Preparing Your Business For Sale, with Bob Tankesley, Author of Exit Teams: Build a Team of Advisors for Your Business Sale to Get a Higher Price (North Fulton Business Radio, Episode 824)
In this edition of North Fulton Business Radio, host John Ray interviews Bob Tankesley, author of the newly released book Exit Teams. Bob discusses his extensive experience in M&A advisory and the motivations behind writing his book. He emphasizes that his book caters specifically to business owners, tackling the emotional and logistical obstacles associated with preparing a business for sale. Bob underscores the importance of having both internal and external teams to optimize the business and make it attractive to buyers. The discussion includes real-life anecdotes and practical advice aimed at helping business owners maximize their exit strategies.
John Ray is the host of North Fulton Business Radio. The show is recorded and produced by the North Fulton affiliate of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta.
Exit Teams: Build a Team of Advisors for Your Business Sale to Get a Higher Price
You’ve got one shot to sell your business right!
The American Dream fulfilled! You are a business owner, and it’s time to cash in on the sale of your business. Except the buyers on the other side of the table are prepared with a team of experts ready to lower your price.
Enter Exit Teams. This book won’t give you tactics that don’t pertain to your situation, and it won’t promise you beach chairs and Caribbean sunsets. This book will tell you the truth, letting you know the psychological dangers that play into a business sale, and how buyers can use that psychology to acquire your business for far less than you, the owner, could have made.
Follow along with Dave, the owner of FineLine Manufacturing, who received notice of a health scare, forcing him to think about selling before he’s ready. Dave makes many of the typical business seller moves, getting advice from seemingly logical but misaligned resources. Pressures mount from his employees, his customers, his friends, and his family as he juggles a business sale while maintaining secrecy.
When Dave finally gets an offer, it’s for far less than he had hoped. This sends Dave on a whirlwind of choices that pull him in many directions. Will Dave learn the lessons required to give him the best chance at business sale success before he loses his largest customer?
Exit Teams will:
- Alert you to the emotional roller coaster that arises during a business sale.
- Educate you to the common pitfalls business owners fall into, often of their own making.
- Explain what an Exit Team is, and why they are necessary for the ultimate business sale success.
- Warn you of some of the strategies buyers employ to pressure business sellers to lower their price.
- Caution you about lifting expectations according to a colleague’s experience (hint: it may not be all he says it is).
- Counsel you on how to handle family dynamics during a business sale.
- Present you with common decisions made by inexperienced business sellers so you won’t make the same choices.
- Display the challenge of secrecy among employees and customers.
- Address health challenges and how they often impact the business owner while trying to sell.
- Stress the need to understand your company’s value on an ongoing basis.
- Provide you with a business selling experience without your having to learn the hard way from real life at the cost of millions of dollars
To order the book, follow this link.
Bob Tankesley
Bob Tankesley is a fourth-generation entrepreneur, an MBA, and a CPA with a keen insight into and understanding of the business owner mindset. As an M&A advisor, he uses his 27 years of experience to sell companies grossing up to $75,000,000 in revenue throughout the southeast U.S., as well as the commercial real estate associated with such holdings. When a company is not ready to sell, Bob regularly partners with advisors of all types to optimize it throughout the ownership lifecycle and is a frequent speaker/educator to owners and their various advisors.
Bob’s experience ranges from a division of a Fortune 500 corporation to a Big Four accounting firm to multiple micro-cap and lower mid-market closely held businesses. He also ran his own tax and financial advisory firm for over a decade. For the past 22 years, he has advised over 150 business owners and executives on valuation, market readiness, and proven methods to engage in proper financial management.
Bob’s formal education includes both a BS degree in Accounting (cum laude) from UNC Asheville and an MBA in Finance from Appalachian State University, as well as multiple industry certifications. He is also a co-founder and board member of the Exit Planning Exchange (XPX) Atlanta Chapter.
Topics Discussed in this Episode
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
01:34 Guest Introduction: Bob Tankesley
01:48 The Journey of Writing Exit Teams
02:54 Understanding the Market and Audience
04:42 The Emotional Side of Selling a Business
06:34 Importance of a Strong Team
08:53 Fictional Approach to Business Advice
18:21 Challenges and Realities of Business Sales
19:25 Optimism and Realism in Business Exits
24:10 Final Thoughts and Book Information
25:29 Closing Remarks
Renasant Bank supports North Fulton Business Radio
Renasant Bank has humble roots, starting in 1904 as a $100,000 bank in a Lee County, Mississippi, bakery. Since then, Renasant has become one of the Southeast’s strongest financial institutions, with over $17 billion in assets and more than 180 banking, lending, wealth management, and financial services offices throughout the region. All of Renasant’s success stems from each banker’s commitment to investing in their communities as a way to better understand the people they serve. At Renasant Bank, they understand you because they work and live alongside you every day.
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About North Fulton Business Radio and host John Ray
With over 800 shows and having featured over 1,200 guests, North Fulton Business Radio is the longest-running podcast in the North Fulton area, covering business in our community like no one else. We are the undisputed “Voice of Business” in North Fulton!
The show welcomes a wide variety of business, non-profit, and community leaders to get the word out about the important work they’re doing to serve their market, their community, and their profession. There’s no discrimination based on company size, and there’s never any “pay to play.” North Fulton Business Radio supports and celebrates business by sharing positive business stories that traditional media ignore. Some media leans left. Some media leans right. We lean business.
John Ray is the host of North Fulton Business Radio. The show is recorded and produced from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta. You can find the full archive of shows by following this link. The show is available on all the major podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon, iHeart Radio, and many others.
The studio address is 275 South Main Street, Alpharetta, GA 30009.
John Ray also operates his own business advisory practice. John’s services include advising solopreneurs and small professional services firms on their value, their positioning and business development, and their pricing. His clients are professionals who are selling their expertise, such as consultants, coaches, attorneys, CPAs, accountants and bookkeepers, marketing professionals, and other professional services practitioners.
John is the national bestselling author of The Generosity Mindset: A Journey to Business Success by Raising Your Confidence, Value, and Prices.
