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…
Kevin Bozung spent 21 years building SafetyNet, an IT managed services company he started as a teenager. He knew he was burned out at year 10. He sold it at year 21. What happened in between — and what happened in the hours after the wire hit — is the kind of story you don’t…
Most business owners think a valuation is a number. Shina Culberson thinks that’s where the real work starts. Shina is president of Quist Valuation in Boulder, Colorado — a specialized firm doing nothing but business valuation, 200 to 250 engagements a year, for 40-plus years. She’s also a CFA and a CEPA, a combination almost nobody in her…
Most exit advisors start with the numbers. Sean Scope starts with the person — and he’s been doing it that way since he left the PE turnaround world because he didn’t want to be the hatchet man anymore. Sean is Director of Sales and Operations at TSP Family Office and holds a background in…