Dianne Kelley has watched a lot of owners wait one year too long. She’s a CEPA in Tucson who has worked beside business owners for 35 years. She has seen a son walk away from a succession plan, a widow give a family company to charity, and a couple learn after twenty years what their…
Kaz Kelly did everything right: clean books, written procedures and a team that could run without her. She still felt bullied the moment the deal got real. She built Doggy Daycare Brisbane from four dogs and a near-bankruptcy into one of Australia’s most successful operations of its kind, then sold it in 2024 and moved…
“I’m not Adam — I’m the guy who runs this company.” That’s the identity Adam Feuerstein was running on right up until he sold Clay Dean Electric, the commercial electrical contractor he rescued from near-collapse and built over seven years. He gets into the $300,000 parking structure that was never built, the five days it…
I sold my ServPro franchise after 12 years, and the next morning it wasn’t mine anymore — the biggest word that came to mind was freedom. I built the business from a startup into a 24/7 restoration company, developed my own AR collection system, and eventually became a business broker in Jackson, Mississippi, helping other…
Could I take a two-week vacation without my phone?” John Fulwider asks it as a test — if the answer’s no, your business owns you, not the other way around. A former EOS implementer turned owner-decision specialist, John spent over a decade watching founders build beautiful org charts that changed nothing, because letting go on…
Most brokers hand you the keys and disappear. David Whipple spent 20+ years selling businesses before deciding that wasn’t good enough. He’s the author of the 14 Immutable Laws of Business Value and built a stewardship process that treats the year before and after a sale as the real work — not the closing itself….
Chuck Mohler once told a client to drop the ball — literally — and watched the company grow 15X in five years. As founder of Eagle Corporate Advisors, Chuck has spent 30+ years guiding lower middle market owners from lifestyle business to real enterprise, and from the closing table into whatever comes next. In this…
“I feel like it’s a child. You’ve raised it up from nothing.” Michael Thomas has spent 20-plus years building and exiting companies — from a Farmers Insurance agency to telecom operations to his current venture, Bright Lane Systems, six months into building industry-specific phone platforms for hospitality and senior living. He’s watched private equity step…
You can’t turn off the passion of your life and just relax — and Scott Bushkie has watched too many founders try. After 25 years and more than 350 transactions in the lower middle market, Scott has seen the full arc: the ones who planned, got multiple offers, and went into their next chapter with…
Most sellers bring in their CPA after the LOI is signed. Ruben Ramirez spends a lot of time wishing they’d called two years earlier. Ruben is a director at Blue and Company and leads their transaction advisory group — Blue Value Advisors — out of Metro Detroit. He’s worked on over 200 transactions, built his…