Our topic today is Growing Up Through Value Acceleration and we are excited to have with us Scott Snider of The Exit Planning Institute. Scott is responsible for the strategic direction of the organization along with overseeing the company’s operations and chapter development. Since joining EPI, Scott has expanded the organization regionally, nationally, and globally, providing a transformational educational experience to advisors from all specialties across the globe. So Scott is an expert in the Exit Planning industry and we’re excited to have him with us today.

Today we have with us our first “three-peat” guest Elizabeth Mower from The Business Enterprise Institute Elizabeth is the President of BEI and leads the organization in development of resources, information, training and software that enable professionals in a variety of disciplines…like accounting, legal, wealth management, business consultants, etc... to work with business owners to design and implement comprehensive Exit Plans. She is an attorney, and before joining BEI, was in private practice serving clients with Exit Planning, business continuity planning, estate planning, and business transactions. She is an expert on anything technical or process related pertaining to exit planning, but also the overall state of the exit planning industry as it pertains to both business owners and advisors and that’s today’s topic: Exit Planning in 2021 So today’s discussion should prove helpful to both business owners and advisors as we hear from Elizabeth on her perspective on the year ahead.

One of our themes here on the podcast is providing ideas and information that can help a business owner protect the value of their business as well as build the value. One of the key areas for protecting value is your core business tax planning, and a key driver of tax planning for a small business owner is how their business is structured or the entity they choose should they be an LLC, S-Corp, or C-Corp. Then, should they have one structure as they launch and grow and then a different one when they leave or exit what is typically the best structure in these situations from a tax perspective? So, that’s our topic today, “Protect Business Value with the Right Business Structure”

A buy-sell agreement provides direction to owners and other stakeholders in situations when the transition of an ownership interest in a business is in question -- situations such as… 

Death or permanent disability 

Voluntary lifetime exit 

Involuntary lifetime exit 

Divorce or bankruptcy

Today we want to discuss something very unfortunate that we see and hear about all too often tragic events that could be easily avoided with the right advanced planning. Because of the work we do in helping owners prepare for their eventual exit.

In building a sellable business, you need to “protect the value of your business” and continually manage areas like the one we’re going to talk about today, cyber security. We’ve discussed the topic here before, and will continue to in the future because it’s so important, and October happens to be Cyber Awareness Month which is another good reason to talk about it today.

We’ve both seen situations where a business owner has done all they can in executing strategic and operational plans to grow their business organically, only to experience continued stagnation in both sales and profit And, they may have a financial exit goal that is going to require a much larger valuation and sale price. So, they begin to wonder if growing thru acquisition could make sense Some of the common reasons they might consider an acquisition might include.

This week, Joe Ennis talks to Walter and Corby about how to build value through podcasts and content creation.