Transcripts
Hello, and welcome to the Close the Loop podcast.
Kevin Dieny:I'm your host, Kevin Dieny, and today we're gonna be talking about How to
Kevin Dieny:Build an Exit Strategy for your Business.
Kevin Dieny:I've got a really special guest with us today, who I would consider to
Kevin Dieny:be a fantastic resource for talking about exit strategies with business.
Kevin Dieny:His name is Kyle Griffith.
Kevin Dieny:Kyle Griffith is a trusted M and A advisor for business owners, planning their
Kevin Dieny:retirement in the sale of their companies.
Kevin Dieny:Kyle is a managing partner of the N Y B B group.
Kevin Dieny:For the past 18 years, the N Y B B group has assisted privately held companies
Kevin Dieny:in need of merger and acquisition and business advisory services.
Kevin Dieny:Kyle is the chair elect of the International Business Brokers
Kevin Dieny:Association and is the CEO and founder of the M and A, an advisory
Kevin Dieny:network for business owners seeking to build, grow, and exit their company.
Kevin Dieny:So welcome Kyle, and I'm so grateful for having you on.
Kyle Griffith:Hey, Kevin, I really appreciate the opportunity to
Kyle Griffith:connect with you and, and share some insights with your guests.
Kyle Griffith:I feel honored to be part of your program.
Kyle Griffith:Thank you for so much for the invite.
Kevin Dieny:Yeah, and I think a great place for us to get started
Kevin Dieny:here, Kyle, is with the very basics.
Kevin Dieny:So when we talk about an exit strategy, when we talk about mergers and
Kevin Dieny:acquisitions, the sale of a company, what are we, what is that I guess in
Kevin Dieny:layman's terms, what are we talking about?
Kyle Griffith:So when, when you're thinking about an exit strategy, one
Kyle Griffith:way to look at it, you know, most folks, when you think of exit to think
Kyle Griffith:about sale, don't look at it that way.
Kyle Griffith:An exit strategy is in, in the event that you need to transition
Kyle Griffith:the business, success the business, have a succession plan in place
Kyle Griffith:for a family member or employee.
Kyle Griffith:You wanna have something in place in case of that event occurs.
Kyle Griffith:Also, you could be looking to grow your company, right?
Kyle Griffith:You wanna grow your company from 5, 10 to 20 million.
Kyle Griffith:What's your strategy?
Kyle Griffith:Are you plan to grow your company in preparation for exit
Kyle Griffith:to purchase another company.
Kyle Griffith:Another exit strategy can be, Hey, you know what?
Kyle Griffith:I have a great team here.
Kyle Griffith:I wanna do an internal sale, my exit strategy, I'm gonna transfer ownership
Kyle Griffith:to some key employees or key management.
Kyle Griffith:A lot of people when, when they get involved in a business, they don't
Kyle Griffith:think about what the exit strategy is.
Kyle Griffith:And, you know, 20, 30 years later, later they're stuck in a business
Kyle Griffith:that they probably could have sold or could have exited, uh, years ago.
Kyle Griffith:I like to use the analogy, Kevin.
Kyle Griffith:You know, you think of it in the real estate world.
Kyle Griffith:You're not gonna just buy a piece of property without knowing what
Kyle Griffith:your exit strategy is gonna be.
Kyle Griffith:Either you end up in the buy and hold game, you're buying property to hold and
Kyle Griffith:you know, you put it in your portfolio and it stays in family trust and stays from
Kyle Griffith:generation to generation, or you fix it, and you're flipping, you're doing rehab.
Kyle Griffith:So the same thing when you get in a company, what's your game plan is
Kyle Griffith:your plan to hold it, build it up or keep it in the family or go public.
Kyle Griffith:There's different ways to exit depending on what your, what
Kyle Griffith:your, what your game plan is.
Kevin Dieny:No, that's really fascinating to me because the, that
Kevin Dieny:there's so many different options a business could take, you know, maybe.
Kevin Dieny:Maybe it's it wants to success to the, to its family member, to an employee.
Kevin Dieny:It wants to sell, it wants to grow.
Kevin Dieny:There's a lot of options or interesting avenues there.
Kevin Dieny:So that makes me think, okay, well, how early is it?
Kevin Dieny:Like life insurance where it's like well...
Kevin Dieny:The earlier you get it, the better off you are.
Kevin Dieny:Is it like that where the earlier a business is thinking about it?
Kevin Dieny:Cause you mentioned you don't buy a property before knowing your exit.
Kevin Dieny:Is it the same, should a business owner today who maybe doesn't have the, I don't
Kevin Dieny:know the most confident exit strategy.
Kevin Dieny:Should a business owner at any point in time be thinking about
Kevin Dieny:their exit or is it, you know, when they're near the exit is it from day
Kevin Dieny:two or three of having a business?
Kevin Dieny:Where do you, where would you, where do you think a good time to start
Kevin Dieny:planning an exit strategy takes place?
Kyle Griffith:From the very beginning.
Kyle Griffith:You, you wanna think of it.
Kyle Griffith:And from the end in mind, you wanna reverse engineer what your game plan
Kyle Griffith:is, as far as your exit strategy is, and the growth of your business.
Kyle Griffith:From the very beginning, a lot of people don't think about it,
Kyle Griffith:cause they're so excited, right?
Kyle Griffith:I have to see a business I just started or I just bought or I just inherited,
Kyle Griffith:and you just have so much going on.
Kyle Griffith:You have to deal with the staff, vendors, customers.
Kyle Griffith:In that beginning, just a big rush to get things situated.
Kyle Griffith:You deal with contracts, attorneys, leases, and you forget about, you
Kyle Griffith:know, what is the eventual goal here?
Kyle Griffith:Is your goal, you're gonna, this business is gonna fund your retirement?
Kyle Griffith:You're building a business that's gonna make X amount
Kyle Griffith:that can fund your retirement.
Kyle Griffith:Are you building up a legacy for your kids and your family?
Kyle Griffith:So ideally you wanna start from the beginning.
Kyle Griffith:And reverse engineer.
Kyle Griffith:It's funny, um, I just got out of a Goldman Sachs program.
Kyle Griffith:See my cup here.
Kyle Griffith:10,000 small business, a wonderful program.
Kyle Griffith:The very first day in the class.
Kyle Griffith:Now their program runs for four months the very first day.
Kyle Griffith:Guess what they taught on the first day?
Kevin Dieny:Have an exit, have a, have the end in mind?
Kevin Dieny:Or?
Kyle Griffith:Yeah, what's your exit strategy?
Kyle Griffith:Right?
Kyle Griffith:So you've been through a whole course of four months, you know, figuring
Kyle Griffith:how to build your business, how to, how to grow your business, how to
Kyle Griffith:build a sustainable viable company.
Kyle Griffith:Right, has your exit plan changed?
