Poised for Exit

Our guest for this episode is Derek Weatherford , Market Executive with BMO Private Bank . Derek's long standing background in wealth management, especially in the area of philanthropy made him the perfect guest for this topic! There are many options and directions a business owner can take when it comes to making donations . We can give to our church or other favorite charity, but for many o...

Our show today featured Chris Jones , President and co-owner of Sunbelt Business Advisors , a business brokerage firm with a long track record for helping both sellers and buyers of companies. Chris joined the firm in 2001 after several years working as a Mergers and Acquisitions adviser for a Fortune 200 private company. He loves putting deals together and helping sellers achieve their hard won g...

Profile by Sanford is a health and wellness service provider whose holistic approach is being sought after by employers everywhere. Why? First, because their programs come at no cost to the employer (unless you want to provide it as an employee benefit) and second, employers are looking for ways to enhance their company culture and increase productivity at the same time.  My guest for this episode...

There's a documentary out there about a guy who ate dog food for a month to prove his company's pet food products were safe and healthy. This same guy, Mitch Felderhoff , happens to co-own the company with his brother, Chad. They are 4th Generation owners of the Muenster Milling Company in Muenster Texas. And their company is growing like crazy.  It wasn't always that way, though. M...

Our guest for this #PoisedforExit episode is a media celebrity; Lee Schafer with Star Tribune. Lee has been a Business and Economics Columnist for the paper these past 9 years, and is the winner of a couple national awards as well. But what you probably didn't know, is that Lee spent many years in the world of Mergers and Acquisitions as a partner, an adviser, and a deal maker.  Lee's fi...

For this #PoisedforExit episode, we interviewed Lynne Robertson , CEO of Fame , a national Advertising and Branding firm. Lynne got her start in an ad agency as an office assistant and eventually worked her way to a C level leader. She ended up becoming the CEO of Fame when the original leader left abruptly. She did so well that she eventually ended up buying the company from its Private Equity ow...

Our guest for this #PoisedforExit episode is Joe Housman , Vice President for Hays Companies and Brown & Brown Insurance . Joe has held a variety of roles with privately held companies, from CPA, to Private Equity adviser; he's worked with many companies in various stages of growth, acquisition and exit.  He recently added Commercial Insurance to his areas of expertise and talked about ho...

Today's guest on #PoisedforExit is Emily Morgan, the founder and CEO of Delegate Solutions , which provides Virtual Assistant services to entrepreneurs. Emily grew her firm from scratch out of a need to expand the services she was already delivering, and over 13 years has built it into a 40 person team of Virtual Assistants and support staff.  We entrepreneurs tend to have issues with delegat...

Our guest today is Rose McKinney, Founder and CEO of Pineapple RM , a Brand and Reputation Management firm.  Rose has been doing the work of managing her clients' reputations for many years. You'll want to listen to this show, because she offered some great insight into why reputation is so vitally important to a company's overall brand.  When you think of your company's brand...

We talked today with Joel Seleskie , Founder and Principle of Seleskie Financial . Joel's team consists of 4 other advisers and 8 support staff, and work primarily with owners of privately held and closely held companies.  Joel said he knew from a young age that he wanted to be a financial adviser. His first boss when in High School taught him the concept of earning interest on your money, an...

On this episode of #PoisedforExit , we featured Kyla Hansen , partner at JAK CPA's . Kyla's firm works with privately held companies and they're very busy helping their clients prepare for a future acquisition .  Kyla says that a business owner should get their financials cleaned up at least 3 years ahead of a sale , but even better to do so 5 years ahead of a sale in the wake of CO...

Our episode today featured the President of Village Bank , Aleesha Webb . Aleesha is a Second Generation successor to the bank, started by her father, Don 28 years ago. Growing up, Don was involved in several entities and Aleesha learned a lot about entrepreneurship at an early age, which propelled her to continue in that direction herself.  Village Bank has learned to compete with larger banks th...

Our guest for this #PoisedforExit episode is Steve Baird;  shareholder and practice area leader for his Intellectual Property team in the Minneapolis office of global firm  Greenberg Traurig . Steve's interest in the law did not follow a straight line. Being from a family of educators (his parents and siblings are all teachers of some kind) he naturally gravitated toward wanting to educate pe...

