Tom Matthesen, Balentine, on the Four Blind Spots That Cost Business Owners at Exit: Profitability, People, Capital, and Succession Planning (North Fulton Business Radio, Episode 983)
On this episode of North Fulton Business Radio, host John Ray welcomes Tom Matthesen, Head of Business Advisory at Balentine, to discuss the blind spots that cost business owners the most when it comes time to sell or transition their company. Matthesen, a two-time entrepreneur who has also worked as a lender and a turnaround CEO, walks through four areas where owners tend to lose sight of what actually drives value: people, profitability, capital, and succession planning.
Tom described working with a business owner who discovered that her company’s biggest customer concentration had the lowest margin, a pattern he often sees when he runs a profitability analysis broken down by customer. He also noted that personal guarantees on loans rarely disappear on their own, even after a business has outgrown them, and that owners should revisit those terms as the company matures. He shared the story of a client whose business was in survival mode, with accounts payable badly mismatched against working capital. After right-sizing its capital structure, the company shifted its focus to earnings and, a year later, reached a number that put a future sale within reach.
John Ray is the host of North Fulton Business Radio. The show is produced by John Ray and North Fulton Business Radio, LLC, an affiliate of Business RadioX®, and is recorded inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta.
Key Takeaways from This Episode
- One of the blind spots that cost business owners the most is customer-level profitability, where a single concentrated, low-margin customer can quietly erode overall margins.
- Putting loyal early employees into roles that don’t match their skills can hurt both the business and the employee; hiring or outsourcing for the actual need serves both better.
- Exit planning should start well before a sale is on the table, since setting earnings targets and building the right capital structure early creates more options later.
- Personal guarantees on loans and lines of credit often outlive the reasons a business took them on, so owners should periodically revisit whether that risk still makes sense.
Topics Discussed in this Episode
00:23 John Ray opens the show and introduces guest Tom Matthesen of Balentine
02:02 Tom describes his background as a lender, entrepreneur, and advisor to CEOs
04:17 Why blind spots exist in business ownership
07:51 Blind spot: people, and knowing when to outsource or bring in new talent
12:28 Blind spot: profitability, including customer-level margin analysis
15:28 Scrutinizing expenses to build durable, sustainable earnings
17:50 Blind spot: capital, and the right mix of debt and equity
21:06 Personal guarantees and how they should change as a business grows
22:50 Blind spot: succession and exit planning, and why it starts today
25:15 Case study: right-sizing capital and moving a business out of survival mode
32:39 Signs a business owner needs to have an exit-planning conversation
34:39 A success story solving a capital and profitability problem
37:23 How to get in touch with Tom Matthesen
Tom Matthesen, Head of Business Advisory, Balentine
Tom Matthesen is Head of Business Advisory at Balentine. For many entrepreneurial families, their business is not only their largest asset but integral to their family’s identity and legacy. A two-time entrepreneur himself, Tom understands the challenges facing founders. For over three decades, he’s helped entrepreneurs build more valuable businesses and stronger connections between those businesses and the lives, families, and legacies they’re working to create.
Tom has built a wealth of perspective in corporate lending, turnaround management, debt and equity advisory, executive leadership, and entrepreneurship. In 2004, Tom founded a specialty finance company, his first entrepreneurial venture, which he successfully exited in 2007. After that, he served as CEO of Presidential Financial Corporation, where he led a significant turnaround and eventual sale to MidFirst Bank. Then, he was President of Thrive Farmers, helping lead the company’s growth as an enterprise serving nationally recognized brands like Chick-fil-A and Delta Air Lines, before founding Valuation Growth Advisory (VGA), his second entrepreneurial venture. Tom joined Balentine through the firm’s acquisition of VGA.
Tom holds an MBA from Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson School of Business and graduated with distinction from the Stonier Graduate School of Banking at the University of Delaware. He earned his B.S. in Finance from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and is a Certified Six Sigma Green Belt.
Balentine
Balentine is an independent wealth management firm that helps entrepreneurs and their families preserve and propel the wealth they’ve created for generations. Through its offices in Atlanta, Ga., and Raleigh, N.C., Balentine advises on approximately $9 billion of client assets and has repeatedly been recognized as a top financial planning and advisory firm by publications including Forbes, Barron’s, The Financial Times, and Investment News. Balentine is a perennial winner of the Pensions & Investments Best Places to Work in Money Management Award. In September 2021, Chairman Robert Balentine and CEO Adrian Cronje, Ph.D., CFA, released First Generation Wealth: Three Guiding Principles for Long-lasting Wealth and an Enduring Family Legacy, a book to help wealth creators think through what it takes to build a meaningful legacy and best support future generations.
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Renasant Bank supports North Fulton Business Radio
Renasant Bank has humble roots, having started in 1904 as a $100,000 bank located in a Lee County, Mississippi, bakery. Since then, Renasant has grown into one of the Southeast’s strongest financial institutions, boasting over $26 billion in assets and more than 280 offices offering banking, lending, wealth management, and financial services throughout the region. All of Renasant’s success stems from the commitment of each banker to invest in the communities they serve, which in turn helps them better understand the people they serve. At Renasant Bank, their banking professionals understand you because they work and live alongside you every day.
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Beyond Computer Solutions supports North Fulton Business Radio
Whether you’re a law firm, medical practice, or manufacturer, there’s one headline you don’t want to make: “Local Business Pays Thousands in Ransom After Cyberattack.” That’s where Beyond Computer Solutions comes in. They help organizations like yours stay out of the news and in business with managed IT and cybersecurity services designed for industries where compliance and reputation matter most.
Whether they serve as your complete IT department or simply support your internal team, they are well-versed in HIPAA, secure document access, written security policies, and other essential aspects that ensure your safety and well-being. Best of all, it starts with a complimentary security assessment.
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About North Fulton Business Radio and host John Ray
Approaching 1,000 episodes and having featured over 1,400 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 invites a diverse range of business, non-profit, and community leaders to share their significant contributions to their respective markets, communities, and professions. There is no discrimination based on company size, and there is never any “pay to play.” North Fulton Business Radio supports and celebrates businesses by sharing positive stories that traditional media ignore. Some media lean left. Some media lean right. We lean business.
John Ray is the host of North Fulton Business Radio. John and the team at North Fulton Business Radio, LLC, an affiliate of Business RadioX®, produce the show, which is recorded inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta.
The studio is located at 275 South Main Street, Alpharetta, GA 30009.
You can find the entire archive of shows by following this link. The show is accessible on all major podcast apps, such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon, iHeart Radio, and many others.
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, bookkeepers, marketing professionals, and other professional services practitioners.
John is the author of the five-star-rated book The Generosity Mindset: A Journey to Business Success by Raising Your Confidence, Value, and Prices, praised by readers for its practical insights on raising confidence, value, and prices.
