Poised for Exit
Welcome to the Poised for Exit podcast! Poised for Exit is an under 30-minute strategic planning guidance podcast for busy small business owners. Each week you’ll hear certified exit planning advisor, Julie Keyes, talk with a range of entrepreneurs and professionals about preparing your business for a future transition. Guests at every stage of company ownership will share their personal stories and lessons learned about topics such as the anatomy of the exit planning process, developing a growth strategy, how to sell on your terms, exit planning for women small business owners, handling business diversity, and how to sell a family business. Whether you’re planning an exit in the near future or not, this show will provide you with the same action-oriented content that Julie utilizes while consulting with Keyestrategies clients. Building an exit strategy can be overwhelming, especially with all the decisions and details you have to consider. “Poised for Exit” will simplify the process and help you unwrap the unknowns, giving you more confidence in your planning process. Previous episodes are available for download, so if you are new to our show, you can listen to them in any order that suits you. Join us each week for timely, relevant content that will surely impact your business exit outcome! Subscribe to our newsletter below to receive your weekly episode link and stay updated on new strategic planning content. Find “Poised for Exit” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, and others. Thank you to our Sponsors: Sunbelt Business Advisers and JAK CPA's. A special note of thanks to Tyler Keyes who produced the music for the “Poised for Exit” show.
Episodes
Today's episode of #PoisedforExit featured Bruce Werner, author, private equity investor and family business advisor. Bruce and I met through our book publisher "Indie Books International" a couple years ago. Bruce recently published "Your Ownership Journey" that highlights his expertise in scaling your business during various stages of growth, ending the book with exit planning advice.
He spent his first 20 yea...
In this episode we interviewed the father and son team, John and Marc Sylvestre of Sylvestre Remodeling and Design, who shared some of their transition planning journey with us which started at the onset of the pandemic!
Through many trials and unforeseen obstacles, they created a plan for John's eventual transition by bringing in Marc in a leadership position, working alongside John for the first year and then taking much of th...
In this #poisedforexit episode, we caught up with Aleesha Webb, President of Village Bank. Aleesha has been on the show a couple of times in the past and always has great insight to share with you, our business owner audience, and this time was no exception.
Aleesha said that business acquisitions have slowed down from her perspective and that there seems to be less "blue sky" in deal structure, with more collateral instead...
Craig Siiro, CEO and Founder of Integrated Consulting Services, got his start in the 1980's as a CPA working for a Tax and Audit firm. He spent a lot of time with entrepreneurs and learned that he really liked the advisory side of the business. Fast forward to 2010, when Craig launched Integrated Consulting Services or ICS, who provides fractional CFO work for owners of privately held companies. In the spring of 2020, he added...
Today on #PoisedforExit, we caught up with Melissa Johnston, Co-Founder and Chief Credit Officer of EntreBank, a brand new community bank, located in the Twin Cities. When we last interviewed her, EntreBank did not have an official name yet and their founders were working through the approval process with the appropriate governing bodies, which she will tell you was quite grueling. But that was then, and this is now!
EntreBank's...
Let’s Talk Culture with Super Bowl Champion and Chief Culture Officer, Ben Utecht
In this #PoisedforExit episode I had the distinct honor of interviewing Ben Utecht, who’s not only a Super Bowl Champion with the Indianapolis Colts, but also a winner of the Tony Dungy Award for Servant Leadership and now works as Chief Culture Officer for several mid-size firms, including my sponsor, Sunbelt Business Advisors and True North M & ...
Comparing the Deal Market: Today vs a Year Ago
We had the pleasure of talking with Dave Pederson in this #PoisedforExit episode, who is a partner with Dunlap Seeger Law Firm in Rochester, MN. Dave's background in business finance and law brought him to a place where structuring deals was part of his job when working for a large commercial lender in Chicago. Fast forward to today, he's been practicing in Rochester since 2006...
A 43-yr-old Startup! When 'Exit' Takes a 180 Turn
On this episode of #PoisedforExit, we featured the founder and president of National Theatre for Children, who happen to be former clients of mine and friends as well. Ward Eames, Founder of NTC and Pat Rowan, President of NTC shared the story of how NTC came to be and how they were able to so nimbly pivot after the onset of the pandemic.
NTC is the nation's largest theat...
When is it Time to Explore ‘What’s Next'?