Kyle Griffith:If it hasn't changed, whether it's changed or not, what are you gonna do?
Kyle Griffith:What are some things you're gonna track?
Kyle Griffith:What some metrics you're gonna track to make sure that you're building a
Kyle Griffith:company that's sellable, a company has value, and you have people in place
Kyle Griffith:who run a company if you're not around.
Kyle Griffith:So you can step away, you can go on vacation, you can do some cool things.
Kyle Griffith:So it's, it is very important because, I speak with many clients that are,
Kyle Griffith:you know, they can't take a vacation.
Kyle Griffith:They're locked in.
Kyle Griffith:They don't have anyone to run the company and, it's things you have to think about
Kyle Griffith:in the very early stages of your company.
Kevin Dieny:Wow, yeah, so you mentioned there's a lot of things
Kevin Dieny:in that, even in what you just said, I'd like to unpack even more.
Kevin Dieny:The first thing I'd wanna go into would be, okay, so let's say a business
Kevin Dieny:owner, someone who's launched the business at any point in time, wants
Kevin Dieny:to have a very solid exit strategy.
Kevin Dieny:What would you say is one of the first steps on that journey on that
Kevin Dieny:path to, to having an exit strategy where they're gonna feel confident
Kevin Dieny:about it, know what maybe what it is.
Kevin Dieny:Maybe have some backup options to it.
Kevin Dieny:What, what would be the first step in that path to getting an exit strategy?
Kyle Griffith:Well, it, it depends on where they are at with their business.
Kyle Griffith:I ideally, you, you want to have that conversation with your financial
Kyle Griffith:planner, your financial advisor, your wealth advisor, you know?
Kyle Griffith:So if your goal is you need a million dollars to retire and your company's
Kyle Griffith:valued at $500,000, then there's a gap of five hundred grand, right?
Kyle Griffith:So one of the first steps you wanna do is get an evaluation, right?
Kyle Griffith:You need to assess where you are.
Kyle Griffith:Right, I like to use, I like analogies.
Kyle Griffith:Kevin just, just put things in perspective.
Kyle Griffith:So every year, what do you do?
Kyle Griffith:You get a checkup, right?
Kyle Griffith:You get a physical, right?
Kyle Griffith:So if your goal is to be chiseled like Christiano Ronaldo, and you go to the
Kyle Griffith:doctor and you're a little bit lumpy.
Kyle Griffith:Right, the docs gonna say, you need to work out, lose weight,
Kyle Griffith:and you put a plan together.
Kyle Griffith:You get a gym membership, you start eating right.
Kyle Griffith:And you get to be Christiano Ronaldo.
Kyle Griffith:Now, if your goal is not to be Christiano, you want to be, you know, just in
Kyle Griffith:shape that you put a, a plan in place.
Kyle Griffith:The same thing with your, with your company.
Kyle Griffith:You, you want to, the first step you wanna get evaluation of your
Kyle Griffith:company, determine what it's worth.
Kyle Griffith:And then part of that plan is let's say your exit plan is to
Kyle Griffith:sell your company in five years.
Kyle Griffith:Your companies worth 1 million today.
Kyle Griffith:And as part of that assessments, we do different assessments.
Kyle Griffith:We do what's called a value gap assessment.
Kyle Griffith:So with that value gap assessment, we will assess what your businesses were today.
Kyle Griffith:And we will discuss various key value drivers.
Kyle Griffith:So if you take action, if, if you take these action steps, your
Kyle Griffith:business can go from, let's say it's 5 million today to possibly 10 million.
Kyle Griffith:Right?
Kyle Griffith:So here's the key, the key question.
Kyle Griffith:Do you wanna put in the work to get it to 10 now?
Kyle Griffith:Or does it make sense for you to exit now?
Kyle Griffith:Because it, in some cases there are business owners
Kyle Griffith:that have other opportunities.
Kyle Griffith:They have other motivations that could be investing in real estate,
Kyle Griffith:other businesses, relocation.
Kyle Griffith:So there's a, an opportunity loss.
Kyle Griffith:So if you stay growing your company, you can lose out other opportunities.
Kyle Griffith:So it depends on that individual.
Kyle Griffith:For some, it makes sense to exit right away or, and others
Kyle Griffith:maybe wanna stick around.
Kyle Griffith:Build a company to a high evaluation and, and exit.
Kyle Griffith:But one of the first people you wanna speak with is your financial advisor.
Kyle Griffith:There's also some tax considerations as well when you start a company.
Kyle Griffith:So having those conversations with your, with your, an accountant would
Kyle Griffith:be definitely my, my recommendation.
Kevin Dieny:Yeah, that's that's fantastic.
Kevin Dieny:And, uh, man, so a, a question that comes off that right away in my head is,
Kevin Dieny:you know, I, I know that it's complex.
Kevin Dieny:I know that it's a lot of subjectivity around the business and when it would
Kevin Dieny:win and, it's the owner up to the owner to decide, okay, is this what I want?
Kevin Dieny:These being my goals is this what I want in my life?
Kevin Dieny:Opportunity costs, you mentioned, there's other avenues to explore,
Kevin Dieny:but I guess in terms of like the basics again, what are some of the
Kevin Dieny:things that a, a company would say.
Kevin Dieny:Well, this is how I value.
Kevin Dieny:I'm going to value a business.
Kevin Dieny:What are some of the factors or levers or, or just general things
Kevin Dieny:that go into how a company is valued?
Kyle Griffith:Kevin, that's the money question, man.
Kyle Griffith:That's the money question.
Kyle Griffith:That's the number one question, what's my business worth?
Kyle Griffith:And it's like a picture it's like the value is in the
Kyle Griffith:eye of the beholder, right?
Kyle Griffith:It's the valuation is just like that.
Kyle Griffith:It's a picture.
Kyle Griffith:It's art, it's more of an art in a science.
Kyle Griffith:There are, I can go very deep on this if you want.
Kyle Griffith:I can keep it high level as well.
Kyle Griffith:There are multiple factors that goes into the valuation.
Kyle Griffith:Majority of buyers, the first thing you wanna look at is the financials, right?
Kyle Griffith:Buyers are looking for some, looking at the EBITDA, which is earnings before
Kyle Griffith:interest taxes, depreciation, and amortization, and essentially wanna
Kyle Griffith:see how profitable the business is.
Kyle Griffith:So you can get away from the financials.
Kyle Griffith:You have to have clean financials, even projections at times, right?
Kyle Griffith:I would say maybe 70%, 80% of the valuation is based upon the financials.
Kyle Griffith:The other aspects is more stuff that you can't see, more Goodwill intangible.
Kyle Griffith:So let me, let me give you one that you understand.
Kyle Griffith:Multiples are, is assess is basically a risk that multiple, right?
Kyle Griffith:When you value the business part of it, you do a multiple of the EBITDA.
