Management succession

Unlock the Potential of Buy-Sell Agreements and Estate Taxes with Premium Financing As a professional in the premium financing life insurance industry, staying informed about the strategies that can benefit your clients the most is crucial. One such strategy is premium financing, a powerful tool for paying estate taxes and fund buy-sell agreements. Join us on May 22nd at 9:00 a.m. CST for a webinar, where we’ll dive into the world of premium financing. Here’s why you can’t afford to miss it: Strategic Financing: Learn to utilize bank funds for life insurance to minimize estate taxes and buy-sell agreements Case Study Insight: Examine strategic buyout funding through a case study, highlighting how bank financing can uphold business continuity following a partner’s death. Timely Tax Strategies: Uncover vital estate tax strategies before the current provisions sunset on January 1, 2026. Expert Guidance: Gain insights from industry leaders, ensuring you receive ethical and well-informed advice. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from Dave Toeben of Insight Insurance Services and Chris Dunham of Kuorum Partners. They’ll provide valuable insights that will empower you to offer top-tier advice and solutions to your clients. Register now: 

How to increase your EBITDA in Manufacturing; You have tried all cost cutting measures on your shop floor and still not where you want to be? After all initiatives taken, you feel that manufacturing floor looks and feels more chaotic than ever? Here is why it might be so: Every company at their very early stage of their life cycle are pretty lean. The product, the clients and process are as simple as they can be. But during the course of time the product lines, the clients  increase and processes start getting complicated. It becomes hard to follow the product, catch the delivery dates etc. The cost starts building up in the parallel. It comes to a boiling point and EBITDA starts suffering. Company urges to take some actions. And most of the time, as a patient w/o seeing a specialist, looks for some shortcut cure to fix the problem. And guess what? instead of cutting the fat they start cutting from the muscle. Worse than that the lack of follow up on improvement measures due to the daily fire fighting activities starts not going hand in hand. Most of the time the improvements are the ones fall off. That’s when employee morale, trust in management that the problems will be solved starts suffering as well. People start leaving the company and know-how disappears with people leaving as it is in people brains instead of in the DNA of the company. The daily life of employees who decides to stay on board becomes even harder and heavier. So they give up and come to work just to come to work and do the job. The value they add gets limited in time. If this sounds similar to what you are going thru or your client has been facing a similar situation let’s discuss!

“What will I do after selling my business?” he asked. I hear that a lot both in my M&A practice, True North Advisors Group and my coaching business, The Platinum Years. “I fear I will fall into a void, if I sell”, is another common refrain. As we get into our 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, many of us who have achieved financial and business success, start to wonder about this. As my fellow business advisor Josh Patrick, wrote recently, we want to stay “relevant”. But what does that mean, and how to achieve it? For some it is selling and traveling, for others it is hiring a career coach and starting anew. Sadly, other freeze up and do nothing. Of course, that is a bit like letting choosing to let others plan your future – they will clean up your mess after you are gone. If you are a late-career business owner, there is a small step to think more deeply about your future. It is called the What’s Next Self-Assessment (online assessment, book and workbook). Beats wondering how to stay relevant… Learn More:   

Every business owner dreams of a big pay day when they sell their business and go off on around the world trip. However, many owners don’t follow a unified strategy of how to go about selling their business, leaving them confused and frustrated because they don’t know where to start. The top 2 characteristics of a quality business are a capable management team and lack of owner dependence. I worked with a business owner for over a decade. He started with a management team of himself, his partner, and a COO. The owner was the visionary and the other two excelled at execution. It was a perfect arrangement. The company grew, but with growth comes increased complexity. Continue reading:

