XPX Summit: One Day. Content Rich. Actionable Insights.
Be part of the first annual business owner summit

The XPX Houston Summit is your roadmap to growing your business, preparing for an ownership transfer, or creating a lasting legacy. Gain actionable insights from industry leaders through tailored tracks – value growth, transfer, and legacy – designed to address business owners’ most pressing questions, challenges, and visions for the future.
7:30 AM: Registration and Networking
8:30 AM - 5:00PM: Summit
5:00PM - Closing Reception
– Advanced Tax Strategies
– Business Valuation
– Leadership
– Legacy Planning
– Preparing for a Sale
– Technology and Cybersecurity
– Growth Strategies
Ready to see more? Check out the full agenda, including who is speaking, here.
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About XPX
XPX is a multi-disciplinary community of professional advisors who work collaboratively to help owners build valuable businesses and assist them in preparing and executing a successful transition. Private company transitions require a broad view of the entire life cycle of a private company including:
Business Value Growth
Business Value Transfer
Owner Life & Legacy
Our community includes advisors and owners in all stages of this process. Our members have specific areas of expertise as well as a holistic understanding of the breadth of challenges an owner faces throughout the stages of the private company life cycle. This helps XPX members to work in the best interest of their clients.
We have a clear set of shared principles for advisor excellence. Each of the 12 professions involved in XPX has specific ethics and practice guidelines. Our members take this a step further, adhering to a set of principles that guide collaboration and long term thinking (see our five Advisor Principles)
We are unique in that we are the only open advisor network in the private company/business value transfer market. This means that we do not advocate a single approach or vendor. Instead, we endeavor to be a place where all advisors, owners and vendors can interact and collaborate.
Each XPX Chapter is a locally-controlled non-profit organized by national and regional leaders in the private company market. The first XPX chapter was launched in Boston in 2007. Today, we have Chapters across the U.S..
The Chapters are supported by XPX Global, an entity that provides capital, intellectual property and administrative support to Chapter operations. This model takes care of the administrative tasks that are the bane of the boards of most professional organizations. It leaves to the Chapters the key tasks of events, membership and sponsorship—the most visible and high value activities for volunteers interested in an increased profile in the private company market.
Want to learn more? Please contact XPX Houston President, Michael Landers at mlanders@uhy-us.com.
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Consultants
Insurance Providers
Investors
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Non-Profits
Valuators
Virtual managers
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The Latest News – XPX Houston
Latest – XPX Houston
If you’re looking to attract an investor or an acquirer one day, expect them to dig into your sales and marketing process. If you’re a company that sells to other businesses, an investor will want to know where you get your leads from and how much each costs you to generate. They’ll want to know what technology you use to support your sales team. They’ll want to understand how your sales reps get meetings and how many appointments a good rep has each week. They’ll want to know the close rate of a high performer and how it compares to an average performer. The investor’s questions aim to gauge the scalability of your sales model under significantly higher investment rather than to assess your past performance. Acquirers love stumbling over a business where capital is the primary constraint to growth. They fall over themselves for a company with an efficient sales engine that needs more fuel (i.e., money). Most investors have lots of capital but struggle to find businesses with a sales system that won’t collapse under the weight of more money. How Gregg Romanzo Built a Sales System In 2004, Gregg Romanzo started an old-school freight brokering business. Most freight brokers are nothing more than a handful of people arranging shipments in return for razor-thin margins, but Romanzo realized his sales model had the potential to grow into something much bigger. Romanzo’s model involved hiring high-potential people with a relatively modest base salary of between $40,000 and $60,000 per year and teaching them the business from scratch. He armed them with a computer and access to the best scheduling software and tied their variable compensation to the gross margin of the jobs they booked. Romanzo knew if he could get a rep to clear $100,000 per year in total compensation, he could keep them for the long run. Romanzo took his very best talent—the top one or two percent—and built a team around them so they could earn even more. This cohort of salespeople could clear three, four, or even five hundred thousand dollars in an exceptional year. Since Romanzo paid a relatively low base salary and his people didn’t need much equipment, he could hire many salespeople. By the time he sold his company, he had 200 employees, 190 of whom were salespeople. That’s 95% of his headcount dedicated to sales. How does that compare to your company? If you have a winning formula you think would hold up if you doubled or quadrupled your sales team, consider monetizing the sales model you’ve created. Either hire more reps or show a deep-pocketed investor or acquirer how durable your sales model is and how all you need is their capital to grow it.
