Poised for Exit

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...

Next Level Collaboration in Exit Planning: Dealmakers and Manufacturers Team up for Better Owner Outcomes! We had the pleasure of welcoming two guests, representing two different industries, but working together to achieve better outcomes for their manufacturing business clients. Kevin Szozda , Director of Strategic Relationships with Sunbelt Business Advisors and True North M&A , and Steve Ka...

Using Data to Drive Decisions for Growth, Acquisitions and Exit Our guest for this episode is Luke Komiskey , Founder and CEO of DataDrive , a data analytics company who enables its clients to make fast, informed decisions through the use of data and AI ! Luke says he's always been an entrepreneur at heart and has enjoyed the challenge of starting and growing companies. And he's helped n...

 A Story of two Brothers, their Music and their Give-Back Mission It all started for Julie when she attended a Christmas Concert by the O'Neill Brothers that impressed her so much, she decided to invite them to be on the show. Both brothers are accomplished musicians; mostly piano, and have had their music downloaded over 2 Billion times worldwide!  They've been inducted into the MInneso...

A Financial Advisor’s Journey from Global M&A to Private Business Clients Today we had the pleasure of interviewing Jeremy Weston , a financial advisor with Edward Jones whose unique background sets him apart in the financial advisory space. Jeremy's education in Business Finance first led him to work for large manufacturing corporations, primarily as an auditor for Mergers and Acquisitio...

A Partnership Exit Strategy where Everyone Wins Our guest Host for today was Chris Jones , President of True North M&A . Chris interviewed his firms' advisor, Tim Schinke and Tim's client, Dan Sundin. Dan is the co-founder and CEO of Innovative Technology Partners (ITP) , a managed services tech company in the Twin Cities.  Dan and his partners, Andy and Mark founded the business in...

Building our  "All Star Network" with Cathy Paper Cathy Paper has been teaching best practices in meaningful connections for many years and we were happy to have her on the show again today, because we know that Business Development and building a network that fosters it can be very challenging; regardless of the industry!   If you have sales people or other professionals whose job it is...

Kendall Qualls and TakeChargeMN: Making Black Lives Better! It's been a few years since Kendall Qualls was in the studio, so it was great to have him back again. Kendall is the Founder and President of TakeChargeMN , a nonprofit described as "a Coalition supporting Blacks in the pursuit of American core principles" .  Their foundational approach includes fostering free enterprise, e...

CFO of YTS companies Shares their ESOP Journey, with Guest Host, Kyla Hanson of JAK CPA's! Our episode today featured a guest co-host with Kyla Hansen , Partner at JAK CPA's and Sponsor of the Poised for Exit Show! Kyla's client, YTS Companies , became an ESOP in 2021 with the help of JAK's team and Kyla's expertise. Kyla invited YTS CFO, Andy Yetzer to share the story of...

Selling a Financial Advisory Practice: A Former Financial Advisor Shares Tips and Advice Our guest today was Steve Juetten , CFP and Founder of Bridgegate Partners , a firm who specializes in succession and exit for owners of financial advisory practices. Steve's background in M&A prior to becoming a CFP really gave him a great window on how to prepare when the time came for him to sell h...

Tiger 21: Your Personal Board of Directors Our guest today was Bonnie Speer McGrath , Chair of the Minneapolis chapter of Tiger 21 , a ultra-high net-worth peer group for entrepreneurs, investors and executives .  Bonnie's background and role as a peer group facilitator are quite different from the typical facilitator profile, since her members are all ultra wealthy individuals. As she said,...

Misbeliefs about Private Equity Partnership: Success Stories Revealed! We had the pleasure of hosting Shane Slominski on today's episode, who is a partner with Tonka Bay Private Equity Partners in the Twin Cities. Shane has been in the PE space with Tonka Bay for 18 years, and prior to that was a practicing CPA in the M&A space with Arthur Anderson and Deloitte. During those years, he wor...

How CEO Peer Groups can get you "Poised for Exit" Our guest for this episode is John Palen , CEO and Founder of Allied Executives , a long running executive peer group in the Twin Cities. When John's career led him to a place where he sought his own peer group for some professional guidance and feedback , he couldn't find what he was looking for. With necessity truly being the...

Rise of the Non-Technical Entrepreneur We had the great pleasure of interviewing Colin Hirdman in today's show. Colin and his partners founded Monkey Island Ventures , and their mission is to create as many successful founders as possible !  Colin and his partners are entrepreneurs themselves, obviously, so their work is more than just a way to make a living. They love what the do and the dif...

Arrowhead Promotion’s Bud Schneider: Pointing the way toward a new generation of leadership! Today’s episode featured the long time leader of a family business in its 3rd generation. The Arrowhead Promotion Company is going strong and looking to the future, as Bud Schneider mentors and guides the new leadership to take over. As a non-family member of a family owned company, Bud truly embraced the...

True Story of Rapid, Strategic Growth Supported by Fractional Marketing Services We had the opportunity to have Luke Riordan , Founder and Partner of Dayta Marketing in the studio today as our guest host! Luke invited a long-time client, Tim Kraemer , President of TKI to share his story of rapid growth, that was largely due to the strategic marketing partnership his company has had with Dayta.  Th...

"Our Advisor had our Back" A Nigerian Entrepreneur's Success Secret   Being a visionary entrepreneur with a constant flow of ideas requires you're surrounded by a solid team of leaders you can delegate to. Wale Banjoko is that kind of entrepreneur . He's currently seeking investment capital for his most recent initiative and we had the pleasure of hearing all about it. As...