Poised for Exit

Christopher Burns, Estate attorney and partner with Henson Efron returned to the show in this episode to talk about a couple of current matters pertaining to business owners.  First, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) will sunset on Dec 31, 2025. Since we're post election, the concern over the sunsetting of this law will likely be eliminated, since President Elect Trump is expected to extend it...

Our guest today is a man who epitomizes entrepreneurship; Dan Bowling, President of The Genesis Company .  The Genesis Company provides end-to-end solutions for entrepreneurs by bringing their brands and ideas to retail. The framework they use is one Dan adopted from Marc Lore, a markedly famous serial entrepreneur he's followed for many years. Using the acronym VCP, which stands for Vision,...

Our guest in this episode is Mark Cheeley , Financial Advisor and President of Synergy Wealth Management. Mark and his Ameriprise team work with a lot of business owners , many of whom are in the throes (or should be) of exit planning .  Most financial advisors work with individuals , so their knowledge of the exit process is limited or non-existent, and that's OK. Most clients fall under the...

In this episode, Julie shared the content of her popular virtual programs for advisors. But why? As Julie says “when you lack a process for this work, you will lose opportunities to generate additional revenue . Not only that, but your client also misses out.” She says "Your clients need you to know how to navigate the exit planning process and for you to direct them along the way. If you pla...

Our guests for this episode are David Matenaer and Erik Gabrielson , two of the Co-founders of ProjectWE, a firm that creates customized AI platforms for SMB's. David and Erik have been collaborating on projects for many years, and when they came together to form a partnership around some online education they were developing, they realized it needed to be AI generated. So, they put their lau...

Our guest in this Poised for Exit episode is Ryan Haag , who has been a financial advisor for over 20 years . Ryan has spent his career working with family businesses and a variety of entrepreneurs , learning a great deal about the pitfalls they face as they navigate their lives from start up to retirement . So many of the experiences he's faced with clients mirror those of others. Business o...

We featured two special guests in this episode: Don Raleigh , RevOps Manager at Evolve Systems , and Chris Steffl , partner with CyberFin . The collaborative work they're doing in the ADA and Cyber Compliance space was our topic of discussion.  ADA Compliance, as we know, is the lawful way to accommodate people with disabilities who wish to peruse your website and possibly do business with yo...

We had the honor of hosting John Francis on the show today, who is a long time entrepreneur, advisor and Board member. John grew up with a family business that started a franchise operation in the salon business and then launched another brand in the same industry. They grew it so well that it eventually went public. John attributes that outcome due to the expertise and dedication of their company...

No Plan B: The All-in Approach of a Boat Burner It's not often that we feature our clients as guests on the show, but every now and then we have to ask! boatBurner has such a compelling story, we hoped they'd say yes, and they did. They're a creative services agency , who focuses on CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) from an all-in perspective. No plan B for them, or their client work. T...

What does it take to be a female CEO of a Regional Bank? Tenacity! Our guest in today's episode is Angie O'Neill , President and CEO of MN Bank & Trust . Angie shares some very interesting stories and perspectives that were inspiring and motivating as well. H ow many female CEOs of a bank do you know? We didn't personally know any until today's show!  Angie's primary f...

Avoid M&A Pitfalls with Trust as a Guiding Principle We had Matt Hartranft in the studio today!  Matt is a partner and M&A attorney with Brutlag, Trucke and Dougherty . We spent a great deal of time discussing how established trust is essential in shortening the duration of the deal to closing , and in deal negotiations in general.  Matt says that in the dealmaking world , trust is his gui...

Private Investigators and Dealmakers are Teaming up More Often than Ever! We covered an unusual topic in this episode, that we learned wasn't so unusual afterall. Private investigations within the M&A space . As buyers and sellers become more leary of the trustworthiness between them during dealmaking , the advisory team is completing the circle of trust by having what they disclose verif...

Trust Matters Now more than Ever: Learn from the Experts We had the privilege of interviewing Brian Slipka and David Horsager together in the studio today to talk about the books they’ve both recently written! The conversation eventually lead to the concept of trust and how it can be so quickly depleted in today’s society.  David is an author, speaker and researcher on the topic of trust and has n...

