EPI WI CHAPTER ANNUAL OWNER'S FORUM - BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER TO MAXIMIZE YOUR GREATEST ASSET, YOUR BUSINESS
Our fourth annual Business Owners Forum provides owners with a look at the future – where the business has the potential to go and how business owners may maximize the value of their greatest personal asset – their business.
Attendees will learn the personal journey of three business owners that have gone through the full entrepreneurial journey, including selling the company to monetize the value of their companies.
Additionally, this Forum will feature an “Ask Me Anything” panel of advisors from the local EPI Chapter. A CPA and value growth advisor, financial and insurance advisor, transactional attorney, and investment banker will field audience questions to help an owner grow, protect, and successfully transition their business asset from paper wealth to money in the bank.
This event helps to connect the dots, showcasing three different paths to maximizing your greatest asset – your business.
This event is for business owners; however, advisors are welcome with a business owner guest.
Learning Objectives:
- Network with other owners
- Illustrate the process for growing a highly valuable business
- Compare different owner’s experiences in the exit process
- Highlight the process of converting paper wealth into tangible, money-in-the-bank wealth
- Emphasize the importance of aligning business, personal, and financial goals
- Learn more about using your advisory team in the process
- Dress is business casual
- Networking reception including drinks and appetizers
About the Presenters:
Learn from industry experts, Connie Hegerfeld, Former EVP, COO Women’s International Pharmacy, Gerry Fleisher, President and CEO Retired, 5 Alarm Fire and Safety Equipment, LLC, Cheryl Tesch, Business Development Manager and Insurance Specialist, IAG Wealth Partners, LLC, David J. Sisson, Shareholder, Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c., Martha Sullivan, CPA, ABV, CEPA, President of Provenance Hill Consulting, LLC and Consultant with The Family Business Consulting Group, and Steven G. Sprindis, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Waypoint Private Capital.
Thank you to our Sponsors
Event Details
Who Should Attend?
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Attorneys
You have close relationships with clients, and can benefit from being the first advisor to introduce the idea of exit planning.
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CPAs/Accountants
Owners participating in the State of Owner Readiness research continue to indicate that you are the No. 1 "Most Trusted Advisor." You are a natural fit to lead the exit planning team and deepen your relationship (and retention) of next generation owners.
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Wealth Managers
You’re a skilled relationship person. Being entangled into your clients’ professional lives matters as you build a strategy to manage their wealth upon them harvesting it from their business. Exit planning allows you to build a deeper relationship with your client, expands your COI network, while giving you an early seat at table well before the liquidity event.
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Financial Advisors
One of the critical ‘legs of the stool’ is personal financing planning. An owner must have a strong financial plan & contingency plan post-transition to enable them to thrive in the next act of the lives personally and financially. Exit planning brings this future mindset into the present. Exit is now.
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Valuation Analysts
Valuation is both a billable engagement AND an opportunity to provide owners some perspective on how to accelerate value drivers (and deal with value killers). Use exit planning to make that valuation into a longer term value acceleration engagement.
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Investment Bankers
Only 2 of every 10 businesses that come to market actually sell. Learn how exit planning can bring attractive AND ready business to your purview.
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Estate Planners
Exit planning is a natural fit for estate planners who want to operate more holistically with their owner clients.
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Strategic Consultants
One of the most critical roles in exit planning is building transferable value. Strategic consultants have the ability to expand options and drive rapid business value that affect performance today.
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Insurance Professionals
Exit planning addresses the 5 D's. So do you. Approach the risk conversation differently with exit planning.
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Mergers & Acquisition Advisors
Proper exit planning causes less deals to fall through at the last minute. Connect with CEPAs to build your healthy deal flow network.
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Commercial Lenders
One of the best relationships a business owner makes is with their banker. How can you help your corporate clients think about the future and ensure financial continuity? Answer: exit planning.
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Family Business Advisors
More than 50% of lower middle market business owners would prefer to transition to the next generation. Help them succeed with exit planning strategies.
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Other Professional Advisors
Regardless of your unique specialty, there is seat at the exit planning table for you. Learn more at www.EarnCEPA.com.
EXIT PLANNING IS GOOD BUSINESS STRATEGY
The Exit Planning Institute, provides Financial Advisors, Accountants, Consultants, and other advisors of business owners with the critical education to differentiate themselves and add value to their existing client relationships through a credential, conference, courses, and content. Download the CEPA brochure for more information.
ABOUT THE PRESENTERS
Meet Martha Sullivan:
A one-time information systems consultant turned her most brilliant act of rebellion into a career as a CPA, CFO, COO, and profit & value growth strategist, consulting to hundreds of clients and colleagues over the past three decades.
