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Buying or Selling a Business

October 6, 2015 by angishields

Midtown Business Radio

Buying or Selling a Business

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Dave Ragland and Joe Schum talk Buying/Selling Businesses

Buying or Selling a Business

We continued our monthly series with IRC Wealth, talking about buying or selling a business. Dave Ragland and Joe Schum came by with Chet Burgess of Burgess & Associates to share some expertise regarding how to approach choices that arise when coming into a large sum of money through the sale of a business. An example of this was an IRC Wealth client company that was an Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) that sold.

In this case, the employees were seeing pretty sizable amounts of money coming their way from 5 figures to as much as $500,000-1,000,000 or more. Dave and Joe talked about the importance of sitting down with a financial expert to identify the best plan for what to do with those funds to get the greatest value for the employee’s needs.

The group also talked about the importance of establishing a sound operating agreement for partners in a young business that will accommodate the various possibilities for separation for the partners, whether it’s a sale, or a partner opting to leave, or other potential situations.

Chet, a CPA and tax expert, shared how important it is to select a corporate structure that provides the greatest long-term flexibility for a business that will facilitate selling later or transitioning a business to heirs or other partners.

We also discussed options for the business owner who would like to offer rewarding compensation plans that inspire a sense of ownership and increased productivity, without having to give away shares of stock in the privately-held company.

Special Guests:

David Ragland, CEO/Founder of IRC Wealth

Masters of Accounting, University of Georgia, Terry College of Business
Former Manager–Tax, Ernst & Young
Previous CFO, Allied Foods, Inc
Previous CFO, Afterburner

Joe Schum, VP of Business Development of IRC Wealth

Bachelor’s of Science, Economics/Commerce, Niagara University
Previous VP of Sales, Midwest Medical Enterprises, DVT/Lite
Board of Advisors, Safe Haven Museum & Education Center
Board Member, Visions Anew Institute

Chet Burge, Founder of Burge & Associates

BS Accounting, Bob Jones University
Previous Senior Accountant, Price Waterhouse
Former P/T CFO/Partner, Three Taverns Brewery

Reinventing Yourself

September 3, 2015 by angishields

Midtown Business Radio

Reinventing Yourself

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Reinventing Yourself

On this week’s episode we continued our monthly series with IRC Wealth. CEO, Dave Ragland, and VP Business Development, Joe Schum, joined me in studio along with Debi Buckland, a certified therapist and professional coach. Our topic was reinventing yourself.

Many of us adults know the feeling of, “I need to make a change,” when it comes to thinking about one’s job. It’s hard to truly know what your true self is/wants when you’re graduating from high school and selecting an academic and professional path. That means that for a lot of us, we find ourselves wanting to transition to something else that will be more in line with our spirit and personal values.

With his background as a financial planner and wealth adviser, David talked about how important it is for individuals to consider their personal values and wants relating to their quality of life and standard of living when thinking about making changes that will affect their income. Clearly, leaving one’s job to pursue a dream, whether that’s a new career move or retirement will involve a measure of financial risk.

By sitting down with experts such as David when in the planning phase, risk can be mitigated by understanding obligations, getting a plan for debt elimination, potentially making changes in standard of living expenses, and developing a time line that will facilitate addressing these issues as well as allowing the individual to enjoy their new pursuits.

As a therapist who spends much time speaking with individuals who are wanting to make a change in their lives, she talked about how important it is to be moving toward something more than running away from something. We also discussed how important it is to talk to one’s partner about the changes they’re contemplating since they will also affect their life as well.

As we talked through the show, it was clear that all our experts agree–it can be a great thing for us to find The Thing that allows us to be more authentic, more who we really are. And it was also obvious that sitting down with an expert to craft a plan isn’t simply going to end in being told, “No, you shouldn’t do that.” With some diligence and some planning with qualified pros, you might find you can make that transition to the new you sooner (and more safely) than you think.

David Ragland, CEO/Founder, IRC Wealth

Joe Schum, VP Business Development, IRC Wealth

Debi Buckland, LMFT, LPC, CPCS

IRC Wealth

June 2, 2015 by angishields

Midtown Business Radio

IRC Wealth

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IRC Wealth

This week I sat down with financial experts, David Ragland and Joe Schum, of IRC Wealth. David shared his story about how he has spent his career helping businesses and individuals navigate their financial decisions and planning. We talked about how he gained valuable experience as a consultant with Ernst & Young then as a CFO of a troubled company that helped him bring a high level of strategic advice to companies as an outsourced CFO.

He, along with his team, including Joe, continues to help people develop an effective, simple plan to achieve their financial goals. That may be getting a business on a track that will allow the owners to eventually sell it or transition it to heirs, depending on their particular plan. Or, it may be helping an individual get their family out of craft an effective budget, eliminate debt, develop cash reserves, and even know what they need to do to actually retire safely one day.

We talked about how Dave had experienced a period where he let his fitness decline, ultimately becoming ~75 pounds overweight. He decided to address that by training for an Ironman triathlon, when he had previously been doing little to no physical training. He set a goal to complete a full Ironman in 18 months. By setting a defined time goal, he was able to develop a training strategy that allowed him to evaluate his progress and keep himself on a schedule that continually moved him closer to his goal.

He realized that there are parallels between the way one must approach training for such an event and developing a plan and timeline for achieving financial freedom. He decided to write a book in which he could talk about those analogies to help readers understand they CAN achieve financial freedom, even though it initially seems impossible—much like it can seem impossible to go from not being physically active to completing a full-length Ironman triathlon.

I had the opportunity to read the book, “Wealth Made Simple (Yes, Really)”. It’s a quick read and the comparisons between a training regimen and the mindset needed to achieve an athletic goal and getting out of debt/becoming financially free are easy to understand. He provides several tools to give the reader the chance to develop an understanding of where they are now along with some measure of what to expect over time, given their goals.

After reading the book and meeting these two experts I can say I would easily recommend speaking to them to see how they can help you or your business develop an effective, simple to implement plan to achieve a strong financial position.

Special Guests:

David Ragland, CEO, IRC Wealth

Joe Schum