Kyle Griffith:That multiple is a risk factor.
Kyle Griffith:The higher, the multiple, the lower, the risk.
Kyle Griffith:The lower than multiple the higher the risk.
Kyle Griffith:Right?
Kyle Griffith:So if you're working in a H V A C company, 10 million, you have
Kyle Griffith:recurring revenue, a lot of good will.
Kyle Griffith:You have good, good reviews.
Kyle Griffith:You have good key people, that's a, a low risk.
Kyle Griffith:Lower risk opportunity.
Kyle Griffith:So a buyer will be willing to pay a little bit more because they can feel
Kyle Griffith:rest assured they have a high confidence that the business is not gonna fall
Kyle Griffith:apart once I take the business over.
Kyle Griffith:Right, now on the flip, in the flip end, if you don't have contracts,
Kyle Griffith:you don't have your current revenue.
Kyle Griffith:You have some contractors that doing some work on the side.
Kyle Griffith:There's a lot of things happening.
Kyle Griffith:A buyer will look at that, you know, there's some risk that's involved.
Kyle Griffith:So I'm not willing to put my money out.
Kyle Griffith:So I'm going to pay you a lower multiple.
Kyle Griffith:So the, the valuation has a lot to do with that.
Kyle Griffith:Another thing that factors into the valuation, Kevin is
Kyle Griffith:the growth opportunity, right?
Kyle Griffith:So the buyer is going to essentially value the business based upon the
Kyle Griffith:historical performances of the company.
Kyle Griffith:Anything after that is their profit.
Kyle Griffith:And the re that's that's their return.
Kyle Griffith:They're gonna bring, they're gonna infuse capital in the company.
Kyle Griffith:They're gonna bring teams.
Kyle Griffith:They're gonna bring the advisory team.
Kyle Griffith:They're gonna bring their wits, their knowledge, depending on who the buyer is.
Kyle Griffith:And their goal is, wow, you have made you have a $10 million company.
Kyle Griffith:That's wonderful.
Kyle Griffith:I love what you did here.
Kyle Griffith:I love your business, but I want to, I wanna 10 X this company, I wanna go
Kyle Griffith:20, 30, 40 million, but guess what?
Kyle Griffith:I'm putting, I'm investing my capital.
Kyle Griffith:I wanna get a return in my investment, right?
Kyle Griffith:That additional revenue and performance, and profitability of that
Kyle Griffith:company, that's a buyer's benefit.
Kyle Griffith:So that's what they look at too.
Kyle Griffith:So they may be willing to pay a little bit more because there is a
Kyle Griffith:growth factor's a growth strategy.
Kyle Griffith:So if you were to you, not a buyers ask the owner.
Kyle Griffith:If you were to stick around 5, 10 years...
Kyle Griffith:what will you do to grow the business?
Kyle Griffith:And if you have that already laid out that the buyer can just come in, plug and play.
Kyle Griffith:The chance of you get a much higher, multiple increases.
Kyle Griffith:One other thing, Kevin, I'll give you one of the bonus.
Kyle Griffith:There's not a lot of great companies.
Kyle Griffith:There are few unicorns.
Kyle Griffith:I'll give you one example of a unicorn.
Kyle Griffith:It just happened recently.
Kyle Griffith:Twitter.
Kyle Griffith:Twitter got an insane valuation, right?
Kyle Griffith:Now not every company is a Twitter or a WhatsApp, right?
Kyle Griffith:However, one key reasons that that can inflate a price is demand.
Kyle Griffith:If you have two buyers that are essentially bidding for that one
Kyle Griffith:particular business or multiple buyers bid, if one particular business, let's say
Kyle Griffith:it's two competitors, you have three H V A C companies in this one area, one is being
Kyle Griffith:sold and you have two other competitors that, that are buying a business.
Kyle Griffith:Those two buyers, the one that doesn't win that bid knows that now they're
Kyle Griffith:gonna have a bigger competitor.
Kyle Griffith:That competitor's gonna get probably the best employees.
Kyle Griffith:They're probably gonna get materials at a lower cost.
Kyle Griffith:You're gonna get a lot of value between both companies and it's gonna be a, a,
Kyle Griffith:a challenge for the third HVAC in that marketplace to survive and gain traction.
Kyle Griffith:So the other company can essentially try to outbid the other
Kyle Griffith:competitor, just not to lose out.
Kyle Griffith:So they want to pay a little bit more cause they don't
Kyle Griffith:wanna lose out on the deal.
Kyle Griffith:So there's a couple things that factor valuation.
Kyle Griffith:There's multiple others, but you know, I'll stop right there.
Kevin Dieny:No, I think those are really interesting because, if any one
Kevin Dieny:of those stand out, if I'm listening to this and one of those stands out and
Kevin Dieny:I'm like, oh, that would be that's an interesting factor I should consider.
Kevin Dieny:Right.
Kevin Dieny:Then, then maybe I'll do something about, I, I read when I was
Kevin Dieny:looking this up this topic.
Kevin Dieny:I was just researching this topic.
Kevin Dieny:I found a lot of times.
Kevin Dieny:It was recommended that a business, get evaluation even when they're not
Kevin Dieny:in the market to sell just yet, because a business analysis, an, an evaluation
Kevin Dieny:per se value analysis would tell them, well, if I did have to sell today,
Kevin Dieny:this is what, you know, my weaknesses, my strengths, my multiplier might
Kevin Dieny:be, these are areas where someone may say, well, you know, this is just you.
Kevin Dieny:If I was a buyer, this would just.
Kevin Dieny:Be a little sketchy to me or a little risky to me.
Kevin Dieny:And so the, the owner then could be like, Hmm, okay, how can I shore this up?
Kevin Dieny:If the plan is, far off, but maybe today that analysis could be useful.
Kevin Dieny:And so I was like, well, that that'd be kind of cool.
Kevin Dieny:So how, how often, how costly, how often are these valuation checkups?
Kevin Dieny:Would it be something a business could afford to do often or is it
Kevin Dieny:something they may do, sparingly because it can get costly.
Kevin Dieny:I wasn't sure.
Kyle Griffith:Here's the thing, here's the thing.
Kyle Griffith:Kevin, I'll give you another analogy.
Kyle Griffith:I'm assuming you have a car and there's a, a schedule for oil change
Kyle Griffith:for check-in, we have oil change, you have the maintenance and all that.
Kyle Griffith:You have a schedule, right?
Kyle Griffith:You just go into the, to your mechanic or your dealership for an oil change
Kyle Griffith:and what happens they find something.
Kyle Griffith:Oh, by the way, Kevin, your alternator is bad, or you didn't
Kyle Griffith:know you have a nail in your tire?
Kyle Griffith:Now, had you not gone to get that service?
Kyle Griffith:What would happen?