Sold over 330 Businesses and He's just getting Started! On the #Poised for Exit podcast this week we had the honor of hosting Manoj Moorjani today, who's a Dealmaker at Calhoun Companies . Manoj has sold over 330 companies since starting his career as a business broker. He's about as well known as they come in the Midwest, and for good reason. He's got a network of former clien...

Overview of the 7th Annual Owner's Forum: "Go or Grow!" We had the pleasure of hosting Todd Krough in the studio today. Todd is a wealth manager for MN Bank and Trust , and is also the incoming President for the Twin Cities Metro Area Chapter of the Exit Planning Institute . We discussed highlights of previous Owner's Forum events and what to expect from our upcoming event on O...

Business Succession Research Completed by the University of MN Our guest for today's show is Michael Darger , U of M Extension Specialist , who focuses on community economics and Business Succession . His background in years with Economic Development agencies led him to focus on Business Retention and Expansion work , which eventually landed him at the U of M conducting and publishing importa...

Women Contractors Who Grow Their Companies by Growing Their Networks We had the honor of interviewing two women from the Association of Women Contractors in today's episode! Barb Lau , its Executive Director, and Missy Scherber , an AWC member and Co-founder of Scherber Excavating . It was a fabulous conversation! AWC was founded by a small group of women contractors in 1995, since then it ha...

The Corporate Transparency Act: What you Need to Know Our guest for today's show is Scott Seiler , Founder and Partner at Seiler Law . Scott and his team practice in the areas of business M&A, employer representation, and several other related practice areas that pertain to the needs of entrepreneurs. The requirements for filing under the Corporate Transparency Act are important to know a...

RISR: Empowering the Business Owner's Most Trusted Advisor We talked today with Jason Early , the Founder and CEO of RISR , a tool used by advisors to business owners looking to understand the value of their companies and what they can do to maximize a future exit. Jason is not new to the M&A space . Through his various leadership roles, he's become well versed in what buyers of comp...

How to Best Utilize a Board of Directors for your ESOP Company Today's show featured a return of CFO, Andy Yetzer of YTS Companies and one of his Independent Board Members, Ken Saddler , who's also a Fractional CFO and former guest as well.  We covered a topic on how best to use your Board in an ESOP . YTS Enterprises is the owner of three companies and is an ESOP. Andy said that decidin...

SLATs, CRTs, and IDGTs, Oh My! Utilizing Trusts to Optimize Estate Planning and Business Sale Proceeds Our episode today featured Christine Schmid t and Julie Westbrock , advisors with Trust Point. Both are heavily involved with business owner clients; one from the Family Office area and the other from the Wealth Management area . Today's topic was not one we've covered at such length, s...

Reluctantly Resilient: Tools for Building Resilience in Transition Author and CEO, Chrissy Myers joined us today on Poised for Exit. Chrissy's experiences in family business transition (her own) coupled with the services she delivers for business owners made for a very interesting interview!   Chrissy's family firm is 50 years old . She bought it in 2019, but had worked various positions...

Lessons Learned: Navigating Company Culture during a Business Sale Today's episode featured Brent Peterson , Founder and President of several companies over the years, and most recently a firm called ContentBasis . Brent shared his exit story with us today that he believes could have been so much better, had he known then what he knows now!  Of course, we all wish we had a crystal ball, but h...

 Why Culture Matters when you're Poised for Exit Our guest for today's episode is Dave Sparkman , Founder and Culture advisor with Spark Your Culture Advisory Services . Dave's corporate and accounting background (as a former CPA with Arthur Andersen) have served him well in his advisory practice. His biggest project to date was in leading the Culture transformation of UnitedHealth...

Tax Strategies to Maximize After-Tax Proceeds of a Business Sale We had the pleasure of interviewing Greg Carlson , CPA partner with Boyum Barensheer who specializes in tax strategies for privately held companies. Greg has been working with owners for over 30 years and he could really share some stories. His work has surely made a significant impact in the lives of his clients and he knows the exi...