Frequently Asked Questions
Why Exit Planning?
Our movement uses the umbrella of “exit planning” to describe the post-startup phases in the private company life cycle. At this point, a company’s challenges shift to the need for longer-term planning, sustainable growth and a path to preserving the company beyond the founders. This journey includes three stages: business value growth, business value transfer and owner life and legacy. This journey requires attention to both the professional and personal (legacy, finance, tax) needs of all involved. Our members focus on helping privately-held companies make this journey.
Why an Exchange?
Every company and owner uses multiple types of external advisors to navigate their exit planning journey. Each journey is unique. There is no one path, no one advisor, no one answer. Hopefully, owners find the right advisors for the right task at the right moment. Their options are word of mouth, industry associations and local business organizations.
But these sources provide single solutions in a piecemeal way. XPX bring Education, Professionalism and Principles to privately-held businesses in a holistic way.
XPX was founded in Boston in 2007 as an exchange of advisors in the belief that there was a need for a more organized ecosystem to support private companies that had graduated from the startup phase. These local Chapters are focused on bringing together the best advisors who have a track record of working with privately-held businesses in the lower middle market. Together they develop and share resources, build deep relationships with other advisors, increase their visibility in the local market and learn the principles of private company advisor excellence. Building better advisors builds better private companies and stronger local communities.
Who is in the Exchange?
XPX is highly focused. Our members all:
- Work directly with owners and/or senior managers of companies, generally in the lower middle market (roughly $5-100 million in revenues)
- Are experienced advisors in one of our 12 member professions (Accountants, Attorneys, Bankers, Coaches, Consultants, Insurance Providers, Investors, M&A Intermediaries, Non-profits, Valuators, Virtual Managers, Wealth Planners)
- Share the core XPX Advisor Principles
Programming by our Chapters helps these varied advisors learn about the multi-disciplinary challenges of preparing companies for long-term success. Along the way, they gain visibility for their own expertise and build relationships with other advisors.
What do you mean by the "Lower Middle Market"?
XPX Members generally work in the lower middle market. In the U.S. this includes companies that have roughly $5 to $100 million in revenues. They are past the startup phase and have the potential to provide long-term value to their owners, employees and communities.
To understand our members’ focus on this market, it’s helpful to look at the attention in recent decades to the startup of new businesses. Governments and business communities around the world have built vigorous ecosystems that support startup businesses. These ecosystems provide the unique training and support that early-stage companies need. It’s the nature of the startup process that some ideas fail and some succeed. In fact, roughly 50% of companies make it to 5 years. Only 20% make it to 20 years. Even fewer pass on to new management and ownership.
We believe that more attention needs to be paid to the companies after they graduate from the startup stage because these graduates have the potential to build lasting, realizable, transferable value in the long term. Companies in the lower middle market are the foundation of local economies, providing reliable employment and support of local community activities. But these companies have different needs than startups.
Until now, there has not been as much focus on the ecosystem that supports companies in the lower middle market. That has changed with the emergence of the exit planning movement.
Are business owners in XPX?
Every member of XPX has a strong practice supporting privately-held businesses. The interests of the business owners, managers and stakeholders are at the core of why XPX exists. However, business owners are neither members nor frequent attendees at XPX programs. There are several reasons for this:
- The presence of owners would distract our advisor members from their core purpose which is to learn from and about other advisors.
- Owners wisely avoid attending gatherings where exit planning is the featured topic. It is not in their own interest, nor the interest of their stakeholders, to appear to have an exit underway.
- Programming that might attract owners would be more summary in nature and would avoid the rich content that marks the average XPX meeting
Having said this, some XPX chapters hold occasional invitation-only programming to educate their clients. And it is common for owners who have already exited to serve as panelists or speakers at XPX, often along with one or more of the advisors that helped them along their exit journey. These conversations can be very educational in understanding the range of issues that arose over the life cycle of their businesses and the roles of key advisors who collaborated to help them along the way.
Who is an exit planner?
At XPX, we view exit planning as a multi-disciplinary, multi-year journey over the full life cycle of a business. During this journey, the business and its owners need many kinds of expertise. So there is not one definitive definition of “exit planner.”
