Preparing to exit your business the right way, with Ryan Tansom

Episode 935

Ryan Tansom became a business junkie early in life as he watched his father grow a small technology company into one of the market leaders in Minneapolis. He joined Imaging Path full-time during the financial crisis when the business was in rough shape. Ryan started in sales and eventually worked his way up to Executive VP after helping turn the distressed company into a profitable B2B technology provider.

In 2014, he and his dad decided to sell their business to a local competitor for a multitude of reasons. The exit process was an unexpectedly difficult undertaking, but the lessons that were learned have proven to be invaluable and he has taken his experience into multiple business ventures.

Ryan is now a serial entrepreneur, podcast host of The Intentional Growth Podcast, Co-Founder of ARKONA, speaker and soon to be author. He has devoted every waking minute since the sale helping owners grow and exit their companies by developing a framework that guides entrepreneurs through the process.

What you will learn from this episode:

• How Ryan inherited his father’s entrepreneurial bug, and how he learned firsthand the importance of proper exit planning
• What particular factors help make a business salable, and why 80% of businesses have glaring weaknesses that make them unsellable
• Why buyers assume significant risk when buying an existing business, and why outside factors can quickly devalue a business after a new owner comes in
• Why research shows that 75% of business owners who do successfully sell their businesses are unhappy and regret the sale twelve months later
• Why it is important for business owners to be clear on how they personally define success for themselves and their companies
• Why knowing what your business is worth today and what it will need to be worth to give you financial freedom when you sell it is vital
• How each exit option has a direct impact on the value, how much money you will get up front vs. over time, and what relationship you will have with the business post closing
• Why creating a stable, predictable and transferable cash flow for your business is the key to increasing its value, and why you need a team of advisors to help you sell
• Ryan explains the difference between “two-dimensional thinking” and “three-dimensional thinking”
• Why you need to see improvements to your business as a worthwhile investment, and what steps you can take to shift your thinking about your business

Resources:

• Website: www.gexpcollaborative.com
• Intentional Growth Podcast
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-tansom-4a440710/
• Mastering Your Cash Flow (mini-course)

Additional Resources:

• Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
• Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
• Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/