Today's episode featured Josh Bobich, partner with Best & Flanagan Law in Minneapolis, and supporters of the 2nd Edition of Poised for Exit!
We focused our conversation on what Josh is seeing come across his desk in today's market and on the Resource he created for our Poised for Exit readers and listeners that can be accessed for download here.
Aside from some of the standard ...
In this episode, Julie was interviewed by her producer, Bob Sansevere and announced the launch of the 2nd edition of "Poised for Exit"!
So much has happened since the book first came out in May of 2020! In the 2nd Edition there are new legal resources for business owners from the Best & Flanagan Law Firm and Dunlap Seeger. Both firms will be featured guests on the show in upcoming episodes and will talk about their colla...
New Tequila Coming to Town!
Back in December of 2020, we featured Nicole Anthony on the show to tell us about her start up "COYABLU Premium Tequila Cocktails". Today, we caught up with her and one of her equity partners, Nicki Vincent. They've made quite the leap in progress over the past 15 months, despite setbacks from the pandemic and the supply chain!
COYABLU is hard at work expanding their investor base, growing the...
Proactively Take Control of your Future Exit
On today’s episode of #PoisedforExit, we interviewed my long-time colleague, Dyanne Ross Hanson on this episode of Poised for Exit. Dyanne is a CEPA like me and specializes in working with families looking to transfer to other family members or employees. She has a process that is worth learning!
Dyanne's mission as an adviser is to monetize an owner's investment in the business. S...
Better HR Delivers Better Business Results
Our #PoisedforExit guests today featured JB Lloyd and Jill Petschl of Oasis. With the abounding matters that business owners deal with everyday, HR matters are at the top of the list. Oasis publishes an annual survey of business owner responses to various questions about owning and operating in today's business environment. In this way, they keep a pulse on what's happening with the...
I Didn't Think My Business Was Sellable
Today's episode on #PoisedforExit is a special interview between Brad Peterson of Sunbelt Business Advisors and his clients, Janet and Keith McCarty, who recently sold their business called "Virtual Bookkeeping".
As Janet put it, "we didn't think our business was sellable!" Being a professional services company, their enterprise value was derived from their client l...
Your Price is Too Low
Today's #PoisedforExit episode featured pricing expert, radio host and speaker, John Ray. John's expertise in how to price your services is far reaching, and we only touched on the tip of the iceberg with this episode, but you're sure to glean some valuable nuggets from this interview just the same!
He says most professionals price their services too low. There are many reasons for this (Imposter Syn...
Chief Stripe Changer Talks about Finding your Fire!
Today on #PoisedforExit we interviewed Cat Breet, Chief Stripe Changer, whose mission is to help people get more freedom, fun and money out of work! Cat's work brings her into Board rooms, executive offices and group coaching sessions where she works to help her clients "find their fire". Too many people are living their lives unfulfilled, because they struggle with id...
Next Generation of Manufacturing: Challenges to Transition
Our guest for this #PoisedforExit episode has a long history in manufacturing, as an owner and now as the President of Minnesota Precision Manufacturing Association. Steve Kalina and I had a great conversation about what his organization specifically does to help manufacturer's grow, educate their teams, retain talent and plan for transition.
Steve came from a family bus...
Extreme Focus: Benchmarks over Goals
On this #PoisedforExit episode I had the pleasure of interviewing Mark LeBlanc and it's loaded with nuggets of wisdom and action steps!
Mark is a national speaker and author. He also consults for professional sales people. He's had many years to perfect his process for his clients and his presentations are more than impactful. Can you tell I'm a fan?
Mark says that one thing we all lac...
The Business of Robots: Coming to an Industry Near You!
On this episode of #PoisedforExit, we spoke with two partners at Durabotics, Ron Jost and Tim Hedlund who are expanding the robot systems they manufacture to new industries. Their primary focus has been industrial robotics, and it will remain as such, however they're breaking new ground with the medical and hospitality industry!
Imagine sitting in a restaurant and a "Bel...
Build a Sustainable Business by Putting Yourself Out of Job
Our guest in this #PoisedforExit episode featured Leslie Holman, CEO of Pinnacle Performance Group. Leslie bought Pinnacle in 2012 and has since expanded into providing services that help owners execute their growth strategies.
Leslie comes from a background in consulting and in Private Equity, which truly set her up for building the organization as she has. Her focus has b...
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