*What happens to your business when you step away, or worse, can’t come back? 

In this episode of Executive Connect, host Melissa Aarskaug sits down with Lowell Mora, fractional CFO and founder of Impact CFO, to talk about the silent risks that cause nearly half of family-owned businesses to fail within two years of the founder’s exit.

Lowell shares what most owners get wrong about succession planning, the trap of customer concentration, and why keeping total control can actually destroy the value you’ve worked so hard to build. You’ll also hear real-world strategies for preparing your business for sale, transitioning to the next generation, and using capital wisely to protect your legacy.

This is a must-listen for any business owner who’s built something great, but hasn’t built a plan for what’s next.

Chapters:

(0:27) The harsh truth: 50% of family businesses fail post-founder

(2:08) Lowell’s journey from CPA to exit expert

(6:16) Why so few businesses prepare for the founder’s exit

(8:09) Top two value-killers: weak management & customer concentration

(12:09) What buyers expect, and why you’re probably not ready

(17:04) “Debt-free” sounds good, but may hurt you more

(23:07) Are you running a business, or just holding a job?

(27:51) Letting go: how to pass the torch the right way

(34:32) What happens if you get hit by a bus?

(36:01) The power of planning: personal and professional alignment

(38:54) Final thoughts: Don’t wait for a crisis to make a plan

Lowell

(0:00) So what’s happening is it’s not even that they’re not increasing value, they’re destroying value because they’re not focusing on the business and you have to have these hard conversations. (0:12) Some people are going to just look at you and tell you you’re a jerk and they’re going to walk away, but that’s how you find out who are the people that you want to work with.

Melissa

(0:20) What happens to a family-owned business when the founder retires or passes away? (0:27) Spoiler alert, nearly half don’t survive the next two years. (0:33) On today’s Executive Connect podcast, we’re joined by Lau Mora, a seasoned fractional CFO who’s helped countless mid-sized businesses face that exact reality and actually win.

(0:48) With experience across manufacturing, packaging, and the industrial sector, Lau brings a sharp financial lens to decisions that make or break a company’s future. (1:00) If you’re running a business that feels more like a legacy than a job, this one’s for you. (1:07) Let’s talk strategy, succession, and how to turn your company from an income stream into a lasting asset.

(1:15) Welcome, Lau.

Lowell

(1:17) Thanks. (1:18) Thanks for having me, Melissa. (1:20) And that’s how you say my name in Texas, Lau, right?

(1:23) Lowell, but it’s okay.

Melissa

(1:25) I love that you said that because I totally hate getting people’s names wrong.

Lowell

(1:30) It’s like- It’s no big deal. (1:32) Don’t ask me to say your last name because I would get that wrong for sure.

Melissa

(1:36) Yeah, exactly. (1:38) Now, I love your background. (1:40) It’s packed with high-level financial leadership across a range of industries like rail car leasing, telecom, food packaging, you name it.

(1:55) What pulled you towards serving as a fractional CFO and how has your hands-on approach evolved through the years in your career?

Lowell

(2:08) Yeah. (2:08) Well, it’s a kind of a long story. (2:11) I know I look like I’m about 27, but I’m not.

(2:14) So I’ve been at this for many, many years and kind of evolved from being, you know, started out as your typical, came out of college as a CPA, worked for Arthur Anderson as an auditor for a few years. (2:29) Knew I wasn’t going to do that forever. (2:31) Worked for a couple really large publicly traded manufacturing businesses.

(2:36) Knew that that, found out that wasn’t for me. (2:39) Too much bureaucracy, not enough creativity, not enough autonomy. (2:42) Got my MBA.

(2:44) And then right around 2000, I started working for family-owned businesses. (2:48) So over the next 25 years or so, I worked for five different family-owned businesses. (2:56) You know, when you are a CFO for family-owned business in the range of 50 to $250 million in sales, you get to wear all the hats in the business, right?

(3:05) You’re not just the bean counting financial guy. (3:08) You’re a part of the strategic team. (3:10) I’ve been responsible over my career, not only finance, HR, IT, customer service, supply chain, logistics, operations.

(3:17) You get to do it all. (3:19) I kept getting new opportunities. (3:21) And it ended up that the last two businesses that I worked for full-time were both third-generation family-owned businesses.

(3:29) And I was able to help them to successful external exits. (3:34) Extremely rewarding, but that puts you right back kind of into the same grinder that you were before. (3:40) The first one we sold to a strategic business, huge strategic business.

(3:44) So I left there, got recruited to the other one. (3:46) We sold that into the private equity world. (3:49) Private equity world at this point in my career isn’t exactly where I want to spend the rest of my career.

(3:57) So I decided to start my own fractional firm. (4:02) And really what it enables me to do is help that pool of the population that you talked about. (4:07) It’s really family-owned businesses that aren’t necessarily planning for their transitions or their exit plans.

(4:16) And you hit my number one statistic, which was nearly 50% of them are ending up in bankruptcy within two years of the death of the founder or the retirement. (4:25) They’re just not ready for it. (4:27) And so my business model is, well, I’m not a bleeding heart altruist working for free.

