IAM2391 – Founder Helps Business Owners with Growth and for a Smooth Business Exit

Renita Wolf is the founder of Poe Wolf Partners, a consulting firm focused on helping mid-market businesses with growth and operational improvements.

Renita specializes in business exit planning, focusing on presale preparation to ensure companies are well-prepared before approaching potential buyers or investors.

Renita emphasizes the importance of advance preparation—giving clients time to shore up any weaknesses and get their businesses ready for sale.

Her unique approach lies in simplifying complex business processes and breaking down information into understandable terms for her clients.

Renita advocates entrepreneurs to build a sustainable business with positive cash flow, and to create value and significance in their work.

Website: Poe Wolf Partners

LinkedIn: Renita Wolf, MBA

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Transcription:

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Renita Wolf Teaser 00:00

I ventured off and started my own business helping owners prepare for their exit. Because I see most business owners, many don't think ahead about when they will exit their company and unfortunately most owners simply close down shop.

It's over 80% of business owners just walk away. So I said how could I help and make a difference? So using my experience in corporate doing mergers and acquisitions.

Intro 00:30

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:56

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have an awesome guest on the show today. I have Renita Wolf. Renita, excited to have you on.

Renita Wolf 01:04

Thank you. I've been looking forward to our conversation.

Gresham Harkless 01:07

Yes, I've been looking forward to it as well too. And Renita is doing so many awesome things that I'm super excited to kind of course delve in.

But before we do that, I have to read a little bit more about Renita so you can hear about some of those awesome things she's been working on.

And Renita is the founder of Poe Wolf Partners, a boutique consulting firm serving mid market businesses to define and implement business growth and operational improvement strategies.

Renita specializes in business exit planning, focusing on pre-sale preparation to ensure companies are well prepared before approaching potential buyers or investors.

And before Poe Wolf Partners, she held CFO and senior finance positions with Fortune 50 and smaller technology companies.

Her responsibilities included overseeing acquisition, valuation, due diligence and integration for technology, manufacturing and financial service businesses.

One of the things that I absolutely love about Renita when I was preparing for this is a lot of times it's the seven habits that are highly effective people.

You need to begin with the end in mind and often we will forget about that when we're thinking about our business.

But I love one of the things I read that she really is passionate about is being an advocate so that people can exit on their own terms and get the reward for their hard work.

So many times we pour our blood, sweat and tears and everything else into the business and sometimes we don't get what we should get at the end of that.

So I love that you make that happen Renita. And she's also numerous accolades including Business of the Year Award for the Southern Colorado Women's Chamber of Commerce and so many other things she's doing.

So Renita, excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Renita Wolf 02:38

Yes, I am. I'm excited. Thank you.

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Gresham Harkless 02:40

Absolutely. Well, let's get it started then. So to kind of kick everything off, let's rewind the clock. Hear a little bit more on how you got started when I call your CEO story.

Renita Wolf 02:48

Well, how I got started, you mentioned my bio and I do specialize in pre sell exit planning for business owners and how I started my business.

After my corporate career, I looked back and I said how did I end up here? And one of the things that came top of mind, I was raised in a family of entrepreneurs.

These were business small business owners, aunts, uncles, and both of my parents had their own businesses and they used their business to support their family.

So it was like I said, a small business. And then I ended up in corporate because I was the first one in my family to go to college.

And at that time in my life that was the best way to have a good career and be successful in business.

But I always had that desire to really be an entrepreneur. So when it was time for me to leave my corporate career, I ventured off and started my own business.

Helping owners prepare for their exit. Because I see most business owners, many don't think ahead about when they will exit their company.

And unfortunately most owners simply close down shops. It's over 80% of business owners just walk away.

So I said how could I help and make a difference? So using my experience in corporate, doing mergers and acquisitions, I bring all that corporate finance and experience doing the valuations.

And the things that you introduced me with in the introduction, I don't need to go through that again.

But bringing it to smaller businesses. I'm really passionate about this point in my life where I can help business owners.

Gresham Harkless 04:32

Yeah, absolutely. And I appreciate you so much in everything that you're doing. And so I wanted to drill down a little bit more and hear a little bit more on like how you work with your clients, how that process works.