Martha Sullivan, President of Provenance Hill Consulting, LLC, and Consultant with The Family Business Consulting Group, founded her firm with one purpose: to help business owners build, buy and sell strong, profitable companies that are attractive enough for someone to want to buy it when the owner decides to chase their next adventure. It’s not just a transaction at that point; it’s a transformation that impacts the owner, their family, and the company’s stakeholders.
Maximizing the value and transferability of a company requires finding that right balance between its rewards and risks. Profitability isn’t enough. It doesn’t happen overnight. It demands a conscious, disciplined effort to integrate the needs of the business, the family, and the individual. It’s not exit planning. It’s strategic life planning.
Examples of some of Martha’s work can be found at:
In Forbes –“Royal Family’s Crisis Has Lessons For All Family Businesses” and “At Tokyo Olympics, Simone Biles Provides 7 Lessons For Business Executives,” The Business Journals, In Business Magazine and Financial Advisor Magazine. Martha is also the host of “Provenance Hill Presents: Exit Stage Right” on Win Win Women TV.
Martha’s blog can be found at In Business Magazine
In addition to her regular “Exit Stage Right” blog in In Business Magazine, Martha provides owners with business improvement insights through numerous public speaking, webinar and podcast events and contributes to articles in Forbes (links above), Authority Magazine, Forbes Finance Council, Milwaukee Business Journal, Real Simple, Journal of Accounting, and the Telegraph Herald. She was recently featured in the Exit Planning Institute’s Whitepaper “A Look Inside the Unique World of – Value Creation” and numerous podcasts. Podcasts can be found at the www.provenancehill.com Resources page.
Meet Gerry Fleisher:
Gerry Fleisher has retired as President and CEO of the 5 Alarm Fire and Safety Equipment, LLC, in Delafield, WI. Gerry sold his company in a planned sale process to a strategic buyer in 2021.
Gerry knows that empowered sales teams create successful sales professionals. In his 35 years of business, the last 13 years as owner of 5 Alarm, Gerry empowered his staff to plan, execute, and succeed while holding his employees accountable to their actions. Whether you were in sales, service, or admin, Gerry worked with his staff to recognize their strengths and weaknesses while carefully managing at the 10,000-foot level.
His organization grew organically while capturing sales and service from his competitions without margin erosion or loss of sales. Vendor partners looked to his organization for help during lagging sales and customers could rely on capitalizing on those ventures.
Customer donation support was a key component to Gerry. “We support those customers who support us” was his benchmark. Gerry would support the Fire Department with Commemorative Fire Helmets that he would help auction off and empower the Fire Department to receive more financial support from those endeavors.
Gerry holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing. His previous work experiences include Fisher Scientific and Quest Technologies. He retired as a Lieutenant with the Lake County Fire & Rescue, served as planning commissioner and is currently commissioner of the Fire Board for LCFD.
Meet Cheryl Tesch:
As an IAG Wealth Partners Insurance Specialist, Cheryl works closely with the IAG advisors and their clients to analyze existing insurance coverage and offer enhanced solutions where appropriate.
Her passion for working with business owners began when she attended a meeting with a client, his financial advisor, attorney, and another insurance professional, and discovered numerous holes in the business succession plan, particularly when it came to his family and the team of key employees that he had developed while growing his business. It was then that she set out to learn more about how insurance plays a key role in a business succession plan. Her desire for learning fuels her passion to educate her clients.
Cheryl’s background is in marketing, having spent 20 plus years in brand marketing and sales. She also manages IAG’s marketing, social media, and client events. She has been with IAG Wealth Partners since 2003, and while not working, enjoys time with family, volunteering at her church, and home decorating.
Meet Steven G. Sprindis:
Steve is a Managing Director of Waypoint Private Capital, Inc. with over 25 years of financial advisory, private equity, investment management, and executive management experience. He has worked extensively with middle-market and early-stage companies as an executive, investor, and intermediary. Steve’s significant investment banking experience has always been focused on mergers and acquisitions, private placements of equity, and debt financings for privately owned companies. His transactional experience is complemented by operational roles as Chief Financial Officer for the Noel Group, Compass Properties, Merchant Direct, and numerous CFO consulting clients.
Steve’s 25+ year career highlights include:
- Advanced degrees in Accounting and Finance
- Backgrounds in Investment Banking, Private Equity, C-Level Operations
- Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation
- Series 24, 63, 79, and 82 securities exams passed
- Registered Broker Dealer, Member of FINRA | SIPC
- 100+ transactions and $1.0bn in value
Steve earned an MBA from the University of Chicago, a BBA degree in Finance from the University of Wisconsin, and the CFA designation. Steve is a member of the CFA Institute and is on the leadership team for the Wisconsin Chapter of the Exit Planning Institute.
