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.
#PoisedforExit interviewed Andy Kocemba, President and CEO of Calhoun Companies in today's episode. Andy and his father, Wally bought Calhoun Companies in 2009 during the peak of the Recession, and have turned it into a successful, client-centric firm that specializes in representing buyers and sellers of companies in the lower middle market and main street as well.
When I asked Andy the status of the "Silver Tsunami"...
Partners Making it Work: Yard Creations' 20 years of Success!
#PoisedforExit had the pleasure of interviewing Wayne Arndt and Adam Dewey, founders and owners of Yard Creations from the Brainerd Lakes area that specializes in lake home and large estate landscaping design and fine gardening.
Adam and Wayne have had a love for landscaping for many years and met as co-workers for another firm before joining forces and starting thei...
How does Insurance fit in with Exit Planning?
#PoisedforExit had the good pleasure today of interviewing Derek Gruber, Managing Director for Cox Insurance. Derek has an impressive IT background that comes in handy when he counsels his clients in Cyber Liability coverage. Derek said that Cyber Liability terms and coverages change regularly, in order to keep up with the rampant cyber crime we're all trying to avoid. The truth i...
What Sellers need to know about Net Working Capital
Today #PoisedforExit met up with Joe Hellman, partner at Redpath and Associates and leader of their M&A services area. Joe works on a lot of business transactions for clients, both from the buy side and the sell side. We focused on Working Capital today, since it can be a confusing and sometimes touchy subject for sellers.
Net Working Capital, according to Joe, is calculated si...
"The Ready for Next Cities Program!"
Today's #PoisedforExit guest featured Guillermo Mazier, an advisor for the Ready for Next Cities Program that provides transition planning training for cities and communities to strategically support small business health in those areas! Guillermo spends a great deal of time working collaboratively with Chambers of Commerce. Small Business Development Centers (SBDC's) and Eco...
A Lesson on Business Valuations: What Owners Need to Know
We interviewed Kyla Hansen, partner at JAK CPA's today, who's also one of our esteemed show sponsors!
Kyla gave us a lesson on different types of Valuation, when they apply and what owners need to know about how their current business Valuation can affect their future outcome.
Methods of Valuation apply in certain situations, like when an owner pl...
I'm IN! Two Upcoming Events for Business Owners and Advisors!
We were joined today by Michael Hubsmith, Senior M&A Advisor with True North M&A to cover the highlights of two must-go events for owners and advisors.
The first event on Sept 13 is the True North M&A Summit, to be held at the Minneapolis Event Center, beginning at noon and ending with Happy Hour at 5:30pm.
Meetings You Want
#PoisedforExit had the pleasure of interviewing Jody Weinberg, Founder and CEO of JTel Connections, a channel partner builder and lead generator for executive salespeople and C-level leaders. Jody talked with us about their proven process for "opening doors for 5-7 figure sales". Her clients are professionals who make big sales and seek assistance in opening those doors, setting up the meetings and posing...
CEO and Founder of ZondraTV shares her Entrepreneurial Journey, fortified by Love, Drive and Grit
#PoisedforExit had the honor of interviewing Zondra Evans, CEO and Founder of ZondraTV, a multi award winning television network, carried by Amazon Fire, Roku and Apple TV.
Before launching her network, Zondra spent 40 years in corporate America. At one point, she was laid off and decided it was time to pursue her dream crea...
How to Groom Awesome People Leaders
Our guest today featured Heather Polivka, Founder and CEO of Awesome People Leaders and HeatherP Solutions. Heather is an award winning business leader, speaker and change agent for privately held companies looking to grow their bottom line by growing their teams and leaders.
Heather's methodology is wrapped in neuro-science, with a focus on how beliefs affect behavior, positive or negative. B...
Value Acceleration meets HR Strategy: How they work hand in hand
In today's episode, we talked with Steve Schad, President and CEO of Optima HR Solutions, which is a fractional HR services organization. Steve's firm specializes in helping owners grow the value of their business through HR strategies that drive enterprise value and goes well beyond the basics of benefits, hiring practices and performance reviews.
Steve got ...
Business Succession from a Forensic Accountant's Perspective
In this episode we had the pleasure of interviewing Ryan Stremater, Senior Manager at SDK CPA's and forensic accounting specialist. Ryan's job puts skepticism before all else. He's an expert at digging deep into the details of the story that financials tell about a business and he's been an expert witness in some very interesting litigati...
Big Transitions Call for Maximum Influence with your Employees
In this episode of #PoisedforExit I had the good pleasure of interviewing Dr Heather Johnson, President of Klassen Performance Group. KPG specializes in soft skill leadership development and works with many clients in the throes of significant transition that many times involves a merger or acquisition.
Dr Johnson is a clinical psychologist and found her love for &apos...
Customers + Teams = Amazing Business Outcomes
In today's episode, we talked with Angela Christman, Founder of Lift Bridge Strategy, an HR firm that provides people development that fosters enterprise growth.
Angela got her start in HR working in the corporate world of Walmart, and then for Marvin Windows. She's taken what she learned all those years to apply to privately held company clients who are looking to match their ...
Poised for Exit Celebrates 3 Years! A Look Back and a Look Ahead
What a journey it's been! Launching, growing and delivering great content for our growing audience!
We reminisced a bit about our favorite episodes over the last twelve months; it was so hard to choose but we picked 4. Check them out here:
Expanded Options for SBA Financing!
We talked today with Jeff Campbell, Sr Vice President of Fidelity Bank. Jeff is a long time lender and has recently expanded their SBA department with the addition of Ann Franklin, an expert in SBA lending.
We started off by talking about a client of theirs, Ben Cowan, who was a guest of Poised for Exit podcast in the past and is owner of the 1-800-Got Junk franchise, among many other businesses. ...
Simple yet Savvy: Principles to Navigate Business Transitions
Our episode today featured Amy Kiefer, President of Automotive Parts Headquarters, or APH. Amy was hired by APH just 6 months ago as the company's first non-family member President! The company is over 100 years old and in its 3rd Generation, so that says a lot about the value the owners believe she brings to the table.
Amy's background spans several years invo...
Structuring Deals, Putting out Fires and Getting Clients to the Closing Table
We delivered a Special Edition of Poised for Exit today and had the privilege of interviewing two experts on how collaboration works and why it can make or break a deal. Brett Larson, M&A Attorney with Messerli Kramer and Colin Johnson, Managing Director at Wipfli Corporate Finance were our guests and talked about how they work together structuring dea...
From Teacher to Financial Founder: The Inspiring Journey of Stacey Stelter and GTS Financial Services
#PoisedforExit met with Stacey Stelter, Co-Founder of GTS Financial Services. Stacey is a former Elementary School teacher and learned some skills that were quite transferable from that career into becoming a founder of a financial services firm. Stacey, Tyler and Grant are the co-founders of GTS Financial. Grant and Tyl...
The Great LeadHERship Awakening" with special guest Linda Fisk, CEO of LeadHERship Global
#PoisedforExit was honored to have Linda Fisk as our guest, who has founded several companies, most notably "LeadHERship Global" of which Julie Keyes is a proud member!
Linda is a multi award winning woman in business, a national keynote speaker, best selling author and enterprising entrepreneur. LeadHERship Global is an organiza...
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