It sounds like a lot might happen from that initial conversation, but how does that process kind of work?

Renita Wolf 04:46

One of the things that I do, I look at five areas when and drill down and get information from the owners about those.

One is strategy, how diversified their business is and the different things that they're doing. So high level, strategic.

But I also look at their employees and their organizational structure and who may be able to take over the company or where they have gaps, things that could be made better customers, making sure they understand their customer concentration, that it's not just a few or a handful of customers that keep the business going.

And just those areas are the things I look at. And there's a few more, but I won't go through all of them.

But really, as I said, simplifying the process and asking the right questions and following a format so that the owner can see that yes, they do have the answers to these questions and then we can also identify gaps. So maybe something's not quite where it should be.

So for example, I look at operations. Do they have standard operating procedures in place that if they were not there, someone else could come in and pick up the business?

Do they have intellectual property covered? One of the things I find many small business in particular are sole proprietors and service based business.

So something I hopefully bring people's awareness to is there's a way to protect their intellectual property.

Like I indicated, I've trademarked my process. Other business owners may have things that they do that are unique to their company that they could get trademarked, copyrighted, written and then also licensed.

So for example, if somebody were a speaker and they presented and they ended up training employees within a large corporations, they could take that training that they've developed as long as they own it.

And they could license it and teach other trainers to deliver that training. That's just an example of what I'm talking about to make it a little bit more concrete for people who maybe may be listening.

Gresham Harkless 07:07

Yeah, and I appreciate you making that, concrete because I think again, just people being able to understand and I almost wonder if this is part of what I would like to call your secret sauce.

Could be for yourself, the business, or a combination of both. But like you mentioned, like being able to kind of, for lack of a better term, kind of simplify or be able to make it understandable for people.

Do you feel like you be able to understand the complexities but be able to kind of meet people where they are as part of this secret sauce and what sets you apart and makes you unique?

Renita Wolf 07:35

I feel like I am an advocate for business owners because I do bring that corporate experience and how I've been on the other side of the table and know how they show up.

And for many owners, most owners it would be they do one transaction, whereas somebody buying a business or if they're doing larger transactions, they may have a lot of experience in this area.

So I understand that and bring that to my clients. And that's part of the simplification but also taking this holistic approach. Many of the experts in the area I work are focused on just particular pieces of the transaction.

When someone's looking at selling a business, and I describe it as an ecosystem because many people are involved in, people who don't work in this space may be a little confused about what that means.

So for example, when you go to sell your business, you say I'm ready to take it to market. Usually that's at the end, toward the end.

And that's when a business broker would become involved. And typically transactions less than $10 million and less.

And if it's a little bit bigger, private equity may be brought in because there's more people interested in a little bit larger companies.

So the broker is and the private equity are involved at the end. However, I'm more toward the middle.

When an owner has a business that's going and they want to get it ready and prepare ahead of time and have about.

Like I said, optimally three years to prepare so they could identify a second in command, they could start putting in some operating procedures, they could make sure all of their contracts would be acceptable.

And that meaning that for example, that they would be transferable to a new owner if they were to sell their company.

Because they may have contracts, but maybe they've signed a contract with the vendor that says the contract is non transferable.

So it would give them time to start getting some things fixed before they get to the transaction.

And I even say if they're not able to get them fixed, they know what those things are. So they know where those potholes are in those problem areas that could exist in their business. So they're aware of it.

Meaning also to build trust with a potential investor or buyer of their business, they can disclose those early on knowing say yes, we realize we have weaknesses in these areas because you want to have trust in that relationship.

And that's something I think people who aren't in the business don't fully appreciate. Maybe even people in the business, some may even disagree with me.

But a buyer has to feel comfortable that they can achieve their return on investment when they buy that business because it is a business transaction.

And if there's something that is going to potentially be a risk to the business, it's good to disclose that ahead of time.

And you definitely do not want to be in the middle of due diligence. This is after someone said, yes, I'm very interested in your business.

Now show me all your records. They've signed non disclosure agreements months and start going through all of, all of the things and all the details and if they find it on their own they go, oh, this, we weren't anticipating this.