Succession planning considerations enter into discussions that I have with business owners when discussing their interest in conducting an executive search to find a CEO to run their company. For instance: As a business owner are you worn down and tired from all the extra effort and attention that you have had to spend on your business over the last few years? Have you wondered if there are viable alternatives to growing your business when sometimes you just want to kick back and relax? Knowing what you know now about the level of effort and energy to start and grow a business, do you think it is time for a change, perhaps an exit? These are questions I often encounter when talking with business owners who have founded their business or who have taken over their business from a parent – and know that there is no one in their business who is capable of taking over the business when these current owners decide to move on. It certainly creates a quandary for them. It’s especially challenging for these owners when they think it’s time to sell their business and realize that the business value is not what they expected to yield after many years of hard work and effort. In my experience it’s helpful for owner(s) to take a step back and review the options they have when considering a business exit, because hiring a CEO to run their company is only one option. Business Succession Owners who go through a business succession discussion benefit from a review of the options as these will also consider their personal outcome goals, their company’s outcome goals, and what I call legacy goals. Oftentimes I find owners have not considered their personal goals and it leaves them at a disadvantage when seeking to objectively evaluate their company and legacy goals. Think about it. If you are a business owner you most likely spend the majority of your time working on or in your business, with an occasional look up to reflect on what you might do once you exit the business. But when it comes time to exit the business – you have most likely have not developed your personal exit plan. Not having a personal transition plan will impact the choices owners make when deciding to exit their business. Succession Alternatives Effective evaluation of succession alternatives does require careful planning. If, as an owner, you have not used business planning tools previously it may be challenging to follow a planning process, however, the benefits to a carefully thought-out

Drucker & Scaccetti Announces Senior Leadership Changes Appoints 3 Chiefs and Board Chair to Position Firm for Continued Growth and Success Dec.10, 2021 – PHILADELPHIA – Drucker & Scaccetti, a CPA and advisory firm based in Philadelphia, PA and dedicated to providing specialized tax, business, and financial consulting to families and their closely held and entrepreneurially-driven businesses, has appointed its next generation of leadership to take the firm beyond its founders, effective January 1, 2022. For the first time in its 31-year history, the firm’s leadership will consist of all non-founding shareholders and, uniquely, an all-women C-suite. “From our inception in 1990, the goal of the founders has been to offer to our up-and-coming team the same opportunities that we were provided,” states CEO & Co-founder Jane Scaccetti, “which is a purpose of building a legacy and continuing Drucker & Scaccetti into the future. I’m incredibly excited and positive about this next chapter in our firm’s future.” Knowing Scaccetti’s 7-year term as CEO would conclude at the end of 2021, the firm has been carefully planning for this transition for the past 24-months. Scaccetti explains, “Our firm has grown substantially and experienced incredible change. We sought to create a governance structure that could adapt alongside the change, quickly adjust to the evolving needs of our clients, and ensure our talented people have the tools and knowledge to thrive in a dynamic environment. To meet those needs, the shareholders developed a management committee to oversee day-to-day operations and a board of directors to advise on strategic initiatives and maximize the effectiveness and success for of all of our team members.” Beginning January 1, 2022, Scaccetti’s role will transition to Firm Ambassador while maintaining her strong civic and community involvement. She will also continue to build the firm’s brand as a powerful force in advising entrepreneurial and wealthy families to grow and sustain their net worth while living their purpose. The new management committee consists of three business officers responsible for decision making, operations management, and the firm’s strategic performance. They are: Dottie Leonardi, Chief Business Officer Roz Sutch has been elected as the Chief Growth Officer (CGO) responsible for practice expansion and growth. Sutch started at Drucker & Scaccetti as an undergraduate intern and in 2009 became the youngest shareholder at the firm at that time. She provides business, tax, and financial consulting services to the LGBTQ+ community, professional athletes, artists and entertainers, large corporations and partnerships, high-net-worth individuals, entrepreneurs and closely held businesses. Diane DeCesare, CPA, MT, Chief Knowledge Officer Responsible for the day-to day tax practice and the effective use of knowledge resources will be Geoff Mesko, serves as the liaison between the board and the chief business officers. He will be responsible for overseeing firm vision, strategic planning, external communication, and community interface, while continuing client responsibilities.   Mesko joined Drucker & Scaccetti as an intern in 2004 and he became a shareholder in January 2012. Mesko has extensive tax experience in serving private clients and their family enterprises while bringing a strategic business acumen to complement Drucker & Scaccetti’s tax focus.   Mesko serves on several educational and civic boards in Philadelphia and Scranton and hails from a multi-generational family business. “The new leadership team will build upon the legacies of Drucker & Scaccetti caring about the professional integrity of our services, our team members, and the clients we serve in an advisory role. We are very excited about this next chapter of Drucker & Scaccetti’s future and the impactful work we will do together,” said Mesko. Drucker & Scaccetti (D&S) is a Philadelphia-based tax strategy and consulting firm founded in 1990. D&S has nearly 100 employees providing tax, business, and financial consulting services specifically tailored to their clients’ needs. Follow D&S at

