Remember that incredible business trip you took to Italy last year? No doubt, it was a work trip. You did indeed conduct business. But just between us, did you need to try all the wines with your clients that day? Did you need to go for two full weeks instead of three business days? No criticism implied; the ability to expense things is one of the great perks of owning a business. But when you’re ready to exit your business, suddenly all these extra expenses can work against you. That’s because the valuation of your company is based on a key metric many people have never heard of: your EBITDA.

As a business owner do you feel like you’re on an island? You’ve built your business with blood, sweat, tears, and long hours … Now perhaps it’s time to start thinking about what’s next as you know you’ll have to step away from your business sooner or later.

If you don’t know where to start, we have the perfect event for you! Come meet with a community that understands your concerns. People who have been in your shoes and the advisers who serve them.

The guiding principals you have used to run your business successfully are not always the most helpful when it comes to selling your business. Let us help you offset your company’s earnings volatility by moving from cash to accrual accounting, and learning to really understand your financial statements.

2020 hit you like a freight train. The slow leak of the last decade became a gusher, and the labor pool completely dried up. Nobody wanted to work. You’ve raised wages, you’ve made jobs more flexible, you’ve offered more benefits, signing bonuses … You name it, you’ve tried it. Two years later, you feel like you’ve made no progress at all.

Your labor challenges have burned you out and you’re ready to be done with all of this. What do you do?

Over the past few months you’ve finally started to selectively voice what you’ve been thinking about for over a year. It’s time to sell your business. First, you mentioned it to your buddies at the golf club. Next, you called a friend or two from the past who you seem to recall know something about selling businesses. And then…

Lately though, you’ve been turning your attention to some bigger questions. The status quo isn’t working for you anymore and you’d like to shake things up. You keep posing a question to yourself, “Should I grow this thing? Or should I sell the company and move on?” You’re just not sure, but you know it requires some exploration. Putting your head in the sand will only hold off the inevitable for so long.

When it comes to these questions, you need a different skill set from your current internal capabilities. Navigating through these waters is much different from your day-to-day accounting and finance processes. It might be time to think about a Transactional CTO.

After reviewing your exit options, you also decided to sell to the highest bidder. You feel the release of this decision to sell. Now what do you do?

Do you put up a for sale sign on the front lawn? Do you put an ad in the newspaper? Do you create a website? Of course not. In order to get the best offer, you’re going to need to engage an investment banker who specializes in the sale of businesses like yours.

Chances are you’ve never engaged an investment banker before now. Most people haven’t. Here’s what you need to know.

It’s your business and you’ve always managed it this way. You’ve gotten a certain glee out of minimizing your income taxes. Over the years you’ve employed two common “strategies'' of closely held business owners: under-reporting cash sales and classifying personal expenses as business expenses.

While these actions are illegal under US law, you’ve dealt with that moral conflict long ago in your head. Either way, this piece is not about the legal, ethical, or moral questions of such strategies. Let’s instead discuss how these strategies may impact your exit plan.

You’ve built an incredible and vastly complex business from your humble beginnings. You worked hard and allowed yourself to learn from every mistake. You’re a lot smarter about a lot of things. But deep down you know your limits. You know you cannot be the expert in everything. You know you need some professional assistance, but you cannot forget how you got burned back in the day.

What do you do now?

As an entrepreneur, you can see the future. Where others see an open field, you see a beautiful state-of-the-art facility churning out new products. Where others see an empty shell building, you envision an automated line that will cut operating costs in half. Where others see an abandoned storefront, you see a new retail concept.

You speak the language of a business operator.

But as you know, sometimes you need a financial partner in order to bring your future vision into reality.