JOHN: HEADER OPTION #1
JOHN: HEADER OPTION #2
WHAT STAGE IS YOUR BUSINESS IN?
All companies go through four lifecycle stages:
- Startup Stage
- growth Stage
- Exit Preparation Stage
- Exit Stage
Congratulations! If you are reading this, you have survived the most dangerous phase: the Startup Stage. The Growth Stage is the most challenging because it involves mastery of many specific business skills so that your company can grow in this increasingly competitive world.
Most CEOs find that having a coach during this phase can be very beneficial in reaching their growth goals. The Exit Preparation Phase brings into focus the need to pick an exit path (e.g., sale, merger, IPO) and the map to position your company at its maximum value at the time of an exit. Finally, the Exit Stage is where the hard work is done to strategically design and select the most profitable exit for you.
If you are a small to medium US-based company with at B2B business model, I can help you in any of the stages of your company's life cycle. As your coach, I will help you grow your business strategically toward the exit most appropriate for your company and in a manner that will maximize your value when you get to the exit. Once you decide it's time to explore and exit, I can be your M&A advisor and execute the process of creating the exit at maximum value to you. What you get from me is application of what I have learned and accomplished in my five decades of experience as a venture capitalist, entrepreneur, angel investor, CEO and board of directors’ member of nearly 30 companies.
How I Can Help You
Value Build Coaching
At any stage of the company life cycle, CEOs who want to press past the frontiers of what they know and are comfortable with need a coach. We offer coaching in two formats: Mastermind Groups and one-on-one coaching.
In my Mastermind Groups, hard-working, coachable people come together each month in a safe, confidential environment where powerful things happen. Great business ideas emerge. Personal breakthroughs occur. And you leave the experience better than you entered as a person and professional. My one-on-one coaching takes place between mastermind group meetings and with CEOs who feel they can benefit most from my expertise. In both formats, you will be held accountable to deliver on the actions you decided were key to moving your company forward. This is essential to keeping you from falling back into the day-to-day routine that limits forward progress.
Exit Preparation Coaching
Many business owners/CEOs wait to begin the process of thinking about an exit too close to the time of the exit. Each exit path has unique preparation and value creation conditions. Optimizing for these conditions can take from months to years to maximize what you hope to get from the business. For example, in a sale transaction EBITDA is a critical consideration, but in a merger transaction market positioning or IP may be more important. There are 16 key KPIs each of which may be optimized slightly differently depending on the likely exit path you company should take. Selecting the most likely exit path for your company involves a five-step process to evaluate the likelihood you can optimize the KPIs for any desired path. We work with you to strategically identify a path forward toward an exit that has the most benefit to you and your goals.
Exit Stage Advisory Services
If you are selling your company, you need an advisor with the experience to get you the maximum price, optimum structure, minimal taxes, fair employment/non-compete, minimal liability and a plan that takes care of employees. We execute this phase with our M&A advisory partner, Stoneyhill Advisors. This process has the highest probability of success if it is performed by a highly experienced professional that knows your company cold. That same qualification maximizes the benefit to you from an IPO, merger transaction, asset sale, ESOP, or transfer of ownership to heirs. Similarly, we can help you find the right targets if you are in the market to do acquisitions. We use our own 5 step process that has been proven to create the best outcomes for our clients.
Coaching has high ROI
According to the American Management Association, organizations that use coaching reported stronger market performance. A global survey of coaching clients by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the Association Resource Center concluded that the mean ROI for companies investing in coaching was seven times that of the initial investment. A quarter of the companies in the survey reported an ROI of 10 to 49 times investment.
I can cite elements of my track record that increase cited ROI by orders of magnitude.
“Exits are great but it’s better to do it as a choice, not a consequence of bad moda operandi.”
― Richie Norton
I have started, operated and/or financed numerous product and service companies over the past several decades. I managed four venture capital firms (founded two of them) with combined capital under management exceeding $500 million.
My Experience-Based Approach
“The only source of knowledge is experience.”
– Albert Einstein
My focus is on creating and realizing value. My approach is grounded in decades of starting, financing and building companies in the US.
- For early stage companies my coaching focuses on creating and nurturing the enterprise elements needed to attract investors and positioning the company for growth and sustainability.
- For later stage companies I focus on helping owners/CEOs improve company performance or get ready for a successful financial exit.