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On September 18, 2024, a panel of three Third US Circuit Court of Appeals judges heard oral argument from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and Starbucks on the matter of consequential damages. At stake is the NLRB’s power to award damages for direct and foreseeable pecuniary harms that go beyond lost pay and benefits. The award of such things as credit card late payment costs and uninsured medical costs, fees for not timely paying other expenses, etc. are at issue. If such awards are within the NLRB’s authority, the damage awards in NLRB wrongful discharge cases could dramatically rise. Here is how we got to this point. In 2023, the NLRB ordered Starbucks to pay consequential damages in a case of the wrongful termination of two pro-union employees. Damages included “direct or foreseeable pecuniary harms incurred as a result of [the employees’ wrongful discharges.]” This case is one of many cases Starbucks faces alleging wrongful discharge of union supporters. If it losses, the monetary cost could be significant. By filing this appeal, Starbucks’s joins companies such as Amazon, SpaceX, and Trader Joe’s in challenging the NLRB’s constitutional authority to exert such enforcement powers. Traditionally, the Board would order reinstatement, backpay and lost benefits in a case of wrongful termination, however this was expanded in 2022. A Board decision in Thryv, Inc., 372 NLRB No. 22 (2021), held employees who are wrongfully terminated should also receive compensation for other pecuniary losses stemming from the termination. Examples include credit card cost, out of pocket medical expenses, mortgages related fees, etc. Such damages can quickly add up. In this latest Starbucks case, the Third Circuit considered Thryv  but also the US Supreme Court’s June ruling in Jarkesy v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and its applicability to the NLRB. In Jarkesy, the Supreme Court found it was unconstitutional for the SEC to impose civil penalties in administrative cases. Such awards need to be awarded in a court. The Third Circuit must decide whether the expanded remedies sought by the NLRB would be considered “legal remedies” typically imposed by the courts as in Jarkesy or “equitable remedies” typically imposed by administrative agencies. Such administrative remedies are intended to benefit the worker rather than unfairly punish employers. The NLRB argued they have the authority to impose the remedies regardless of their status as legal or equitable. Not surprisingly, Starbucks argued allowing the NLRB to issue damages beyond backpay would violate their constitutional right to a jury trial and therefore was unconstitutional. The outcome is pending and regardless, it may well be appealed to the Supreme Court where the authority of various agencies is being curtailed. We will keep you informed. Brody and Associates regularly advises management on complying with the latest local, state and federal employment laws.  If we can be of assistance in this area, please contact us at info@brodyandassociates.com or 203.454.0560  