Kyle Griffith:You could have been on a trip with your family, the tire
Kyle Griffith:blows out what happened, right?
Kyle Griffith:So it's the same thing with your business, right?
Kyle Griffith:As far as valuation goes, there are different types of valuations,
Kyle Griffith:the different levels to evaluation.
Kyle Griffith:You wanna get some sort of assessment once a year.
Kyle Griffith:So we do something that's called a price valuation analysis.
Kyle Griffith:That's something you can get done once a year.
Kyle Griffith:A full blown, complete appraisal and valuation.
Kyle Griffith:You may wanna do that every five years, it can get a little bit costly.
Kyle Griffith:But I would say, five years for a full valuation, but every year
Kyle Griffith:you wanna do a, a SWOT analysis.
Kyle Griffith:You wanna do some sort of assessment that's to make sure you're on track.
Kyle Griffith:Right?
Kyle Griffith:It's like, you have a plane that's going from Denver to LA.
Kyle Griffith:Every time, every few seconds there are course corrections, right.
Kyle Griffith:To make sure the plane's on the right track.
Kyle Griffith:So the same thing for a company, you wanna make sure that you're
Kyle Griffith:assessing your company regular.
Kyle Griffith:So you can make these course corrections.
Kyle Griffith:If your goals are exit and, and create a legacy for your family, you wanna
Kyle Griffith:have these, these cost corrections.
Kyle Griffith:So you can make sure you get your goals accomplished.
Kevin Dieny:Okay.
Kevin Dieny:Let's say you do want to have an exit strategy and it does
Kevin Dieny:involve handing off a sale.
Kevin Dieny:You know, something, it could be anything, I think really how
Kevin Dieny:do you make that exit smoother?
Kevin Dieny:You know what I mean?
Kevin Dieny:Like there's the, the sale and making sure it's valued right.
Kevin Dieny:Which is getting the most for it and making sure that it looks great.
Kevin Dieny:But I think there's also that aspect of okay, the company, if it's still gonna
Kevin Dieny:persist after the exit, how do you make that transition from maybe you as the
Kevin Dieny:owner to someone else or, you know, how do you make that process more smooth?
Kevin Dieny:I would imagine that that's part of it is like the transitional point.
Kyle Griffith:Yeah, so it's, it's a lot, it's a lot to it.
Kyle Griffith:So it's probably easier if I give an example.
Kyle Griffith:So right now I'm representing a metal distribution company.
Kyle Griffith:And when the client first came to me, the owner was very much involved
Kyle Griffith:in the business and his client wanted to exit and sell the company.
Kyle Griffith:So he had a VP and slowly but surely he started relinquishing some
Kyle Griffith:of his responsibility to the VP.
Kyle Griffith:That VP's a couple years from retirement.
Kyle Griffith:So anyone that's buying a company, the VP's gonna, can potentially stay with the
Kyle Griffith:company and he does majority of the work where the CEO does general oversight.
Kyle Griffith:So one of the key things to answer your question, Kevin is to make
Kyle Griffith:sure that you're replaceable and it doesn't sound great.
Kyle Griffith:We all wanna think we are replaceable.
Kyle Griffith:Right, one thing that, you know, there's no one else can do a great job as me, but
Kyle Griffith:sometimes, you have to maybe fire yourself or give yourself a longer vacation, right?
Kyle Griffith:Because sometimes you can be holding the company back.
Kyle Griffith:I've had a couple clients where they have grown their business and
Kyle Griffith:they come to me and want to exit, they've grown their business at 2
Kyle Griffith:million or 5 million or whatever.
Kyle Griffith:And the sales just plateaued.
Kyle Griffith:Like they can't get the business to the next level.
Kyle Griffith:And it's all about the mindset.
Kyle Griffith:Mindset has a lot to do with it.
Kyle Griffith:You have to figure out, okay, so what do I need?
Kyle Griffith:What tools do I need?
Kyle Griffith:What resources do I need?
Kyle Griffith:Who do I need in my team to get my business on the next level?
Kyle Griffith:And sometimes it may start with the CEO.
Kyle Griffith:It may need a CEO change.
Kyle Griffith:Get some fresh blood in, in the company and, and get things going and, and,
Kyle Griffith:and move in the right direction.
Kyle Griffith:So sometimes you see folks founding the companies, they start as a
Kyle Griffith:founder, as a CEO and then slowly they, they bring in someone else.
Kyle Griffith:Cause they are great at building companies.
Kyle Griffith:So they build a company and move on to the next one and they have a next one.
Kyle Griffith:And then they have a portfolio of 10 companies and that's
Kyle Griffith:the smartest way to do it.
Kyle Griffith:You just get yourself out of the picture.
Kyle Griffith:Cause when you're in that bubble, working in your business,
Kyle Griffith:you don't see from the outside.
Kyle Griffith:So you wanna always be working on your business or not in your business.
Kyle Griffith:So one of the key things is getting someone else.
Kyle Griffith:I would say out of every question I get from buyers, they wanna know about
Kyle Griffith:the key personnel and management.
Kyle Griffith:Who's staying with the company.
Kyle Griffith:Give us a background.
Kyle Griffith:What's a turn, what's a turnover.
Kyle Griffith:How often, you know, how long have they been with the company?
Kyle Griffith:What's the, the ages.
Kyle Griffith:Cause if their key personnel are retirement ages, the chance that I may
Kyle Griffith:buy the company and then they move on.
Kyle Griffith:So the personnel aspect, the human cap aspect is one of
Kyle Griffith:the most, most instrumental parts in getting the deal done.
Kyle Griffith:So you talk about a smooth transition, get a team in place.
Kyle Griffith:And Kevin, this works for startups as well.
Kyle Griffith:So I do work with a lot of lenders and bankers.
Kyle Griffith:And some of these, some of these bankers invest in early stage companies.
Kyle Griffith:They know that you just started and you may not have a lot of profits
Kyle Griffith:cause you guys going, but they wanna know who is on your team.
Kyle Griffith:Who's gonna help you.
Kyle Griffith:What's your infrastructure.
Kyle Griffith:What's your build out.
Kyle Griffith:What's your game plan.
Kyle Griffith:What's your business plan, what's your growth plan?
Kyle Griffith:What's your exit plan, right?
Kyle Griffith:They wanna know who's in your team can help you execute.
Kyle Griffith:So you want a smooth transition.
Kyle Griffith:Make sure you have some good people working inside the
Kyle Griffith:house and outside of the house.
Kyle Griffith:Outside team, you wanna have some great advisors, attorneys, you know, business
Kyle Griffith:advisors, consultants, and, and so on.
Kyle Griffith:So, um, I know it's a loaded answer, but essentially I think people don't
Kyle Griffith:put the importance of that, even though it's two companies, another transaction,
Kyle Griffith:those two companies are run by people.
Kyle Griffith:People is the most important factor.
