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.
It’s a sickening feeling, and one I first experienced paging through Glamour magazine back in the day. No, I never should have worn gauchos, not to mention culottes, and I know that now.
No, I never should have worn a vertical-striped red and white jumpsuit, even though (especially because?) I sewed it myself.
No, I never should have worn elephant-leg jeans with platform shoes, which made my 5-foot-10 teenaged self look like a walking tent with a pin head.
But that was then and this is now, and I can’t imagine today I’m committing any fashion faux pas. (Instagram photos, which my daughter loves to take of my most embarrassing moments, notwithstanding.)
What I know for sure, I’ll admit, is on the business side of things, Upsize has been known to make a mistake or two.
That shouldn’t be the case. We have access to so many entrepreneurs and expert advisers, all of whom we interview for each issue, giving us their best practices and their tips to avoid. If anyone should be in a position to glean the best and discard the rest, it should be the plucky management team at Upsize.
But there I was at the Upsize/Club E workshop late last year, listening to tips from an expert panel about “Avoiding the Avoidable,” how to NOT make the common mistakes that trip up business owners. We’ve shared some highlights from those experts in this issue, in hopes all of us can learn from our collective missteps.
But as I sat and listened, and panelists checked off their lists of don’ts, I couldn’t help but cringe a bit
Big data? said one expert panelist, Tom Siders of L. Harris Partners. “How about bad data. Bad data means the clients over-estimate their revenue, under-estimate their expenses, fail to recognize they’re about to have a cash-flow implosion.”
There have been a fair number of those in the history of Upsize, I admit, and I kept thinking “check” and “check” as panelists made their lists. Despite all the great advice in the world, the problem is that we humans learn by doing, both what to do and what not to do (or in the case of clothing mishaps, we learn by seeing.).
But the good news, for Upsize and any other business that has made it so far, is we’re also doing some “do’s” as well, and when things are clicking the latter outweigh the former. And we’re seldom doing the same “don’ts” more than once, although admittedly the trouble is, there are just so many don’ts to do.
Being an eternal optimist, I’m going to glance at the don’ts in this issue, but then turn my attention to all of the do’s, the tips from both our expert panelists, and most especially from our Upsize Business Builder Awards finalists and our Upsize Business Builder of the Year, B&F Fastener Supply. They share their best practices for all growing firms, and it’s an inspiring list for sure.
Follow their lead, and let 2016 be a year of do’s, not don’ts.
Beth Ewen
Editor and co-founder
Upsize Minnesota
be***@*******ag.com
