DAN BOWDEY

Dan Bowdey, MBA, CEPA, CVB, Principal Master Business Transition Coach with FocalPoint Business Coaching & Training collaborates with his network of advisors who help business owners uncover possibilities and unlock freedom. He is a Certified Master Business Transition Coach with FocalPoint International, a Certified Exit Planning Advisor with the Exit Planning Institute® specializing in Value Growth, and a Certified Value Builder with The Value Builder System™.  

Dan helps successful business owners, who have been in business for over 7 years and plan to exit within 7 years or less, to design and implement a transition plan with two paths; one for their business to transition to another owner and the other for themselves to have a renewed quality of life on the path to and during their next chapter in life, all without the stress, uncertainty, and frustration of trying to plan and execute all on their own. 

His No Regrets Business Transition Planning® process coordinates the efforts of the owner’s team of advisors, some of whom are referred in by Dan to augment or replace their current advisors. This team advises on the next act in life passions, wealth needed to reach financial independence, estate planning, trusts, charitable giving, finances, business value appraisal, risk mitigation, buy-sell agreements, legal transactions, deal structure, and tax planning. Dan advises on value enhancement acceleration, growth, and improving the four intangible capitals – human/leadership, structural/systems, customer, and social/cultural – which impact the multiple a buyer will pay thus business value, and the decisions around readiness for, and the timing of, their transition.

Dan’s career began as an industrial engineer/in-house consultant to various divisions of Eastman Kodak Company for 7 years. He worked as a project manager for Boulder Steel, Inc., a company which after 7 years he and two partners bought. Applying his 4 key elements of leadership, they grew from $ 3.5 million to $ 23 million at which point he sold his shares to a partner. Dan then spent 3 years helping the owner of Leed Fabrication Services, Inc. grow his company from $ 11 million to $ 33 million and stayed through the acquisition by a private equity group. After 6 years of consulting, Dan joined FocalPoint 9 years ago to help multiple business owners.

Dan’s 4 key elements of leadership are:

1.     Create teams of problem solvers by training supervisors not to give answers right away to the problems their direct reports are struggling with but rather ask probing questions about why they believe their solution isn’t working and then encourage them to come back and report on the next solution they think may work.

2.     Create 3 cross-department continuous improvement teams. Each team, consisting of one-third of every department, meets once a quarter to discuss “changes for the better” (Kaizen) and only implements the changes that work for all departments.

3.     Long-range planning for value growth - Focusing on employee and customer retention, taking the owner out of the day-to-day, adequate facilities, customer & vendor diversity versus concentration, developing recurring revenue streams, and staying ahead of industry trends and your competition.

4.     Open book management (P&L statement only) with all employees to get their buy-in to reduce waste, reduce costs, and understand how they can impact the top and bottom lines of the P&L to fund capital expenditures, profit sharing/401(k) contributions by the company, and bonuses in that order. 

Dan Bowdey, MBA, CEPA, CVB, Principal Master Business Transition Coach with FocalPoint Business Coaching & Training collaborates with his network of advisors who help business owners uncover possibilities and unlock freedom. He is a Certified Master Business Transition Coach with FocalPoint International, a Certified Exit Planning Advisor with the Exit Planning Institute® specializing in Value Growth, and a Certified Value Builder with The Value Builder System™.  

Dan helps successful business owners, who have been in business for over 7 years and plan to exit within 7 years or less, to design and implement a transition plan with two paths; one for their business to transition to another owner and the other for themselves to have a renewed quality of life on the path to and during their next chapter in life, all without the stress, uncertainty, and frustration of trying to plan and execute all on their own. 

His No Regrets Business Transition Planning® process coordinates the efforts of the owner’s team of advisors, some of whom are referred in by Dan to augment or replace their current advisors. This team advises on the next act in life passions, wealth needed to reach financial independence, estate planning, trusts, charitable giving, finances, business value appraisal, risk mitigation, buy-sell agreements, legal transactions, deal structure, and tax planning. Dan advises on value enhancement acceleration, growth, and improving the four intangible capitals – human/leadership, structural/systems, customer, and social/cultural – which impact the multiple a buyer will pay thus business value, and the decisions around readiness for, and the timing of, their transition.

Dan’s career began as an industrial engineer/in-house consultant to various divisions of Eastman Kodak Company for 7 years. He worked as a project manager for Boulder Steel, Inc., a company which after 7 years he and two partners bought. Applying his 4 key elements of leadership, they grew from $ 3.5 million to $ 23 million at which point he sold his shares to a partner. Dan then spent 3 years helping the owner of Leed Fabrication Services, Inc. grow his company from $ 11 million to $ 33 million and stayed through the acquisition by a private equity group. After 6 years of consulting, Dan joined FocalPoint 9 years ago to help multiple business owners.

Dan’s 4 key elements of leadership are:

1.     Create teams of problem solvers by training supervisors not to give answers right away to the problems their direct reports are struggling with but rather ask probing questions about why they believe their solution isn’t working and then encourage them to come back and report on the next solution they think may work.

2.     Create 3 cross-department continuous improvement teams. Each team, consisting of one-third of every department, meets once a quarter to discuss “changes for the better” (Kaizen) and only implements the changes that work for all departments.

3.     Long-range planning for value growth - Focusing on employee and customer retention, taking the owner out of the day-to-day, adequate facilities, customer & vendor diversity versus concentration, developing recurring revenue streams, and staying ahead of industry trends and your competition.

4.     Open book management (P&L statement only) with all employees to get their buy-in to reduce waste, reduce costs, and understand how they can impact the top and bottom lines of the P&L to fund capital expenditures, profit sharing/401(k) contributions by the company, and bonuses in that order.