Kyle Griffith:It starts at the top and it works all the way down.
Kyle Griffith:Everyone has to be on the same page, have great values, good
Kyle Griffith:vision, and a great culture.
Kyle Griffith:And if you have a great culture, a company has a great culture.
Kyle Griffith:It's where the CEO can step away, right.
Kyle Griffith:Go to Punta Cana for, for two weeks, come back, and everyone is working.
Kyle Griffith:If you go to Punta Cana, Kevin you come back, everyone's partying and
Kyle Griffith:celebrating and you know that it's not gonna be a smooth transition.
Kyle Griffith:There's gonna be some problem.
Kyle Griffith:So getting some good people in your, working on your team is
Kyle Griffith:way which what you wanna do.
Kevin Dieny:Wow, that, I think that's such a powerful statement
Kevin Dieny:of focusing on, the people, the teamwork, the people that are in there.
Kevin Dieny:Okay, so this isn't necessarily like a, an argument against what you said.
Kevin Dieny:I think it's exactly what you're saying, but it does make me think, man, if
Kevin Dieny:you spend the time to really create a really good team, I think there's that
Kevin Dieny:feeling of like attachment to them.
Kevin Dieny:So I think there's an emotional attachment to the business.
Kevin Dieny:I like describe it as like blood, sweat and tears went into this sometimes.
Kevin Dieny:And then you forge these relationships, you create these teams, you help
Kevin Dieny:them become the managers and the leaders in the business.
Kevin Dieny:And then that point comes where it's like, okay, now it's time for you to step back.
Kevin Dieny:And it's like that emotional anchor has been created there.
Kevin Dieny:So how, how emotionally are owners managing that ability
Kevin Dieny:to detach a little bit.
Kevin Dieny:And either sell the business or make that succession.
Kevin Dieny:Cause I think that's, that's an aspect of it that would be really hard besides
Kevin Dieny:just, you know, executing the plan.
Kevin Dieny:There's like an emotional feel there.
Kyle Griffith:That's a fabulous question, Kevin.
Kyle Griffith:So I sold a fulfillment center and my client who sold the company, he had a
Kyle Griffith:key employee and she's a go getter, man.
Kyle Griffith:She's like, let me do this, let me do that.
Kyle Griffith:But my client's very conservative.
Kyle Griffith:He has been running a very clean business, no debt.
Kyle Griffith:He's been through the recessions and he is been doing very well.
Kyle Griffith:So it's like, we have a good thing going, you don't wanna change it too much.
Kyle Griffith:You know what I mean?
Kyle Griffith:It's like, get a good thing going if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right.
Kyle Griffith:However, it's good because I mean, you have consistent revenue.
Kyle Griffith:You can kind of predict where the company's gonna go because you have
Kyle Griffith:a long historical sales, but looking back at it, maybe you could have done a
Kyle Griffith:little bit better if there are certain things could have been implemented.
Kyle Griffith:To answer your question, so let me twist it around a little bit as a, as
Kyle Griffith:a leader and a CEO of your company, you have to empower your employees.
Kyle Griffith:You have to empower your staff and you have to let them know that
Kyle Griffith:their, their voices is heard and your voices is cherished and you
Kyle Griffith:wanna constantly gain feedback.
Kyle Griffith:There's one good quote, I'll give you, "The more input gives better output."
Kyle Griffith:So the more information you give back, the more data as a CEO, you
Kyle Griffith:can process and make the decisions.
Kyle Griffith:The buck stops at you, and you have to be a quick decision maker and be decisive and
Kyle Griffith:decide what direction you're gonna go in.
Kyle Griffith:So if you are planning on exiting your company and you have some key people,
Kyle Griffith:you have to have that conversation with them and start empowering them.
Kyle Griffith:You're not gonna tell 'em I'm selling the company, but say, Hey, Hey, Joan
Kyle Griffith:you know, I really appreciate the years you've been working with us.
Kyle Griffith:You've been some great things here.
Kyle Griffith:You're really a natural at doing this, and I know you wanna be challenged here.
Kyle Griffith:I wanna give you the opportunity to explore your career with our company
Kyle Griffith:and provide some more advancement.
Kyle Griffith:I'm gonna create opportunity for you or career path and let them feel excited.
Kyle Griffith:Give them some opportunities to work and, and build them up.
Kyle Griffith:They don't know that your plan is to either transition to coming to them or
Kyle Griffith:have them be a key person moving forward.
Kyle Griffith:They don't know that at this point, but you start empowering your staff
Kyle Griffith:and getting them prepared for, for a potential transition and
Kyle Griffith:relinquishing some of that power.
Kyle Griffith:It takes away anxiety and that emotional attachment to that one
Kyle Griffith:particular employee or that job that you think where you're irreplaceable.
Kyle Griffith:I'm the only person who can run the business, like I can.
Kyle Griffith:And something you need coaching.
Kyle Griffith:Another thing you can do is get a board, put together an advisory board, get
Kyle Griffith:some outside opinion and some feedback.
Kyle Griffith:Sometimes me, or you might educate our client and say, Hey, John or
Kyle Griffith:Jane, this is what you should do as far as the next best steps.
Kyle Griffith:And they may not listen, but one of their peers, like if another HVAC
Kyle Griffith:contractor tells another contractor, Hey, this is what I've done.
Kyle Griffith:It's worked for me.
Kyle Griffith:They'll quick a listen.
Kyle Griffith:So getting on a board, getting feedback from other peers, what they have done
Kyle Griffith:can release that emotional anxiety and attachment to staff and tasks
Kyle Griffith:that you have done, that you have wanna, you know, get, get rid of.
Kyle Griffith:And one other thing, Kevin, cause I'm really passionate about this.
Kyle Griffith:I wanna share.
Kyle Griffith:So one other thing, and you did mention this a lot of, business owners
Kyle Griffith:they're businesses are their identity.
Kyle Griffith:So one of the reasons that I may have this attachment is that, Hey, when I
Kyle Griffith:sell, I'm known for being, you know, Dr.
Kyle Griffith:Smith.
Kyle Griffith:I'm known for being whatever the case may be.
Kyle Griffith:Right?
Kyle Griffith:When I sell a company, you have almost like a mistaken identity.
Kyle Griffith:So part of that attachment is, Hey, this is what I've been doing all the
Kyle Griffith:years and what I'm gonna do next.
Kyle Griffith:So a lot of these clients, like we work with psychologists and so on.
Kyle Griffith:We wanna think about, okay, what charities we wanna support?
Kyle Griffith:Are you philanthropic?
Kyle Griffith:What you gonna do next?
Kyle Griffith:Start thinking 5 and 10 years down the road, all, all goes back to the exit plan.
Kyle Griffith:Like, why are you, why are you doing what you're doing beginning to begin with?
Kyle Griffith:Or how are you gonna transition out?