This episode features Darin Lynch , a well known and respected digital marketing expert, who is the Founder and "Chief Liberation Officer" of Irish Titan . Darin came from a hardworking start as an Iowa farm boy. His dream of owning his own business as a boy, with its own Bat Pole, came true! Along his career journey he spent time in the IT departments and Ecommerce departments of variou...

Today's episode featured CEO, Tyler Olson , owner of Shyld Academy, a firm who specializes in cybersecurity education for businesses and their employees.  Did you know that 95% of all Data Breaches are caused by individuals in your company who 'don't know any better' and don't understand the basics of cyber security?  Even home offices are being hacked and many people mist...

On this #PoisedforExit episode, we feature entrepreneur, Nicole Anthony who tells us all about her latest endeavor called "COYABLU Tequila Cocktails" !  Premium tequila cocktails in a can, in 8 flavors! Personally, I can't wait! Before she became CEO of COYABLU, Nicole had her hand in starting, running and selling 3 other companies. We talked about the diverse skill set it takes to...

Today's show featured Sheryl Plouffe who's been in broadcasting media for many years. She owns Sheryl Plouffe Media and knows a thing or two about why video is a powerful way to build your brand and how to go about doing it.  Sheryl got her start as a TV broadcaster in Canada and spent 25 years growing her expertise in the world of media. Her entrepreneurial spirit lead her to launch her...

CEO and Chairman, Paddy McNeely of Meritex Company was our guest on the show, sharing his long earned wisdom on family business success and succession.  Paddy's family has owned Meritex for 104 years and he is the third generation of family members who are now working to transition to the fourth generation!  Family business comprises a significant portion of the Gross Domestic Product; upward...

Our guest for this #PoisedforExit episode is the Founder of "A Simple Message", David Mann . David's background as an actor, director and playwright serve him well in the work he does with his clients. He focuses on creating a message that attracts the right kinds of clients and customers, through relating to their emotion over logic . In theatre, your entire focus is on the audienc...

This episode of #PoisedforExit features the Regional Director of the Small Business Development Center at the University of St Thomas, Diane Paterson.   Diane's extensive business acumen included 13 years owning her business. She's been a small business advocate and instructor for many years, teaching entrepreneurs how to succeed by setting up well in the beginning, with the " Smart...

In this #PoisedforExit episode we featured a long time journalist and radio personality, turned Podcast Producer, Bob Sansevere .  Bob has had quite the career over the years, spanning several different US publications and landing at KQRS in Minneapolis back in 1987. As a big part of the KQ Morning Show for 30 years, Bob grew quite an audience of fans. Now as a podcaster and producer, he's ta...

This episode of #PoisedforExit features Amy Quale , Co-founder and owner of Wise Ink Creative Publishing in Minneapolis.  Amy shared how she and her partner, Dara Beevus built Wise Ink from the ground up, starting with a blog for writers and working their way towards publishing 60 - 70 books per year! She got her entrepreneurial bug from her parents who taught her that risk pays off when you do it...

This episode covers a very timely topic that concerns all of us. We featured Mary Dynes , a licensed healthcare insurance expert, who specializes in healthcare programs for business owners; individual or group. When employers and employees no longer have access to a group plan, Mary can help. When employers have had to reduce their employees hours, Mary can help with alternatives to group insuranc...

This #PoisedForExit episode features prominent business attorney, Jeff O'Brien , partner at Chestnut Cambronne in Minneapolis. Jeff shared some horror stories with us (just in time for Halloween!) about some cases he's working on where partner disputes occurred. Some fell between 50/50 owners and some between majority and minority owners.  We talked about a provision for Buy Sell Agreeme...

We visited today with Chris Steffl , Co-Founder of Versatile Insurance Services. Chris is what I would call an expert for the experts. He works with insurance and financial advisers in selecting the right products or mix of products that assist the adviser and their clients with customized insurance solutions. They happen to specialize in privately held companies, so you'll want to listen if...