So you could see how trust could potentially dissipate as you're in the middle of a transaction and you spent a lot of time and then you would have to take it back to market if things were to fall through.

Gresham Harkless 11:09

Absolutely. Well, truly appreciate that. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack.

So this could be like an app, a book or even a habit that you had. But what's something you lean on that makes you more effective and efficient?

Renita Wolf 11:24

And the thing that's helped me the most is any book by Daniel Priestley. He's from Australia and he now lives in London and he's the CEO of Dent Global.

And he has lots of books, probably about five. But there are things around how to be a key person of influence, how to build your brand.

He talks about building assets in your business and he has a book, 24 assets. So this will get your listeners thinking about oh yes, that might be something that could go along with the sell. I wasn't thinking of it like that.

And then over subscribed is one of his other books and what I like about all of his books and he has a few more is he just cuts to the chase. It's not.

We don't have to read through the theory, we don't have to read through too much of the backstory and he just offers direct actionable things that you can get started in your business.

Because as I mentioned when I launched, I was a small business owner then and having to figure it out and I spent a lot of time reading things that yes, they had nuggets in them, but he puts it all in one place pretty much.

Gresham Harkless 12:38

Yeah, absolutely. So the 80% definitely we need it to listen up, to make sure that we are preparing ourselves as much as possible.

So you might have already touched on this, but what would you consider to be a little bit more of a CEO nugget?

So this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice to say it might be something you would tell your favorite client or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your.

Renita Wolf 12:56

Younger business self, build a successful business because if the business is not sustainable, all this other stuff doesn't matter.

So you need to have a successful business and making sure you're generating positive cash flow. Bigger than that.

I really encourage and try to bring this perspective to entrepreneurs of create value and significance in their world.

Because I think being an entrepreneur, it's an honorable thing. It's not in the press and in the public eye.

It may not always be perceived that way, but I really feel passionate about this because entrepreneurs build something that's of lasting importance.

So they've taken care of their family, as I mentioned earlier, my family of entrepreneurs, they've taken care of their customers, made sure they've delivered what they want and value and been of benefit to them and also their employees.

Gresham Harkless 13:54

Absolutely. So I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition, what it means to be a CEO.

And our goal is to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So, Renita, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Renita Wolf 14:06

Well, I equate being a CEO to leadership. Leadership to me means living my core values. So since I was able to start my own business helping entrepreneurs.

I said, what are the things that are most important to me and how can I make sure those are always top of mind and that I'm leading and behaving in a way that furthers those values?

And for me, those things are empowerment. So this simplifying things so that entrepreneurs can understand and be in control of their own exit, so they can exit on their terms, and then integrity.

We talked a little bit about it on due diligence, making sure we fully disclosed all of the kind of the skeletons in the closet. It's just an example of integrity, inclusivity.

And I say that in the context of simplicity because on the outside this can look really confusing and off putting to people.

So making sure that people are comfortable with it who normally may not have been included in thinking of ways that they could exit their business and people may be able to help them do that.

And then at the end of the day, accountability, all this doesn't matter if you're not actually delivering on your promise.

Gresham Harkless 15:23

So truly appreciate that, Renita. And I appreciate your time as well. So what I wanted to do now was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you want to let our readers and listeners know.

And of course how best people can get a hold of you, find about all the awesome things that you're working on.

Renita Wolf 15:39

One of the things that I offer, and I think even if someone's early in their business by doing this, that might be helpful. It's a free exit ready assessment. It's just 26 questions with yes and no answers and they can find that it's on my website.

But the URL it's poewolfpartners.com/ready. So it's POEWOLFPARTNERS.com/ready. And there's also other things, free resources on my website as well.

Gresham Harkless 16:13

Absolutely. Well, I truly appreciate that, Renita. Of course, to make it even easier, we're going to have that link and information in the show notes as well too. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Renita Wolf 16:22

You're welcome. And thanks for having me today as your guest. I appreciate that.

Outro 16:25

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community.

Want to level up your business even more? Read blogs, listen to podcasts and watch watch videos at CBNation.co. Also check out our I Am CEO Facebook group. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

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