Introducing Mindy Jones CPA, CVA

Introducing Mindy Jones CPA.CVA

How do you decide what’s next for your life and business? For many entrepreneurs, we are entering the next stage in our careers and lives. We’ve successfully build our businesses and we are starting to make decisions that not only impact us and our families, but also the people we work with and our communities. So what are our best options?

There are many choices for us to consider. We have trusted advisors that we’ve worked with for many years, but most have limited experience in dealing with the area of exit and succession planning. In the past 12 months, I’ve had many of my baby boomer clients begin discussions on what’s next and how to put together a plan for the rest of their lives.

In publicly traded companies, these decisions fall to the CEOs and boards. As part of good governance, succession plans are created and filed away waiting for the day they are implemented. I’ve written many succession plans for clients in partnership with these individuals and their teams. Depending on the leader it can be easy or hard, but larger, public company leaders know this must be done. Stockholders demand it and most are beginning to comply.

Over the next several years, many of my best clients will retire as the next generation of leadership steps in. This brings new challenges to the organization, but most CEOs know how important succession planning is.  I make my living working with these CEOs and their teams to create exit and succession strategies and yet over 50% of companies don’t have a succession plan they could put in place tomorrow. As a result, I see many signs that there will be additional regulation put in place to insure compliance as baby boomer leaders begin to retire in larger numbers.

Private mid-market and family businesses have more of a challenge. There are more factors to consider and, in my opinion, require specialized skills to deal with all the factors required to have succession happen successfully. In many cases, there are family members involved and financial considerations to be evaluated to put together a plan for the rest of our lives. With good preparation and strategy, private companies CEOs are able to achieve their shared goals for a successful passing of the torch to the next generation of leadership. There are many options to go through and many ways of structuring a successful exit.

Since many of our readers our going through this, I’ve asked an expert to put together a series of blogs for Monday afternoons for the next several weeks.  I’ve asked an exit planning expert to share her experiences with you so that you can begin preparing your own succession strategies. For the next several weeks, we will have Money Mondays with Mindy Jones. I’ve worked with Mindy over the past year, talking with and working on different strategies to help our clients go through the succession and exit process. She has more extensive background in doing this for privately held businesses than me and brings a strong financial background to the conversation. I can’t think of a better person to help you work through these issues than my friend, Mindy Jones. She brings a unique combination of strong business skills with creativity to help you develop a successful plan for your succession and exit. She brings a strong network of professionals who are committed to helping you reach your personal and financial goals. I’d like to share her background with you today, and her first series of blogs starts next week.

Mindy Jones  was raised in Oklahoma by a family of business owners and farmers. Mindy Jones developed an early appreciation for the pioneer spirit and entrepreneurship. She believes one of the greatest liberties available to the American people is to start a business and achieve financial freedom from their efforts. Her consulting practice is focused on her unique method to guide successful business owners to understand what their business is worth, how to grow value, how to limit taxes when they are ready to exit, and create a legacy of their choosing. Mindy’s a CPA and a business valuation expert (CVA). She holds both an MBA and a Masters in Taxation, and is the author of the Small Business Crusader blog. Contact Mindy via her website.

Next Monday will be the first blog in a series of the Money Monday Blogs with Mindy Jones. See you here next Monday Afternoon.