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Knowledge is power. Imagine what you could do with 24-hour access to a powerful learning community to help you stay up to date with the latest trends, insights, news, and best practices to share with your valued private company clients.  XPX – Exit Planning Exchange’s exclusive Knowledge Exchange is the one place where you can access and share knowledge with some of the middle market’s most successful professionals with expertise in a wide variety of areas.

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ERTC Enforcement and Withdrawing a Claim The Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) was introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic as a tax incentive for businesses to keep employees on their payroll. To qualify, a business must have suffered financially or experienced operational disruptions because of COVID restrictions. Even though it has since expired, it’s still possible for…

Homogeneity among your leadership team is like a decadent creamy chocolate cake: it feels tempting, but when you resist it, you get in much better shape. Increasing diversity on your leadership team leads to better decisions – and better financial results. However we have a natural tendency to surround ourselves with people similar to us:…

Purpose after the sale is one of the biggest challenges for an exiting owner. Purpose – “Having as one’s intention or objective.” Many exit planning advisors discuss the three legs of the exit planning stool – business readiness, financial readiness and personal readiness. In our previous two articles, we focused on two of the “big…

Introduction Running a small business is like navigating through different seasons – there are sunny days full of triumph, and then there are stormy days that test our resilience. One key factor that can make a world of difference in weathering any storm is having the right team members by your side. Just like bad…

At our February Cross-Chapter Power Networking session, we introduced a new format aptly named “Ask the Cross-Chapter Experts”. Our facilitator, XPX Nashville member, Lisa Kaufman, a sell-side M&A advisor to family-owned businesses called on 5 members (herself included) to present their “Current Client/Deal Challenge” to the group. Fellow members then became the “experts” providing input and possible resolutions for one of…

  In our last article about life after the sale we discussed identity. Even when business owners are comfortable with who they are, however, there is still the nuts and bolts issue of activity. A business owner spends 20, 30, or (not uncommonly with Boomers,) 40 years focused on running a business. Unless they’ve built a substantial…

Work from anywhere has been a necessity, an epithet, an obstacle, and an opportunity over the last 3 years. To paraphrase Aristotle’s axiom about Nature (“Horror Vacui”), business abhors a vacuum. Where one occurs, it is quickly filled. Work from anywhere started as a COVID-induced necessity. During the lockdowns of 2020-2021 (and longer in some…

The Annual Government Contractor Awards celebrate Small Emerging Contractors Advisory Forum (SECAF) members and other government contracting organizations that have demonstrated a commitment to industry excellence. Award categories showcase companies of all sizes, plus key projects and outstanding executives. Your clients and exit prospects  in the GovCon industry can benefit from the exposure that comes…

Please join us on February 29 for our 20th annual Cocktails and Conversations program, presented by the Women’s Network of Miles & Stockbridge and featuring Brooke Lierman — the 34th Comptroller of the state of Maryland and the first woman to be independently elected to one of our state’s constitutional offices. We’ll kick off Women’s…

Yesterday, Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law The Clean Slate Act (S.7551A/A.1029C) with an effective date of November 16, 2024. The law will seal certain criminal records following an individual’s release from incarceration: eligible misdemeanor convictions will be sealed three years after release, and eligible felony convictions will be sealed eight years after release –…

Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a worrisome trend of employees disengaging from their work. Sometimes dubbed “quiet quitting,” this trend has sent ripple effects throughout business organizations across the country. To understand this problem, it’s first important to understand what employee engagement means. Generally, this term is used to denote team members…

In the fast-paced landscape of today’s organizations, the missing link that often separates successful ventures from mediocre ones is trust. Trust is the glue that binds leaders with their stakeholders, creating an environment where collaboration thrives, innovation flourishes, and everyone feels valued. To bridge this trust gap, we propose a formula that encapsulates the essence…

As we noted in Part 1, finding people with the right strengths is important to help your business grow and succeed.  As you integrate the right engagement structures to ensure that your people will stay with your company for the long term, we want to explain the importance of onboarding in exit planning. We call…

As a long-time business consultant and value growth advisor to middle-market companies, I frequently met business owners who didn’t recognize the urgency to plan for an eventual business ownership transition.  Such business owners commonly find themselves catastrophically unprepared when the time comes to sell their business, costing them millions of dollars in lost value.  I…

Incite Creative Celebrates 24 Years as an Outsourced CMO Trailblazer As the business world looks forward to a fresh start, hiring challenges at the C-level will carry over from 2023 and include additional demands, shedding new light on the value of fractional Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs). Incite Creative, a Maryland-based marketing advisory firm, introduced its outsourced CMO…

Life after the sale is often both the most important and most neglected factor in exit planning. Although (according to two different surveys in 2013 and 2022,) 75% of owners report regrets or unhappiness a year after the transition, exit plans continue to be constructed primarily around financial targets. In the event you haven’t heard…

The national trend to protect temporary Laborers continues. This past August, Illinois passed legislation that expanded its Day and Temporary Labor Services Act. The amendment became effective on August 4, 2023 (immediately upon its signing). The Trend New Jersey, California, and Illinois have all passed laws that provide protections to temporary Laborers. Among the varied…

Planning an optimal business sale requires careful consideration and understanding of various sale options and structures, as well as a thorough understanding of the sales’s effect on the business owner’s personal financial planning. Many owners leave money on the table during a sale while they stay focused on growing their business or finding the right…

As a business owner, it’s important to start planning for your eventual exit from the company as early as you can. Whether you plan to sell the business, pass it down to family, or find new leadership, how well you onboard new managers and prepare your successors plays a key role in a smooth transition….

BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP INFORMATION REPORTING CORPORATE TRANSPARENCY ACT SUMMARY One of the unique and often attractive features of a Limited Liability Company can be anonymity.  In most states, formation and registration of an LLC does not require disclosure of the owners or officers.  For various reasons, legitimate and not so legitimate, the owners of a business…

Attention New York employers: On November 17, 2023, Governor Hochul signed S4516 into law, amending Section 5-336 of the General Obligations Law (“GOL”), commonly known as New York’s #MeToo statute. The amendment significantly changes the terms permissible in settlement agreements for claims relating to discrimination, harassment, or retaliation. As of the effective date, November 17,…

A Guide to the New 2023 SBA SOP Written by Live Oak Bank The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has implemented two Procedural Notices and new Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), which contain significant changes to the 7(a) and 504 lending programs. The 7(a) is the flagship program when financing change of ownership opportunities. We’re breaking…

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