Kyle Griffith:So you wanna have them thinking about fishing, golfing, all the fun
Kyle Griffith:stuff, playing with the grandkids and all that, all that great stuff.
Kyle Griffith:If you've been a dentist all your life, it's tough to kind
Kyle Griffith:of detach from that world.
Kyle Griffith:But now you can be a spokesperson.
Kyle Griffith:You could probably work with a charity.
Kyle Griffith:You work with a trade association, you could be in the same space, but
Kyle Griffith:now you're not running the company.
Kyle Griffith:You're still doing what us in the same industry, but in a different capacity.
Kyle Griffith:So there's different ways to go about it.
Kevin Dieny:Wow, so let's say someone puts it off.
Kevin Dieny:They don't have an extra strategy and let's say some crisis happens, anything.
Kevin Dieny:Where they now have to figure it out in the 11th hour, maybe the owner,
Kevin Dieny:something tragic happens to the owner.
Kevin Dieny:You know, I don't know, but let's say the business immediately has to
Kevin Dieny:try to figure this out from a, the disadvantage of they haven't had the
Kevin Dieny:plan or the strategy built along the way.
Kevin Dieny:Why is that such a bad place to be?
Kyle Griffith:So, yeah, it, it is, it is a bad place to be.
Kyle Griffith:I'll give you a story.
Kyle Griffith:So we, we sold a contract in business and I wanna protect the innocent.
Kyle Griffith:In this particular scenario, the owner passed away and the,
Kyle Griffith:the son inherited the business.
Kyle Griffith:Now the owner had no exit plan, nothing in place.
Kyle Griffith:The son worked in the business, but didn't want to be the business.
Kyle Griffith:He was just working in a business.
Kyle Griffith:And that happens in a lot of cases.
Kyle Griffith:I've had multiple clients and scenarios like this.
Kyle Griffith:There is a family business.
Kyle Griffith:I wanna be there for my family.
Kyle Griffith:As soon as the father passed away, he wanted sell.
Kyle Griffith:He wanted to sell a company and be out.
Kyle Griffith:So the disadvantage to that is that you now you're selling from an
Kyle Griffith:unleveraged position., Where it's a fire sale, you have to get out.
Kyle Griffith:A key person is no longer with the company.
Kyle Griffith:That CEO has a lot of relationships with the marketplace customers,
Kyle Griffith:vendors, and a lot of good will.
Kyle Griffith:So you lose out on that.
Kyle Griffith:And then another thing every day that passes the value that's decreases right?
Kyle Griffith:There are, I was actually working with another company in the fitness space.
Kyle Griffith:Where, the same thing, the, the, the father passed away.
Kyle Griffith:The son is in the business.
Kyle Griffith:The father was so relational, like was a really good charismatic person.
Kyle Griffith:Like everyone loves the father.
Kyle Griffith:And when he, unfortunately, when he passed away, they had like a
Kyle Griffith:mini-mutiny in the company because they didn't respect the son.
Kyle Griffith:And this client he's gonna phone me.
Kyle Griffith:He's crying, like, you know, these guys are not listen to me, you know, that's,
Kyle Griffith:that can be a major, a major issue.
Kyle Griffith:That's a company in a distressed situation and selling in that
Kyle Griffith:situation nothing good is gonna happen.
Kyle Griffith:Nothing good.
Kyle Griffith:Meaning that it's not gonna get the full value of the company.
Kyle Griffith:Now, if the father had an exit plan in place.
Kyle Griffith:I wanna make sure my son is taken care of.
Kyle Griffith:He may not be the best person to run the company, but part of the plan
Kyle Griffith:is I'm gonna have some insurance.
Kyle Griffith:So an event like, like I pass away or disabled, whatever.
Kyle Griffith:That money can go towards hiring an interim CEO, hiring an advisor, hiring
Kyle Griffith:someone that we can trust to work with the family and the business to, to a potential
Kyle Griffith:exit to sell or wherever the case may be.
Kyle Griffith:So it's not a good situation, but we have had multiple cases.
Kyle Griffith:We have helped clients in the worst case scenario where the CEO
Kyle Griffith:of the company passed away and the families left and another situation
Kyle Griffith:can be where they are partners in.
Kyle Griffith:The business is multiple partners.
Kyle Griffith:and one partner can physically can no longer win the company or is sick
Kyle Griffith:disabled, or unfortunately passes away.
Kyle Griffith:Now the wife, or it could be reversed, could be the, the could be the, the wife
Kyle Griffith:running the company, the wife passed away, now the husband, is involved.
Kyle Griffith:The other partners may not necessarily wanna work with the spouse cause
Kyle Griffith:they don't know their business.
Kyle Griffith:You wanna have some sort of buy-sell agreements in place.
Kyle Griffith:So the event likelihood, one of the partners passed, something happened.
Kyle Griffith:They can take care of the family, they can buy out that partner
Kyle Griffith:and take care of the family.
Kyle Griffith:So it's extremely important to have some sort of plan in place because
Kyle Griffith:in the unlikelihood that something happens at least your family.
Kyle Griffith:Most importantly, your family's first that's they're taken care of.
Kevin Dieny:And, and in the fire sale environment makes me think of a,
Kevin Dieny:another question I had, which was okay.
Kevin Dieny:A business has the exit strategy, but you know, in your experience, how long
Kevin Dieny:does it, how long let's say the business decides it's gonna sell, how long does it
Kevin Dieny:usually take to, to have that succession carry out of the sale or the exit happen?
Kevin Dieny:Is it like a, wow.
Kevin Dieny:We can, businesses can sell within a month or is it like, usually it'll
Kevin Dieny:take about three to six months.
Kevin Dieny:Is it like a multi-year process?
Kevin Dieny:What, what does that kind of look like?
Kevin Dieny:Time wise?
Kyle Griffith:Hey, Kevin, you, you hit you hitting all the key questions, man.
Kyle Griffith:So the first question, what my businesses are worth, how valued and how long does
Kyle Griffith:it take for me to sell the company?
Kyle Griffith:Yeah, those are the top, the top two questions that we get.
Kyle Griffith:So the best way to answer this is it depends.
Kyle Griffith:So I have sold companies in weeks.
Kyle Griffith:And I've taken years to sell some companies.
Kyle Griffith:It really depends.
Kyle Griffith:So I'm, I'm part of the committee on the International Business
Kyle Griffith:Brokers Association that, that we do these market pulse reports.
Kyle Griffith:I'll be happy to share it with, with your audience.
Kyle Griffith:We survey intermediaries, investment bankers, M and Advisors every quarter.
Kyle Griffith:And one of the questions we ask them, you know, how long
Kyle Griffith:does it take for you to close.
Kyle Griffith:How long does it take from letter intent to close?
Kyle Griffith:What are the multiples?
Kyle Griffith:So we have a lot of data.