Passed in June 2024 and signed into law by New York Governor Kathy Hochul on September 5, the Retail Worker Safety Act is set to take effect March 4, 2025. The law mandates protections for retail employees including panic buttons, workplace violence prevention policies, and training. Who is covered? The law explains: Covered employers: any person, entity, business, corporation, partnership, limited liability company, or an association employing at least ten retail employees. Retail employees: employees working at a retail store for an employer. Retail Store: a store that sells consumer commodities at retail and which is not primarily engaged in the sale of food for consumption on the premises. The state, any political subdivision of the state, a public authority, or any other government agency is not covered by the law. Key Requirements The Act’s key requirements are the installation of panic buttons, implementation of workplace violence prevention policies, and training. The panic button requirement does not take effect until January 1, 2027, while the other requirements are effective March 2025. Panic Button Employers with more than 500 retail employees nationwide must provide employees with access to panic buttons across the workplace. Employers may opt for a physical button or mobile phone-based buttons. The requirements for each are slightly different. If the employer chooses to use a physical panic button it must contact the local 911 public safety answering point when pressed. Pressing the button must provide the answering point with the employee’s location and dispatch law enforcement. The button must be accessible or wearable. The mobile phone-based approach requires the button to be installed on employer provided equipment and is wearable. The mobile button may not track employee locations unless pressed.   Workplace Violence Prevention Policy Employers must adopt a written workplace violence prevention policy to be provided to employees upon hire and annually. The NY Department of Labor (NYDOL) will draft a model plan which will be evaluated every four years from 2027 onwards. Employers may adopt the NYDOL policy or create their own equivalent policy. The policy must: List factors or situations in the workplace which may increase the employees’ risk of workplace violence. Examples given include working late at night or early morning hours; exchanging money with the public; working alone or in small numbers; and uncontrolled access to the workplace. List methods of preventing workplace violence, including but not limited to establishing and implementing a reporting system. Provide information on federal and state laws regarding violence towards retail workers and remedies available for victims of workplace violence. Explicitly state that it is unlawful to retaliate against employees who report workplace violence or factors which place employees at risk of workplace violence. Workplace Violence Prevention Training Employers must provide training upon hire and annually. The NYDOL will provide interactive training which will also be evaluated every four years starting in 2027. Again, employers may opt to use the state provided training or provide their own equivalent. The training must: Include information on the Retail Worker Safety Act; Examples of steps employees can take to protect themselves; De-escalation strategies; Active Shooter drills; Emergency procedures; Instructions on how to use security alarms, panic buttons, and any other emergency devices; and A site-specific list of emergency exits and meeting places to be used in emergencies. Takeaways New York State retail employers should look at the state provided training and policies to adopt as their own or to ensure their own materials are compliant. For employers outside of New York it is important to keep your eyes peeled for creation of similar laws in your own state. Brody and Associates regularly advises management on complying with the latest local, state and federal employment laws.  If we can be of assistance in this area, please contact us at info@brodyandassociates.com or 203.454.0560      

Many consultants/advisors/coaches are serving business owners who resist the notion there might be significant, unrecognized issues in their company, or who believe they needn’t be concerned about issues they don’t know about.  Call it the Ostrich-Head-In-The-Sand Syndrome. As a consequence, consultants feel powerless to get their clients to take action in their own best interest.  From an exit planning perspective, being fully prepared for a future exit is one of those critical issues business owners may be inclined to ignore until it is too late. On Thursday, December 5th, join EvaluSys CEO Tom Bixby and XPX Charlotte founder in a discussion with Larry Gard, Ph.D., XPX Chicago member, executive coach, former longtime clinical psychologist who will help attendees get inside the head of business owners to: Feel confident in your ability to reach clients who resist identifying and confronting issues in their business. Generate client curiosity in your approach and interest in your recommendations. Have a significant impact on your clients’ success in ways they hadn’t anticipated. This program is scheduled for 45 minutes, to include significant opportunity for Q&A with Dr. Gard.  Don’t miss this important program helping you grow your power to create value for your advisory clients!

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.