The rich diversity of potential offerings in the “exit planning” field is clear in our national and local Advisor Directories. Three search fields that will help you find individual advisor’s skills and approach:
- Functional Expertise: Roughly half of XPX members specifically highlight “exit/transition planning” as one of their core areas of expertise
- Transition Planning Certification or Methodology: Roughly 16% of our members use this open text field to describe their approach to exit and transition planning in more detail.
- Advisor Resource Relationships: About 11% of our members have achieved accreditation from the leading certification companies (EPI, IEPA, BEI).
Use these fields to uncover the rich variety of our members’ collective experience and connect with the best people to help you and your clients.
Who created the Principles?
After XPX had been around for ten years and had grown to ten Chapters, it became really clear that we all shared a similar philosophy and set of goals. So we had a series of conversations with our members and leaders to try to put these ideas on paper. The XPX Advisor Principles were the result.
It’s important to remember that our members represent 12 different professions, each with their own ethical and methodological requirements. These principles describe how a good advisor goes beyond the requirements of his or her own profession and finds ways to work with the full team of advisors for the good of the underlying business and its owners. Here’s the list (click here for more detail):
- Work collaboratively
- Put the client first
- Think long term
- Consider the human angle
- Always be learning
How does the Exchange work?
Why XPX?
Our members and sponsors are all trusted advisors to privately-held businesses and their owners. They are busy people and we value their time. Why do they choose XPX? It can be helpful to understand how we are distinguished from other types of organizations:
- Pure networking organizations – These tend to focus on making connections between a broad array of local businesspeople. There often a clear mandate to make referrals to others in the group. XPX members are under no obligation to refer business but, rather, find the right people in our network that they and their clients need to succeed.
- Local chambers of commerce and advocacy organizations – These organizations focus on building connections among all businesses in a local market. They can be an important force in the building of the overall business community. XPX differs in that we focus on a critical subset of local markets: the advisors who help shepherd private companies throughout their life cycle.
- Single profession and specialty organizations – These generally focus on a single profession (such as law, accounting, HR, etc) or business challenge (such as corporate growth, M&A, specific industries). These organizations often provide training, certification and connection within their specialty market. Many XPX members belong to a professional organization for their field. XPX is distinguished by the fact that are members represent 12 different professions so our goal is cross-discipline learning and connections.
- Exit planning certification companies – In contrast with the other organizations listed above, these are for-profit firms that offer training and certification in exit planning. This can be valuable for some private company advisors. In fact, roughly 10% of XPX members hold one of the exit planning certifications. Some certification companies also host local events. Their local “chapters” are often local committees under the control of the for-profit certification company. Chapter contact lists belong to the certification company and are used to . XPX does not advocate for a single methodology. We believe “the genius is in our membership” which brings deep and diverse experience to the challenges along the full life cycle of the private business. XPX chapters are locally-controlled nonprofits who have their own funding and lists.
Bottom line: Our community is complementary and unique from other business associations in that our core purpose is to support open local communities that connect trusted private company advisors. Each members brings deep expertise that complements that of fellow members. Our success over 15+ years has demonstrated that connecting these advisors and helping them learn from each other helps their own advisory businesses, their clients’ businesses and their communities.
What's in it for you?
XPX attracts experienced advisors from 12 different professions. The most common reasons for coming and staying at XPX include:
- Resources – You’ll learn from great content, advisor resources and programming. What I know, What I don’t know, What I don’t know that I don’t know. XPX helps me get this right.
- Relationships – You’ll expand your network with advisors who are genuine, inviting and welcome collaboration. We’re givers, not takers (and givers get more in the long run)
- Visibility – You’ll raise your profile by sharing your knowledge in meetings, networking and contributing to our on-line Knowledge Exchange. I know the guy/gal who can help!
- Principles – You’ll find a group of like-minded advisors who share our values of collaboration, client first, long-term thinking, focus on the human factor and continuous learning. It’s about the quality of the people in the room.
Still Have Questions?
The bottom line of these Principles is that the big picture matters. The work of an advisor to a privately held business or its owner requires more than just expertise. It also requires systems thinking and a desire to do what is right for the owners, the company and its stakeholders over both the short- and long-term.
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