Kyle Griffith:The data we have gotten from, we get about 400 folks to
Kyle Griffith:take the survey every quarter.
Kyle Griffith:And it's pretty consistent with, within our company as well.
Kyle Griffith:We are based in New York, we do deals across the country, but
Kyle Griffith:we are based in New York area.
Kyle Griffith:40% of deals close within seven to nine months.
Kyle Griffith:Now that number can be very skewed because that 40% is sellable companies.
Kyle Griffith:Meaning that, there's three things that really determine whether
Kyle Griffith:our company's sellable or not.
Kyle Griffith:Number one, the business has to be ready for sale.
Kyle Griffith:Ready for sale, meaning that it's priced right.
Kyle Griffith:Has good key people in place, recurring all the stuff we talk about.
Kyle Griffith:The business itself, which is a big one, it has to ready.
Kyle Griffith:It has to be packaged, ready to go.
Kyle Griffith:Everything, a buyer comes in, we up a data room.
Kyle Griffith:Are we good to.
Kyle Griffith:Okay, number two, is that the owner has to be ready.
Kyle Griffith:Cause I've been on transactions where we have gotten full price
Kyle Griffith:and the owner's like, Hmm, I don't know if I want to sell anymore.
Kyle Griffith:I think I want give it a shot.
Kyle Griffith:Right?
Kyle Griffith:So we are talking about the emotional attachment and seller's remorse.
Kyle Griffith:The owner of the company has to be ready to move on either into another
Kyle Griffith:company or relocate or whatever their reasons are is for retirement.
Kyle Griffith:The third major factor is that, is the business ready for the market?
Kyle Griffith:Is there a market for the company?
Kyle Griffith:Those are the three factors.
Kyle Griffith:So when we assess our clients, we assess it on those three things.
Kyle Griffith:If we have those three, sometimes we have two outta three, which is okay.
Kyle Griffith:Those companies take about seven to nine months to get done, or even less.
Kyle Griffith:Now selling a company there's a lot of variables.
Kyle Griffith:So a lot of stuff that's out of our control, right?
Kyle Griffith:Things happen.
Kyle Griffith:People get up and quit, right?
Kyle Griffith:I've I've been in working in deals where the owners found out that there's a part.
Kyle Griffith:I was working a deal.
Kyle Griffith:One time the partner was stealing from him and providing
Kyle Griffith:services outside the company.
Kyle Griffith:Deals where there were no contracts with employees, through
Kyle Griffith:noncompete, things happen.
Kyle Griffith:A lot of things happen with the business itself.
Kyle Griffith:And the best example of that is COVID.
Kyle Griffith:When COVID hits, we had multiple deals on a contract and some of them, we had to
Kyle Griffith:take off, take off the market and wait.
Kyle Griffith:So things come up, right.
Kyle Griffith:Deals will get done.
Kyle Griffith:Some of them is outta control.
Kyle Griffith:There are in internal factors that affect the closing and sale of a company.
Kyle Griffith:And there are external factors, COVID being one of them.
Kyle Griffith:The other fact about it, there's the is two parties to a sale.
Kyle Griffith:The buyer, right?
Kyle Griffith:You have a buyer in the middle of buy a company and a wife and
Kyle Griffith:husband can say, you know what John.
Kyle Griffith:I don't know about this.
Kyle Griffith:I don't think it's a good idea.
Kyle Griffith:Let's just keep on doing what we're doing.
Kyle Griffith:Let's find another company, right.
Kyle Griffith:Or the bank can the bank usually underwrites and approve these loans?
Kyle Griffith:The bank can come back.
Kyle Griffith:You know what?
Kyle Griffith:It's been some time since we agreed to a particular offering, term sheet and
Kyle Griffith:rather, um, we need some insurance.
Kyle Griffith:We need this, we need, you know, things come from the bank, the funds.
Kyle Griffith:Funds can no longer be available.
Kyle Griffith:A lot of things happen.
Kyle Griffith:So that factors into the sale price, to the timing.
Kyle Griffith:But I would say about 40% in our research, 40% gets done in about
Kyle Griffith:that's seven to nine month range.
Kyle Griffith:And that's the timeline when we say to our clients, we want to get you
Kyle Griffith:out here and say, we want to get you sold in seven to nine months.
Kevin Dieny:And you mentioned the buyer and I wanna focus this on like the exit
Kevin Dieny:strategy of the business, but I think if for a moment, if you could give us
Kevin Dieny:the opposite perspective of the buyer, I think that helps the sellers too.
Kevin Dieny:From the perspective of the buyer, you mentioned, there's the value,
Kevin Dieny:there's the things that, you know, that are through the analysis
Kevin Dieny:that are being determined too.
Kevin Dieny:But what are, what are some other considerations a buyer has, what does
Kevin Dieny:the buyer go through in terms of being like, oh, I wanna buy a business.
Kevin Dieny:I don't, where do I start?
Kevin Dieny:Right.
Kevin Dieny:Where do I, how do I start that?
Kevin Dieny:So what does that other side look like?
Kyle Griffith:Hey Kevin, that's a second podcast, man.
Kyle Griffith:We have to come back, hah hah hah.
Kyle Griffith:We gotta come back.
Kyle Griffith:That's a big one, so, okay.
Kyle Griffith:Let me break it down.
Kyle Griffith:High level for you real quick.
Kyle Griffith:So as a buyer, three things are important.
Kyle Griffith:Cashflow, number one, you've got a family to support, right?
Kyle Griffith:So you're looking for businesses with financials and financials that are, you
Kyle Griffith:don't always get audited financials, but a business that's already has valuation
Kyle Griffith:done or has a quality of earnings report.
Kyle Griffith:So you wanna get clean numbers and you wanna make sure the
Kyle Griffith:numbers that represented is what it should be and what it is.
Kyle Griffith:And some of it, we spoke about a little bit earlier.
Kyle Griffith:So as a buyer, you wanna minimize your risk in the deal, minimizing
Kyle Griffith:the risk as you, you know, talk about financial due diligence, making
Kyle Griffith:sure the numbers is what it is.
Kyle Griffith:There's legal due diligence, has a company been in any, any lawsuits,
Kyle Griffith:sexual harassment cases, any issues with any, any contracts worker's comp.
Kyle Griffith:So you have a legal due diligence, which is equally long list
Kyle Griffith:as a financial due diligence.
Kyle Griffith:You also have, you know, a human capital due diligence, right?
Kyle Griffith:So you inherit, you're buying a company with five people, five key
Kyle Griffith:people that if those five key people, well, let's say it's just one person.
Kyle Griffith:This one person, if this one person walks away, the entire value for the
Kyle Griffith:company goes with that one person.
Kyle Griffith:Right.
Kyle Griffith:So making sure there are some stay agreements.
