Nabity on Business

When family business transitions fail, it is rarely due to market conditions or a bad economy. Far more often, the problems come from the inside out. Many founders work under the assumption that loving their children equally means splitting their corporate assets equally. But this can cause serious friction when the transition date arrives. In this episode, I dive into why the classic "equal...

Most business owners have a sense or “gut feeling” when something is off in their operations, but they lack the tools to pinpoint exactly where the leakage is happening. They rely on fragmented systems like sales in one platform, accounting in another, and production in a third, which leaves them to manage multimillion-dollar companies based on intuition rather than integrated data.  In this episo...

Most business owners make major decisions based on a gut feeling or a static valuation. They hire the lawyers to draft the documents and the CPAs to check the math, and then they cross their fingers and hope the cash flow survives the transition. In this episode, I’m talking about why you should never make a move without modeling it first. Whether you’re looking at a buyout, an estate plan, or an...

You could sell your company to the highest bidder in the open market, take the cash, and walk away. But for most founders, that isn't stewardship, it’s just a transaction. And in many cases, that transaction ends with a private equity firm gutting the culture and the team you spent decades building. In this episode, Dave is diving into why your exit strategy should be about more than just the...

Everyone brings in the lawyers. Everyone brings in the CPAs. They work through the valuation, the installment buyout strategy, the tax structure — and then they completely gloss over the thing that's most likely to blow the whole plan up. In this episode, I'm talking about the soft stuff. The people dynamics, the family tension, the kids who feel obligated but don't really want to r...

If your family operates a farm and the next generation wants to stay in the business while non-farming siblings see the land’s value and potential windfalls, this episode is essential. Dave walks through a practical, step-by-step approach to aligning family priorities, building a sustainable economic model for the operation, and designing a succession plan that preserves the farm across generation...

What does it actually cost to feed the world and who is bearing that risk? Most people drive past fields without a second thought. But behind every pivot irrigator and tractor cab is a business owner managing millions in equipment debt, unpredictable weather, volatile commodity markets, and a global supply chain that makes American farmers their own worst competitors. In this episode, Dave sits do...

What do you do when your best people help build the company… but the shares stay in the family? Every successful family business runs into this tension at some point. Your leadership team drives growth, carries responsibility, and attracts attention from competitors. They deserve a path to build wealth alongside the company. At the same time, handing out equity can fracture ownership or complicate...

You can build a serious company, stack real wealth, and still get tripped up by basic legal structure. Dave sits down with Zach Petersen of Dvorak Law Group to walk through the mistakes they keep seeing in high-net-worth estate plans. Rental properties with no LLC protection. Revocable trusts that were never funded. Valuations that won’t survive an audit. Gifting strategies that quietly invite a 4...

Running a family business comes with pride, pressure, and a whole lot of emotion. When parents try to show love by treating every child the same inside the company, the results can stack up into resentment, dysfunction, and eventually full-blown family fallout. In this episode, Dave walks through a painfully familiar scenario using a fictional family business and shows how good intentions around f...

When a founder steps away from a family business, the real question usually isn’t who takes over. It’s whether the buyout itself can carry everyone where they need to go. Retirement income, company cash flow, taxes, and human behavior all start pulling on the same rope, and if the math is off, someone feels it fast. Usually the kids. Sometimes the parents. Occasionally both. In this episode, Dave...

Doug Morris is a CPA who lives in the weeds so you don’t have to, and he joins Dave to talk through the “One Big Beautiful Bill” in plain English, with the kind of examples business owners actually care about. They get into what stayed in place from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, why the estate tax exemption jumping to $15M per spouse changes planning conversations, and how quickly things can get expe...

Some meetings remind you that true collaboration isn’t a myth after all, and then others make you wonder how certain professionals keep their licenses. Dave walks through both extremes in this episode, pulling back the curtain on what actually happens when CPAs, attorneys, advisors, and insurance agents gather around the table. From the rare moments when everyone shows up prepared and humble, to t...