Halloween isn’t just a time for ghosts and goblins; it’s also a perfect moment to explore those spine-chilling hiring stories that haunt every small business owner’s dreams. At FIREPOWER Teams, we’re all about turning fears into cheers by empowering actionable strategies and strengthening teams. Let’s face the horrors—a bad hire can lurk in the shadows, embodying the kind of nightmares that disrupt teamwork and stifle growth. But fear not! As you learn about these ghastly characters, remember that each horror story comes with a silver lining: a powerful lesson to enhance your hiring process and bolster your team dynamics. The Vampire – The Energy Drainer Traits: This hire sucks the positivity and energy out of your team, often leaving colleagues drained. Impact: Reduced team morale and productivity. Prevention: During interviews, ask behavioral questions that help you gauge a candidate’s influence on team dynamics. Consider including team members in the hiring process to assess chemistry. The Zombie – The Disengaged Traits: Goes through the motions but lacks initiative and passion. Impact: Minimal contribution to team goals and lack of contribution to goals. Prevention: Look for candidates who ask questions about company culture and show enthusiasm for the role because the job description accurately reflects the role’s responsibilities and opportunities for growth. The Mummy – Stuck in the Past Traits: Resistant to change and new ideas, insisting on doing things “how they’ve always been done.” Impact: Hinders adaptation and progress. Prevention: Look for candidates willing to learn new things. Ask them about situations where they had to adapt quickly or change their approach to succeed. Hiring Doesn’t Have To Be A Nightmare Each of these eerie archetypes teaches us that hiring is not just about filling a vacancy but about enriching our teams and aligning with our core values. Hiring should be strategic, and at FIREPOWER Teams, we understand that the right people are the lifeblood of any thriving business. Each new hire should contribute positively to the team’s dynamics and the company’s mission. Remember, hiring doesn’t have to be a nightmare. With the right tools and insights, you can spot red flags early and attract talent that fits the role and elevates your entire team. Let’s turn these horrors into opportunities. Happy Halloween, and here’s to making every hire a treat, not a trick! Maria Forbes and 

Sometimes the most sensitive question in family succession planning is “Who gets the office?” Dad’s (or Mom’s) office is usually perceived as the center of authority by the employees and other family members. That is where you got called on the carpet, where you were informed of promotions, or where you took an insolvable problem. When a parent/CEO is handing off operating responsibility, there is often a lag, sometimes measured in years, between stepping back from the daily decisions and completely separating from the premises. There is great value in having that experience available for coaching, mentoring, or just to lend perspective on new problems, but where should they sit? Timing The question of the appropriate timing for an owner to surrender his or her seat of power can be sensitive. The retiree often worries about becoming irrelevant. The fear ofappearingirrelevant is just as strong. The boss’s office is a symbol. Often the owner who is stepping down would rather have no office at all rather than a smaller, less prestigious location. I’ve seen owners elect to use the conference room as their “temporary” post. That can create other issues of its own. Are scheduled meetings now subject to last-minute relocation if the boss (who will always be the boss, regardless of title transfers) commandeers it for his own use? Equally distracting is when the conference room is scheduled as before. Then the boss arrives planning to do some work and winds up wandering through the offices looking for a place to camp out. Perception The situation is exacerbated when multiple children are assuming ownership. Who getstheoffice? Parents often have a vision of equality among their children. Ricky will handle sales, Peter does the accounting, and Ellie takes care of inventory and purchasing. The three will make business decisions jointly. Regardless of voting rights, or any amount of explanation to the employees, one of the children will be perceived as functioning at a higher level of authority by assuming possession of the boss’s office. As in George Orwell’sAnimal Farm, all are equal, but some are more equal than others. Family Succession Planning Settling who gets the boss’s office is an important part of any transfer. Too often it is treated lightly, only to be more seriously addressed after the issues are recognized. The symbolism of moving offices is strong, and sends a message to everyone. In some cases, remodeling to change the whole office configuration may be the best solution. New drywall is a cheaper fix than lingering resentment among shareholders or confusion in the ranks. It’s often the little things in family succession planning that matter. One owner who was continuing in his office after his son was named President asked what he could do to make their shared space better reflect the change. “Well Dad, “the son responded, “maybe you could take down those pictures of our fishing trip when I was 11 years old.”   This article was originally published by John F. Dini, CBEC, CExP, CEPA on

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