Kyle Griffith:Some these, these employees are incentivized to stay with the deal
Kyle Griffith:cause you, you are minimizing your risk.
Kyle Griffith:So that's a conversation you have for the owner.
Kyle Griffith:Either the owner bonuses the employees, or part of the proceeds or the,
Kyle Griffith:the buyer plays a part in that.
Kyle Griffith:In some cases I've done deals where the buyer puts together a really
Kyle Griffith:nice package for them, including insurance benefits, maybe a car.
Kyle Griffith:Different things incentivize that employee to stay with the business.
Kyle Griffith:I think that's probably one of the biggest ones outside of real estate.
Kyle Griffith:Real estate, it can be, we can be here talking other hours about real
Kyle Griffith:estate alone deal with, with landlords.
Kyle Griffith:So let's say business is great, wonderful business, but the landlord is refusing
Kyle Griffith:to re renew the lease because he's gonna essentially break the whole pro his goal.
Kyle Griffith:As the lease is up in a year, I'm gonna tear it down and
Kyle Griffith:build up residential condo.
Kyle Griffith:Because that's the best use for that property location, right.
Kyle Griffith:So deal with landlords and here in Manhattan, have some
Kyle Griffith:of the toughest landlords.
Kyle Griffith:I'm sure I have a lot where you're at everywhere has because the
Kyle Griffith:landlord's been hit hard during COVID.
Kyle Griffith:As a buyer you wanna minimize risk, making sure you get all of
Kyle Griffith:your questions answered and you have some sort of representation.
Kyle Griffith:You have someone like myself or some intermediate that can help
Kyle Griffith:and get those questions answered.
Kyle Griffith:The, the third thing is okay.
Kyle Griffith:What are you as a buyer?
Kyle Griffith:What are you gonna bring to the table?
Kyle Griffith:What's your value in this transaction?
Kyle Griffith:What experience you have, what transferable skills
Kyle Griffith:you had have, who, you know?
Kyle Griffith:So we spoke earlier about the sellers, infrastructure and your team and
Kyle Griffith:so on, who is the buyer's team?
Kyle Griffith:Who are they?
Kyle Griffith:Who are you being advised by?
Kyle Griffith:Who are your coaches?
Kyle Griffith:Who's gonna help you take this company from five to 10 to 20.
Kyle Griffith:Are you gonna hire a fractional CFO?
Kyle Griffith:Are you gonna help?
Kyle Griffith:Are you gonna have someone help you with the numbers with your due diligence?
Kyle Griffith:So from the buyer's perspective, there's a bunch of questions you can
Kyle Griffith:ask a seller, like why they sell in and making sure you understand the numbers.
Kyle Griffith:But most importantly, you wanna minimize your risk.
Kyle Griffith:Cause it's your is an investment, right?
Kyle Griffith:You have to pay those loans back and you wanna see, okay, how
Kyle Griffith:are you gonna grow the company?
Kyle Griffith:What's a growth strategy.
Kyle Griffith:Now, one thing that buyer can ask a seller is have you done an exit plan
Kyle Griffith:or have you done part of the exit plan is a growth strategy, right?
Kyle Griffith:So the growth strategy, which is part of the exit plan is
Kyle Griffith:that I have a 5 million company.
Kyle Griffith:I wanna get a 10 million company.
Kyle Griffith:And here's what I I'm gonna do to get into 10.
Kyle Griffith:Right?
Kyle Griffith:If the seller can have that plan ready and available to present to the buyer.
Kyle Griffith:Hey, John, Hey, Sue, I'm looking to retire, but you know what?
Kyle Griffith:If my son, Eddie was gonna take the business over, this is a plan we had
Kyle Griffith:to get the business to the next level.
Kyle Griffith:I'll be happy to help you for the next year or two to initiate
Kyle Griffith:this plan and get it going.
Kyle Griffith:You know, so all the key things that are very important.
Kevin Dieny:Just to highlight some of the things right.
Kevin Dieny:Which is that we've talked about, which is like, okay, what's an extra strategy, why
Kevin Dieny:it's important, what factors to consider.
Kevin Dieny:How often to analyze interpret, kind of get the business, checked.
Kevin Dieny:How to look at it from the different perspectives.
Kevin Dieny:Considerations about detaching letting it go, what the owner's plans are, what
Kevin Dieny:the growth plan of the business is.
Kevin Dieny:I think we've really covered a lot of stuff in this episode.
Kevin Dieny:So Kyle, thank you for coming on.
Kevin Dieny:Is there any way people can reach out to you, connect
Kevin Dieny:with you, find more about you.
Kevin Dieny:If they have questions about this or anything related to this
Kevin Dieny:that they can find your company or, or be able to find you?
Kyle Griffith:Yeah, most definitely.
Kyle Griffith:And I appreciate you asking that.
Kyle Griffith:So my company is called the N Y B B group N Y BB group.
Kyle Griffith:And that's the website?
Kyle Griffith:The N Y B B group.com.
Kyle Griffith:That's thenybbgroup.com.
Kyle Griffith:All of information is there.
Kyle Griffith:We work with buyers, work with sellers.
Kyle Griffith:We do business valuations.
Kyle Griffith:Exit plans as well.
Kyle Griffith:We are a full service mergers and acquisitions company.
Kyle Griffith:I started another company two years ago called M and A network.
Kyle Griffith:So I'm a CEO founder of that group.
Kyle Griffith:And I did that to help and educate business owners that are planning to grow
Kyle Griffith:their company in preparation for exit.
Kyle Griffith:So with that company, I got 40 advisors that work with companies
Kyle Griffith:from startup to exit and, um, M and A is, eminaenetwork.com.
Kyle Griffith:So it's E as in Edward, M as in Mary, I as in India, N as in Nancy, A as in apple, E
Kyle Griffith:as in Edward dot com, eminaenetwork.com.
Kyle Griffith:You can find more information about that.
Kyle Griffith:There you can Google my name, or look me up a LinkedIn, like
Kyle Griffith:how Kevin and I connected, could pretty much find me everywhere.
Kyle Griffith:Thank you, Kevin.
Kevin Dieny:Awesome.
Kevin Dieny:Thank you.
Kevin Dieny:So, yeah.
Kevin Dieny:And thank you so much, Kyle, for coming on, this has been
Kevin Dieny:fantastic exploring a topic.
Kevin Dieny:I have not a ton of experience in, but I think it's something so valuable that
Kevin Dieny:every business, and everyone, people in the business could be looking at and,
Kevin Dieny:and getting a better understanding for.
Kevin Dieny:So I appreciate you coming on and thank you for the time.
Kevin Dieny:I hope we connect again.
Kevin Dieny:So thank you, listeners and hope you got a lot out of this.
Kyle Griffith:I appreciate you as well, man.
Kyle Griffith:This is awesome.
Kyle Griffith:Thank you.
Kyle Griffith:Thank you.
