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.
BEHOLD THE POWER of the deadline: it causes magazines to be published, political campaigns to be ended, and in the case of the Upsize Growth Challenge, ambitious business goals to be met.
Nominations are now open for our annual contest to match three winning business owners with advisers who can help them reach their goals. I invite you to complete the entry form for the Upsize Growth Challenge, presented by Clientek.
We’ll ask you to describe your company’s growth goal for 2007. In February we’ll select three winners based on the ambition and eomplexity of the goal and the quality of work already completed to meet it.
Those companies will meet with a group of experts at two workshops, the first in March where they’ll describe their goal. At the second workshop, in May, they’ll report their progress. And at a celebratory event in June, they’ll tell their stories to an audience and vie for votes to be named the overall champion. We’ll cover the works in two issues next year.
Past winners say there’s nothing like those three dates to focus their actions.
At the second workshop, when all ears wait to hear your progress report, you want to be sure you’ve made some. And at the public event, those winners who can clearly define milestones met stand out from the rest.
Craig Kruckeberg, president of Spray Control Systems and a 2006 winner, says he’s never gotten so much done in such a short period as when he entered the contest. He wanted to have something concrete to report when he met with the experts that second time.
Becky Lawrence, vice president of DeJarlais Enterprises and a 2005 winner, says the experts’ suggestions and especially their follow-up spurred her to create a new marketing campaign that led to a significant revenue surge.
Other winners have used the contest and its deadlines to close one store and open a new, roll out a nationwide franchising effort, call creditors and create a workable financial restructuring, create a management succession plan, and research and roll out a price increase
For many business owners, accountability is just what they need to rally their teams. Accountability is often lacking at small companies. Owners answer to themselves alone, perhaps, or maybe to a board that consists of sympathetic family members or supportive golf buddies.
What they need is a deadline and someone to hold them to it. Journalists know this all too well, and if they ever feel the scorn of the city editor because they missed a deadline, they’ll never repeat the mistake. Politicians, too, benefit from a firm deadline: They’ll give their all until election day and then it’s over.
I encourage all business owners to put accountability into their business plans by entering the Upsize Growth Challenge. There’s a deadline to file a nomination form, naturally: January 15.
— Beth Ewen
editor and co-founder
Upsize Minnesota
be***@*******ag.com
