Gary W. Lavallee, ChFC, CVB

"This program is not about us telling you to change how you do business. You certainly know your business better than we do.

However, this program is about the tools and coaching available to dig deeper into your business to take advantage of opportunities that have not been detected to allow your business to become more valuable in the eyes of a potential buyer if you wish to exit any time soon ... or just get your business to run better without you, while taking more time off and enjoying the fruits of what you created".

Yes, we manage money, and feel we do a great job at it. However, as an entrepreneur, that's just managing roughly 20% of your wealth until the day you hand your "keys" over to someone else.

This is why we also help successful business owners further scale their business, create greater efficiencies, and increase profitability.  Ultimately, helping the business owner to have more time off, while grooming the business for the optimal goal of receiving a much higher multiple upon an eventual sale.

Let's think for a moment about where we would be without entrepreneurs willing to risk everything for an idea?

We would be without most modern conveniences: no cars if it weren’t for Henry Ford (and no electric ones if it were not for Elon Musk). No Disney. No Netflix. No Amazon. For a society like ours to work, founders need to be incentivized to take risk in return for reward. This is true of our most celebrated entrepreneurs as well as the smallest of businesses — even the owner who may serve your coffee in the morning or clean the carpets in your office. Small business owners need to know that if they are going to sacrifice everything to start a company, there’s a chance they can win in the game of business.

Unfortunately, we don’t have enough winners these days. Ninety-seven percent of all businesses around the world are small, yet most will never celebrate their 5th birthday. They will die a quiet death without much fanfare. Of those that do turn five, most will only eke out a simple living for their founder who closes the doors when it’s time to retire with nothing to sell but perhaps some old inventory. Of the tiny minority of owners that do build a sellable business and list it with a broker, their odds of getting an offer are less than one in three. For the lucky few who get an offer, most will end up having to lend money to the buyer in the form of a “Vendor Take Back.” Imagine you struggle for years to pay off the mortgage on your home and when you attempt to sell it, the only way you can close a transaction is to co-sign the mortgage of the buyer — effectively continuing to shoulder the risk without any of the enjoyment of owning the home.

A small handful of founders build a company large enough for a private equity group to become interested. Here still, the odds are stacked against owners as they face down a sophisticated financial engineer who uses spreadsheets as their weapon of choice. Private equity groups offer to buy the majority of an owner’s shares but force a founder to continue to hold a significant part of their business as a minority shareholder. As a minority owner, they stand by and watch the professional operators pick apart their company like a carcass — rewriting and overturning decisions the owner has made in favor of more “professional” policies. Imagine hip surgery without anesthetic. 

A tiny handful of owners will sell to a corporate buyer and here again, they face a mercenary financial engineer in the form of a corporate development executive who uses underhanded techniques like “re-trading” and “strategic pacing” to buy a business for much less than its worth.

People who sacrifice so much are treated so poorly when it’s time for them to go and we don’t think that’s right. Our goal is to honor an owner’s sacrifice. To empower them to fight back and get a fair price for their life’s work.

Why Should I Focus on Building Value?

Building the value of your company gives you a killer advantage in the game of life. You can choose to sell if you get an outlandish offer, or sleep well at night knowing you could sell while your business is running on all cylinders.

The hallmark of a valuable company is one that runs without you, which means if you can create a business that’s built to sell, you also have the option to hold on to it without the stress of running your company day-to-day.

A valuable business is also a sought-after asset, making it more likely that you get an unsolicited offer for your business. This gives you negotiating leverage when you decide to sell.