Permanent Podcast: Real Talk About Private Equity and Buying, Selling, and Operating Small Businesses

Permanent Approach - Mark Brooks & Tim Hanson talk with David Cover about how they try to be less impressive and more helpful. What does it mean to be helpful, not impressive?

Audio Essay - There are thousands of service vendors ready to "solve your small business problems," and most of them are awful. Small businesses are frequently choosing from a combination of new and subpar options, often without much guidance. Selection bias is real: the best and most experienced typically don't work on smaller accounts. Here's how to find a better relationship and enforce partner...

5 Minute Management with Mark Brooks. Odds are your To-Do List is full of great ideas. But the trick isn't just having great ideas, it's executing them. Mark Brooks talks about 8 ways to get stuff done.

Your team may have an asshole problem. How can you fix it? Brent Beshore tells David how things had gotten so bad in the early days of Permanent Equity that a No Asshole Policy had to be put in place.

Audio Essay: Everyone is looking for the key to sustained success: a lasting competitive advantage. But it's our experience and our belief that there's one competitive advantage that outshines the rest.

Audio Essay: Permanent Equity has a strict No Asshole policy. But it might not mean what you think it means. Brent Beshore reads our updated essay.

Audio Essay: How to win big in a world where there is no medium risk.

Firing someone should never be easy, but you can get better at it. Mark Brooks shares how to fire someone with care in a new segment from Permanent Equity called Five Minute Management. 

BONUS Audio Essay: Tough conversations are inevitable. Here are some tips for how to communicate more clearly to your team.

Brent & Mark sit down with David to discuss Rule #1 in the Permanent Equity Approach to stewarding companies that care what happens next. It's both essential and aspirational. Also Brent makes repeated ginger jokes (Mark & David both have red hair) and Mark explains why he's the Darth Vader of Permanent Equity.

Audio Essay: Your budget is going to be wrong. So now what? Don't blow up when you blow your budget.

Audio Essay: Plans fall apart. How to prepare for when things go sideways.

Brent bares all! Well, sort of. David sits down with Permanent Equity founder & CEO Brent Beshore. What starts as a conversation about the Permanent Approach to planning and growth evolves into Brent sharing about his faith journey, telling his most embarrassing moment with an investor, offering tips for sellers who are starting to think about what happens next, and more.

Permanent Equity stewards companies that care what happens next. When it's time for an owner to start thinking about what happens next for their company, family, employees, and customers, what are their options? It can be an isolating and intimidating responsibility. The Permanent Equity team talks about what options the seller faces and what "next" can look like with the Permanent Approach.

Permanent Equity Managing Directors Emily Holdman and Mark Brooks discuss an operator's framework -- fat, muscle, and bone -- for thinking through cost cutting. Published during the Covid-19 pandemic, the discussion takes into account rapidly changing economic circumstances for small businesses.

We wrote The Messy Marketplace to make sure you, the seller, are prepared and equipped for the opportunities and challenges of selling your business.  In this discussion, Brent Beshore and Emily Holdman briefly summarize the resources contained in the book and invite you to connect with adventur.es to continue the conversation!

Congratulations, you've sold your business!  The day after you close, you'll be waking up in a brand new world.  This episode covers what you can expect - how to communicate your transaction, what it feels like to have "a boss," and even how to deal with seller's remorse. Discussion with Brent Beshore and Emily Holdman starts @ 6:32. 

There's a joke in private equity that each deal is won and lost at least three times during due diligence.  In fact, in the part of the market we cover, the ratio of companies that close after Letter of Intent is reported to be less than 25%!  Why is this part of the process so fraught and difficult?  In this episode we unpack the practical and emotional components of the due diligence process, in...

You've generated some interest in your business from prospective buyers.  What will their next steps be?  In this episode, we walk through the typical process a buyer will follow between the initial expression of interest and the draft of an official Letter of Intent.  Discussion with Brent Beshore and Emily Holdman starts @ 5:08.

You've decided on a buyer or group of buyers to whom you'd like to pitch your company.  How do you kick-off the process?  And once you do, how should you think about rejection if they decide to pass?  In this episode, we give you very practical steps on how to reach your potential buyers of choice and how you should think about a buyer passing on your business.  Discussion with Brent Beshore and E...

Now that you've pulled together your marketing materials, it's time to find a buyer.  While there are multiple ways to build a market for your company, they each come with tradeoffs.  In this episode, we take a look at broad market auctions to hyper-targeting as well as solutions in between and discuss the key considerations for each method.  Discussion with Brent Beshore and Emily Holdman starts...

There are many ways to market a product or service and the same is true for your business.  But what does marketing a business look like and what can you do to be prepared for the process?  In this episode, we give you a comprehensive checklist of the descriptions, documents, and numbers you'll need to pull together to present your company in the best light possible.  Discussion with Brent Beshore...

If you're used to spending a minimal amount on legal and accounting issues, transaction fees can be a real shocker.  But resist the temptation to drive fees as low as possible - the best intermediaries and advisors will often command a higher fee but save you money in the final accounting.  In this episode we set expectations on ranges of fees and the levels of service you should expect based on w...

Continuing from our prior episode, we dissect another set of deal documents and how they impact you as an owner.  Discussion with Brent Beshore and Emily Holdman starts @ 5:16.

Drafting the deal documents is expensive and time-consuming, but also can be a good indicator of progress in negotiations and the buyer's interest in continuing the process.  In this episode, we step through the various documents necessary to close a deal and the players and factors that impact this crucial part of the dealmaking process.  Discussion with Brent Beshore and Emily Holdman starts @ 1...