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Guests: Saman Samii and Mitch Slater from UBS Wealth Management. Saman and Mitch have guided founders through countless liquidity events and helped them navigate one of the most emotionally charged transitions in business: from business owner to living off the proceeds after your BIG exit.
Overview: Sometimes in the life of an entrepreneur, Making BIG Happen is the easy part. Years of meticulous planning and exceptional leadership bring their company to a successful sale. But then they realize that they haven’t put the same level of preparation into what happens after the transaction closes and the money hits their account.
On today’s show, Saman Samii and Mitch Slater discuss how to prepare yourself emotionally, financially, and structurally for the BIG moment when most of your net worth suddenly becomes liquid.
Saman Samii on managing the first 90 days after an exit:
“The first stage is what we call the ‘stabilization stage.’ We make sure the cash is safe. Just let it just sit for three to six months, sometimes even longer. It depends on the family. There’s been a lot of stress, a lot of complexity. Doing an M&A deal is not easy. A lot of times they fail, so if you’ve had a successful one, you’ve done something good. Let’s make sure the taxes are paid for. Liabilities are clear. Let’s just clean out your life a little bit. Let’s get to know your outside team. Let’s get to know all the specialists. Let’s just get all the relationships in order so that we’re the main quarterback. Let’s simplify your financial life. Let’s get that in order so everyone knows all the sets of facts and circumstances. Then we start to build a real framework, translating all this into a family business plan. And then we start to define liquidity buckets: what stays liquid, what actually becomes invested long term, what needs to be protected. We coordinate the trusts, the insurance, the estate structure. Are they philanthropic? All of that stuff comes under one umbrella. And then we start to have family conversations.”
Mitch Slater on the importance of structure:
“It’s really the structure that makes sure that everyone understands the plan. Who’s going to lead? Who will own how decisions get made? Making sure that family relationships stay intact during what can be a very emotional, high-stakes transition. And then, of course, making sure the owner’s vision and legacy are protected. I think that’s so critical. Even if leadership or ownership is changing, you want to try to prevent conflict as much as you can so that the business remains stable throughout the exit. And that’s why we bring in as many specialists that we can that can help in this arena. As a firm, certainly we have so much experience doing this. We have the flexibility and the luxury of having all of these professionals that can truly help.”
Saman Samii on avoiding “founder’s whiplash”:
“For 20, 30 years, every decision, every burst of adrenaline was tied to their business. And all of a sudden there’s that silence. The phone stops ringing. The calendar used to be stacked. It’s done with, and so it’s what we call ‘founder’s whiplash.’ You sold the company, but you’ve also sold the rhythm of your life. So we’re almost like psychologists at that point. We’re trying to make sense of it all. One of our pet peeves is when entrepreneurs don’t bring us in until the very end, and then they get hit by this big shock factor. The ones that do bring us in, we can show them a lot of the best practices. We’re going to make sure your cash is safe, taxes are set aside, liabilities are clear. We’re going to align all this stuff. But if they don’t bring us in, they might get hit with a big tax bill. There’s a lot of complexity involved and so we try to tone it down for them. But it really is up to the entrepreneur.”
Links:
6 Keys to a BIG Exit – At a recent Make BIG Happen Summit, three of our BIGGEST success stories took the stage in Miami and delivered master classes on the vision, strategy, and commitment that CEOs need to bring their businesses across the finish line.
The 3 Provocative Questions That Led to a $170 Million Exit – These questions can help you completely reinvent your company, and ensure you stay one step ahead of any competitor or new technology that could threaten your business.
Leadership Lounge – Listen to Saman Samii and Mitch Slater’s podcast.
About CEO Coaching International
CEO Coaching International works with CEOs and their leadership teams to achieve extraordinary results quarter after quarter, year after year. Known globally for its success in coaching growth-focused entrepreneurs to meaningful exits, the firm has coached more than 1,500+ CEOs and entrepreneurs across 100+ industries and 60 countries. Its coaches—former CEOs, presidents, and executives—have led businesses ranging from startups to over $10 billion, driving double-digit sales and profit growth, many culminating in eight, nine, or ten-figure exits.
Companies that have worked with CEO Coaching International for two years or more have achieved an average revenue CAGR of 25.9%, nearly 3X the U.S. average, and an average EBITDA CAGR of 39.2%, more than 4X the national benchmark.
Discover how coaching can transform your leadership journey at ceocoachinginternational.com.
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