divorce or whatever-You're too busy living in the
moment.
Yeah, exactly, and it's fun andexciting, right?
So you're just kind of outthere doing it and and this.
In this scenario, we just feltlike we had to have something in
place in case there wassomething broken, right?
(07:56):
I think at that point I wasstarting to work myself.
I was certainly doing the vastmajority of the sales, but I was
working myself more towardsdoing just sales.
And he's a fabulous technician,right.
So he spent a lot of timebuilding up the service team.
So good split between the twoof us.
But if something happened to me, what happens to the sales?
(08:19):
Or if something happens to him,if you have ever been in
technology, if you don't use it,you lose it.
It's like working out If youdon't use it, you lose it.
So, yeah, so if I'm not doingthese whatever server network
projects on a regular basis, andfive seconds later.
That technology has changed andit's not because I lost the
(08:42):
skill set there's definitelysome of that but it's also the
technology changed.
It's different.
It's different than what it waswhen you last touched it, right,
I mean it's always evolving andchanging Absolutely, so you've
got to it's absolutely differentin order to go forward with
some sort of fix right.
So that was one milestone isthe buy sell of hey, we need to
just put some things in place.
And then the other was um, Iwas a part of a networking group
(09:07):
, um, that was part of thechamber of commerce, and in the
chamber of Commerce they have athing called business owners
roundtable, and so thisparticular chamber had two
different business ownerroundtables and the group that I
was in we just met at a coffeeshop and we, for several weeks,
(09:31):
we were just meeting and it wasjust getting together and I was
like this is dumb, we need to bedoing something productive if
we're going to be here.
Right, like it was not just asocial hour.
There's actually a goal yeah,part of that is I like being in
front of business owners becausethose are my prospects, those
are the people that I'mtargeting when I'm trying to
(09:51):
sell my it services.
So I figure, just the morebusiness owners that I meet and
have a social connection with,it's easier to parlay into a
business relationship.
But I was just, it was justspinning wheels, right, we were
just going there and, like yousaid, social hour.
So we started becoming moreformal, started talking about
(10:13):
what our problems are in ourbusiness and solving some
solutions.
But again, that didn't reallyhave a plan, it didn't really
have a path, it didn't reallyhave a destination.
So, as a group, we hired abusiness coach and the business
coach he had his challengesbecause we were completely
different businesses.
(10:33):
I was in it.
We had a guy that was umcommercial insurance.
We had a gal that ran, um, Iguess you'd call it a physical
therapy office, um, in town,right, just completely different
businesses.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
All in business is different.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
different obviously focus or a hundred percent focus
, 100 so yeah, and so typically,when you think business coach,
it's like business coach withmark, business coach with mike
right, it's kind of a one-to-oneand I'm tailoring my
conversation to that business.
And this guy had multiplebusinesses that were at
different stages of growth,different types of problems.
(11:13):
So one of the early exerciseshe had us do was create an
accountability chart for ourbusinesses and he's like, just
throw names on it.
I get it that you guys don'thave hundreds of employees.
So, regardless though, everybusiness has these different
roles.
We got finance admin, we got HR, we've got service, we've got
(11:36):
whatever else All thesebusinesses have these same roles
.
Your name might be on all ofthe roles, but the bigger you
get, you're going to have tofigure out who to put into that
seat.
One of the guys in the group, hedoes product design.
When he brought his back, hedrew a line up from the
(11:58):
accountability chart and wroteshareholder and circled that,
and that one line and circleblew my mind Right.
It was like holy smokes, thisthing is its own living
breathing entity, right?
Like early on when I was a kid,my dad was into technology, um,
(12:18):
and so I was interested in it,and so he was also interested in
stocks, and so I had intelstock when I was a kid.
Um, right, and it didn't.
It didn't even dawn on me that Iowned a piece of a business
when I was a kid and now I'm abusiness owner.
I own all of the business, butthere's still this thing called
(12:42):
shareholder that Intel is doingthat, this private business, I'm
not doing so.
Just having that mentality ofthere's this thing above the
accountability chart, above theorg chart, called shareholder,
that thing just kind of made methink differently about the
business, and it really changedthe conversations that adam and
(13:04):
I had, you know.
Shortly thereafter, um, him andI started meeting with a
financial planner, an incomeattorney, attorney and our
accountant.
All five of us were in ameeting every single month
looking at the finances of thebusiness and how we can improve
it.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Wow, that's impressive yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I don't know about impressive, but it just Most
small businesses, and I saysmall, right, we get first.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
What category is a small business?
And most everyone I know is ina small business, right.
So if for most small businessesthey're not meeting with that,
let alone that regular, but withthose type of three individuals
on a monthly basis, most arelucky to talk to a CPA once a
year when they talk aboutfinancial side of the business
right For a loan, a planner andlegal, and that's just you, just
(13:55):
something you just don't hearat our size and all it took was
that line up to shareholder tokind of start that snowball, to
start thinking about it.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
And the the income attorney.
He gave us a book trying toremember the name.
It's something about privateequity.
I'll come up with it.
I'll come up with the name,I'll send it to you.
But, um, that book is reallytalking to small business owners
that that business is theirbaby.
(14:26):
Right, you have to do somethingwith this business.
At some point you can die inthat seat and then it's a
hundred percent somebody else'sproblem.
But that's the only instancewhere you don't deal with it.
Every other instance you've gotto do something.
Right, it might be poor health,right, if I'm in poor health
(14:49):
and I can't come to work, thatbusiness still needs to operate
and the people that are gettingw-2 wages from you still need to
keep a roof over their head andstill need to feed their kids.
And a lot of these smallbusiness owners, they, their net
worth, is tied up in thisbusiness.
(15:11):
So at some point, if you're um,you can have this business
until you die for sure.
But at some point you have torealize that I need to get this
money out of the business inorder to be able to retire.
So how am I going to go aboutdoing that?
Um and unfortunately it seemslike a large percentage is I
(15:33):
just stay in the seat and showup every day until I pass right,
right and you know frequently.
Well, yeah, I think a lot oftimes it's because we don't know
how to get the dollars out ofthe business, either while we're
doing it or planning for whenwe're going to do it.
And so that book really helpedme realize that there are
(15:55):
multiple paths to get your networth to where it needs to be so
that the business can live onwithout you.
Your net worth to where itneeds to be so that the business
can live on without you.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Hi, I'm Mark Thomas, founder and CEO of Current Tech
Solutions and CyberGuardians.
We know business owners likeyou want to focus on growing
your company, not worrying aboutIT problems or security threats
.
That's where we come in.
Our team uses AI to protectyour business from cyber risks
and keep everything runningsmoothly.
If you're ready for peace ofmind and a stronger future,
(16:26):
reach out to us today.
Let's secure and elevate yourbusiness together.
Oh oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
(16:49):
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh.
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