If the value of your company would suffer in your absence, the biggest threat to its marketability might be you. “Buyers generally aren’t interested in paying top dollar if the business is overly reliant on the owner for its success.” That excerpt from a long-ago IBG Business article (“article on industry rollups), the company may be worth its book value and little more. Solutions in Print. While Gerber does a masterful job of describing the problem, the real value of The E-Myth and its progeny is that they provide therapeutic steps that can help an entangled business owner execute a pivot, breaking free of their comfort zone and morphing into a more valuable leadership role, maximizing business viability and value separate from their incessant presence and hands-on involvement. In addition, Gerber’s 1995 sequel, The E-Myth Revisited, provides a business development process that serves as a framework for developing turn-key systems throughout an organization to produce predictable results and grow in a sustainable way. Guidance in Person. It should go without saying that we think the E-Myth series is a valuable read for business owners who, looking to sell some day, have decided to get serious about preparing their business to stand on its own two feet. And that’s where IBG often enters the story. For us, the business is the product. To help shape a good company into an attractive acquisition target, we often start our preparatory work two years before the company is ready to go on the market, focusing on such priorities as: cleaning up and recasting financial information; improving cash flows; selling off or disposing of unproductive assets, product/service lines, and inventory; diversifying client and vendor concentrations attracting and developing key employees and fostering an effective management team on which a new owner can rely; identifying and protecting intellectual property and other intangible assets (trademarks, patents, copyrights, and any other proprietary information) that set your company apart from competitors; documenting key processes; and identifying and building on the business’s competitive advantages and attractiveness to the best-fit buyer. In the process, we invariably invest time and energy in the owner, helping them prepare mentally and emotionally for the rigors of the sale experience, and identifying roles in the company’s management and operations that the owner should no longer fill if the business is to achieve optimum value. As a business owner, it’s important to recognize that the value of your company lies not just in its assets and profits, but in its ability to exist independently of its owner. This means taking steps to establish a structure, management environment, and culture that can thrive with or, ultimately, without you. That’s a tall order, one that you don’t need to tackle on your own. To find out how we might help, contact an
In my work with family-owned businesses and various enterprises, I’ve observed a recurring theme: the unexpected pitfalls during the acquisition process. And let me tell you, nothing derails a potential deal faster than financial surprises. So, how do you ensure transparency and trust from both sides of the table? The answer lies in a Quality of Earnings (QoE) report. For buyers, the due diligence phase is akin to peeling back the layers of an onion. You want to uncover the core, understand the real financial health of a company, and ensure there are no hidden liabilities. A QoE report does precisely that. It provides a deep dive into the company’s earnings, highlighting any non-recurring items, assessing the sustainability of earnings, and giving a clear picture of the company’s financial trajectory. Simply put, it’s your roadmap to making an informed decision. But here’s a perspective many sellers often overlook: Why wait for the buyer to dictate the narrative? As the owner, you’ve poured your heart and soul into your business. You know its value, its potential, and its challenges. But perception is a powerful tool. By proactively conducting a QoE report, you’re not just preparing for the sale; you’re controlling the narrative. You’re ensuring that the story told is accurate, fair, and representative of your business’s true value. Imagine the scenario: You’re in a negotiation, and the buyer presents a list of financial concerns. But instead of being caught off guard, you’re a step ahead. You’ve already addressed these in your QoE report, providing clarity and, more importantly, solutions. This proactive approach not only builds trust but also positions you in a place of authority. It says, “I understand my business, and I’ve done my homework.” In my experience, the most successful transitions are those where both parties come to the table informed, prepared, and transparent. A QoE report is not just a document; it’s a testament to your commitment to a fair and successful acquisition. It eliminates the “what-ifs” and replaces them with “here’s how.” To my fellow business owners, I urge you: Don’t wait for the buyer to shine a light on your financials. Take the reins, be proactive, and ensure that the story told is the one you’ve lived, nurtured, and grown. After all, who better to tell your business’s story than you?
There is no “I” in team. It is a phrase often cited and not attributed to anyone. So, I am going out on a limb to say there is an “I” in team and it is the most critical aspect of a high-performing team. No, this is not a reference to Michael Jordan’s quote of “there is an “i” in win.” Common knowledge is that a team of self-focused “I” performers does not make for a high-performing team, because they never become a team. What do I mean that “I” is the most critical aspect?
The first bit of concrete feedback I recall receiving in the workplace was from a fellow colleague, a much more experienced person than I. The feedback was not part of a review, he was not my supervisor, but someone I worked with daily. I don’t know what prompted him to share the feedback. I am so grateful that he did. His exact words escape me, but the sum of the feedback focused on my lack of warmth and the perception of being an “ice maiden”. I was shocked.
Stress. You know the feeling, the drop or churning in your stomach, the sweaty palms, the flushing of the face. Full-on signs that something or someone has just sent you on a path of worry, frustration, fear, or panic. While not always appreciated, our bodies send us instantaneous signals of our state of being. The trouble with these reactions is that they served us well when we needed to outrun the saber tooth tiger. Most of us are not living in that environment today, yet our brains have not evolved with our change in circumstances. The outsized reaction is referred to as an Amygdala highjack. This is where Adam Smith’s wisdom can help us evolve beyond our caveman days. But we have to get to that place to step outside ourselves. How do we do that?
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You are in need of audit or transaction advisory services. I specialize in companies and transactions where there is either some clean-up or complex matters that need to be addressed.

You're a business owner, or know of a business owner, that needs an investment bank or M&A firm to manage the entire process of selling/buying a business or obtaining financing.
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You are in need of audit or transaction advisory services. I specialize in companies and transactions where there is either some clean-up or complex matters that need to be addressed.

Need help managing growth, and exit and transition planning.



You want to increase the value of your company by growing revenue in an efficient and scalable way.
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