Retirement

The Challenge: The daughter of a business owner wants her dad to retire, but he wants to “die at his desk”.

The Solution: His daughter didn’t want to take over the business and he didn’t want to stop working. So we worked with both parties to develop an exit plan around him “dying at his desk”.

The Result:  While trying to figure out the best option to go, we discovered that the daughter didn’t want to deal with the business when he died. She was unqualified and unwilling to manage closing or selling the business without him. Therefore, we helped the owner develop an exit plan that would ensure everyone knew what to do when he would pass away. The plan is still in place and our Exit Engineers^® will support the daughter when the time comes.

Partnership Wants Out

The Challenge: A business partner, with 10 years of experience over his Junior partner, wants out. The senior partner is the base of the entire company, with his name on the business, and without him, the value of the company wasn’t as high as he expected.

The Solution: We assisted with the negotiation of price and terms, which took some time since the senior partner struggled with the low valuation.

The Result: Through negotiations, the senior partner got a higher purchase price but was willing to work a little longer to build out the cash flow from the business.

Assessment

The Challenge: Owner received several unsolicited offers, but struggled with the idea of leaving his business.

The Solution: Our Exit Engineers interviewed the owner in-depth and challenged him to determine his personal WIN. We evaluated the business to determine if the management team could run the business without his involvement, then we performed a business valuation to see if the children or employees could afford to buy the company

The Result: We explored all the options with everyone in an open process, allowing all stakeholders to explore different exit options. Since the kids had no experience running a company and the key employees didn’t want to be in partnership together, the company spent the next three years working with us to set the company up for a successful sale.

Strategic Planning

The Challenge: Founder of a company wanted to pass his business to his key employees, but his company was an owner-run business and no clear directions of where it was going.

The Solution: Interviewed the owner, key employees, and key advisors then evaluated the business. We facilitated a two-day workshop with the key stakeholders and worked through the vision, defined the WIN, then set goals and assigned people to develop the tasks to achieve the goals.

The Result: Our Exit Engineers developed a timeline and the measurable steps that needed to be accomplished, the assisted with the transition and implementation of the strategic plan. All stakeholders are moving forward with the plan in unison, for a unified WIN.

Divorce  

The Challenge: Three brothers inherited the business from their father, but one of the sons wanted to go in a different direction.

The Solution: Met with all three brothers and reviewed various exit plans.

The Result: We focused on an after-tax cash proceeds price and not on a sales price. We developed a terms and payment plan that was acceptable to the owners and what the business could afford. Working in partnership with the corporate attorney and CPA, the documents were all executed correctly, and the business is still operating successfully today.

Liquidation

The Challenge:  Company was struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic and kept fighting to keep its doors open. 

The Solution: We worked with the owner and his advisors to develop and execute a liquidation plan.

The Result:  Negotiated a path to liquidation that allowed the owner to exit with all his debts paid and employees to find new employment. It was a tough and emotional exercise, and the owner appreciated our team is on his side the whole way and exited with his head held up high exited with his head up high.

Outside Offer

The Challenge: A three-partner company received an unsolicited offer, and while the price sounded good, they had no idea what the company was actually worth to decide if the price was fair.

The Solution: We performed a business valuation, reviewed the Letter of Intent with their tax advisors, and then negotiated on behalf of the owners with the outside party.

The Result: After 30 days of negotiations, the partners decided they were not ready to sell and wanted to continue to grow their company. The process unified the partners, and they learned a lot about their business value. They were very appreciative of our Exit Engineering efforts and results and are now planning a strategic exit in the future.

Tired & Done

The Challenge: A business owner decided he was done after running his business for 35 years and wanted to either sell his company or shut it down by end of the year.

The Solution: We assessed the value of his business and discussed the option of selling the company at a discount due to the short timeline with the owner.

The Result: After our review, he decided to hold onto the company long enough to properly take it to market so he could benefit from his years of work. We sold it in the second quarter of the following year, and he was able to achieve his exit WIN.

Health

The Business:  An owner was diagnosed with cancer and after an initial recovery, the cancer came back worse than the first time.

The Solution: The owner and his business partner worked best as a duo, and knew that losing either would be terrible for both the business and them personally. We pulled the estate, tax, and financial planners together to look at the overall situation and got creative.

The Result: We were able to negotiate to sell the business to the partner with a payment plan over a period of time. The remaining partner continues to honor his deceased partner’s legacy and the company is still operating successfully to this day.

Death

The Challenge: A lawyer passed away in an accident, and he was the entire business. His widow had no plan, no insurance, and no strategy.

The Solution:  We worked with the widow on various options and ideas. In the end, she chose to sell the company to a key employee.

The Result: We negotiated selling the company to the key employee with a payment plan over a period of time. The sale was successful and the widow acquired the funds she needed.