Parents want their children to thrive, especially inside the family business, but sometimes the role they hope their child will grow into doesn’t match who that child actually is. In this episode, Dave shares the patterns he sees when families try to force the wrong fit, and how quickly that can strain both the company and the relationships that hold it together. He walks through temperament, wiri...

Business owners reach a moment where paying someone else’s rent stops making sense and owning starts to look like a path to long-term wealth.  Dave sits down with his son, Graham Nabity from CBRE, for a grounded, no-nonsense conversation about how business owners should think about buying, leasing, building, or expanding their space. They get into what the market looks like today, why industrial v...

Every owner has that one thing that keeps poking at them. Sometimes it’s the business. Sometimes it’s the people. Sometimes it’s the “I’m-trying-to-sleep-but-my-brain-won’t-get-quiet”. In this episode of Nabity on Business, Dave pulls out the itch list he’s seen across decades of helping owners plan their exits, calm the drama, and get their companies aligned for the next chapter. If you’re wonder...

Before you call your attorney or start drafting trusts, there’s one crucial question to answer: “What’s the right order to plan your company’s future?” In this episode, Dave breaks down why every business owner should start with succession planning, not estate planning or management incentives. He explains how the structure of your succession plan sets the foundation for gifting, taxes, family fai...

When you’ve spent decades building a business, it becomes the cow that feeds everything else. But what happens when the IRS shows up, and estate taxes threaten to take 40% of what you’ve built? In this episode, Dave breaks down how to protect your family business from being sold off to pay estate taxes, using one of his trademark analogies: the cow, the milk, and the rat hole. With a few bad dad j...

What should a business owner do with the money sitting on the balance sheet—or the proceeds after selling the company? That’s what Dave Nabity discusses with his longtime business partner, Randy Jensen of Nabity-Jensen Investment Management. They talk through how to keep corporate cash working without taking unnecessary risks, what to consider when building bond ladders, and how ESOPs can help own...

What’s your business really worth? That’s the question Dave Nabity explores with Gregory Harr, CPA, Accredited Business Valuator, and Certified Exit Planning Advisor. The conversation gets into how buyers actually judge value, why family dynamics complicate transitions, and the financial planning steps that can protect both the company and the legacy behind it. Gregory brings years of experience h...

Every business owner wants to see more profit, but the real problems aren’t always obvious. Dave Nabity and Andy Wolfe share what they’ve seen inside family-run companies, from messy systems and siloed departments to the wrong people stuck in the wrong jobs. When you strip away the excuses and look at what’s really happening, that’s when the path forward gets clear. For family businesses, profit h...

Passing a company down to your kids can be one of the most rewarding—and most dangerous—decisions you make. In this episode, Dave Nabity walks through the tough questions every family business needs to face. Who’s truly earned the right to lead? What standards are parents holding their kids to? Are the next leaders respected inside and outside the company? Dave shares the tools and conversations h...

If you have built a great business, you probably have even greater people working with you, and competitors might want to steal them right away. It’s what it takes to employ talented folks. In this episode of Nabity on Business, Dave breaks down four strategies for executive retention that give your A-team real incentives to think twice before jumping ship. Here’s a spoiler: it’s not all about mon...

Welcome to one of the few estate planning talks that’s not going to put you to sleep.   In this episode of Nabity on Business, Dave is again jumping into the chaos of family-run businesses, but this time with a focus on estate planning and how it can add even more fuel to the fire. Spoiler alert: it’s way more than paperwork and asset splits. You’ll hear about how passing your business to the wron...

Some parents see potential, but most of them see what they want to see. On this episode of Nabity on Business, Dave Nabity talks with Kim Hoogeveen, founder of BetterCulture, about what really matters when you're handing over your business—especially when family is involved. They get into how to spot whether your team (or your kids) are actually ready for leadership, and why too many business...