Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
Although many see 1999 as the year that technology firms took a dive, it’s the year that Chip Pearson started his Minneapolis-based consulting company, The Foundation.
“I walked into my corporate job and quit,” Pearson says. “I just had reached my limit and decided that my talents would be better used elsewhere, though I didn’t know where that was.”
The Foundation provides IT consulting services to creative industries such as graphic design, advertising and architecture, and resells hardware and software products. Annual revenue is about $1 million.
How’s he surviving in two tough business sectors?
Pearson says many companies are looking for outsourced labor in an attempt to trim their staff budgets. Also, The Foundation’s employees have worked in the IT departments of several large companies and are used to dealing with large-company IT problems, as well as those of mid-sized companies.
“Those folks can take advantage of the big-level thinking without necessarily having an IT staff. They can do it cafeteria style,” picking and choosing the services they want, Pearson says.
Pearson sees the timing of his company’s 1999 start as advantageous. “We kind of got in place pretty early,” he says. “Now a lot of people who are getting laid off are trying to go out and start consulting” in a flooded market.
Defining a niche early has also been helpful, Pearson says. The staff, which consists of six full-time employees and 12 to 15 contractors, has expertise in the areas of graphic design, advertising, commercial printing and architecture, among others.
Chip Pearson, The Foundation: 612.486.5610; in**@***tn.com; www.fndtn.com