(4:34) I’d rather help a wider swath of the population. (4:38) So not only those families that are selling the businesses, but all the other stakeholders in the business, primarily the employees of those businesses. (4:46) So it gives me pretty good satisfaction to do that.

(4:50) I get to work with people that share my core values and my whole system is based on my core values. (4:58) It’s pretty straightforward. (5:00) Act with integrity, say what you’re going to do and do it, and help people along in a humble way.

(5:07) And that’s what I do. (5:09) So it’s great fun and I’m really enjoying doing it. (5:14) And it gives me a lot of flexibility.

(5:16) Once you’ve put your long, hard time in working for people, kind of nice at the end to, not at the end, at the further end. (5:25) It also gives me the ability to do this for quite a long time. (5:28) I want to do this for another 15 or 20 years, and it gives me the ability to do it in a way that is rewarding.

Melissa

(5:37) I love it. (5:38) Thanks so much for sharing that. (5:39) I find that we often learn the most by what mistakes and some of the hidden risks have happened in our life.

(5:48) So I want to talk a little bit about the hidden risks in family-owned businesses. (5:53) Now, I’ve found this statistic. (5:56) You tell me if it’s correct, not correct.

(5:58) There are over 30 million small businesses in the United States and many of them are family-owned, but stats show that nearly half go bankrupt within two years of the founder’s death, which you just said here. (6:16) So why is proactive planning such a blind spot? (6:22) And really, how can that be done differently for the heirs of the family that are working in that business?

(6:29) Ready to lead smarter and invest wiser? (6:32) On the Executive Connect podcast, we unpack executive strategies for wealth and influence. (6:39) Hit the subscribe button now.

(6:42) Don’t just watch, act.

Lowell

(6:43) It’s really an interesting dynamic going on because there’s a dichotomy going on between, let’s call it the baby boomers, and then the people that are a little younger than that. (6:56) So I fall into being one of the oldest Gen Xers, right? (7:00) And the baby boomers have been taught and drilled into their head, you work until you die.

(7:07) They were raised by depression era mentality people. (7:10) And you just keep doing, you work and you work and you work. (7:14) And a lot of them can’t imagine what they would do or their life without that business.

(7:21) It’s really a really tough nut to crack. (7:25) And in all honesty, in my business, I’ve had much more success with people in their 50s and even some of their 40s who are saying, listen, I want to make a plan to be able to make the change in three years, five years, seven years, because you just don’t snap your fingers and sell a business. (7:45) I’ve never met a business owner who didn’t think his business was worth more than it is.

(7:49) And I never met one who didn’t think they were closer to being ready than they are. (7:55) So there’s, it’s really interesting because once you get ready to do that, there’s two really big major issues facing family owned businesses when they go to sell the business. (8:09) And one is the lack of a significant and qualified management team below the owner who probably has operated the business as a hub and spoke business.

(8:25) They just either can’t afford enough people or the owner wants to run it the way that they’ve run it for a long time. (8:32) And that’s great. (8:34) And while you own the business, you can do whatever you want.

(8:36) But if you want to have in particular, a financial buyer come in and buy it, they’re going to want to look at it differently. (8:43) And they’re going to want to have people in place. (8:46) Now, there’s a lot of variables that go into that.

(8:49) The other major thing that I’m seeing in a lot of my businesses is issues with customer concentration. (8:56) I have several businesses in my portfolio, in my client portfolio that have customer concentration of 70%. (9:03) Now, that’s very, very risky from a day to day operating standpoint.

(9:09) And it’s very, very detrimental to your eventual sale value, potential sale value, you’re going to take a huge haircut from in particular from a financial buyer, especially if it’s going to be a standalone business, because it adds risk. (9:29) And even if it’s not going to be a standalone, the savvy financial buyer would see that as leverage to lower the price that you’re going to sell. (9:38) So how are businesses ending up in this place?

(9:44) Well, it’s actually very common that a business goes out, they start providing a product, they get a really good customer, they kept getting repeat business, more and more business, or referral business, and they say, this is great. (10:00) This client is paying the bills, I don’t have to work as hard for other clients. (10:05) And so what happens is, these small businesses, particularly in the industrial space, are saying, and if you look at them today, and this is how I’m really trying to help not just with the financial side of the business, but with the holistic look at the business, most of these businesses are doing zero marketing or advertising.

(10:25) And I would say that they are barely doing any business development or sales work. (10:34) They are doing account management and taking referrals. (10:38) Now, that’s not horrible, but it’s putting a big risk on your business.

(10:44) And the hard part is that there’s no magic bullet to get out of that. (10:49) I’ve said to my clients, listen, you have 70% with one client, even if we double your business, and it’s all external to that client, you’re still at 35%. (10:59) So that’s not a great place to be.

(11:02) So I don’t have a magic bullet. (11:05) I just like to go in and set expectations and say, hey, how are we going to attack these things to put you in the best position to maximize your external sales value, or to put you in a position to transition it to your family when it’s time?

Melissa

(11:21) Yeah, I love that. (11:23) I think that there’s so much to unpack there. (11:26) I want to talk a little bit about selling the business and maybe what owners actually need to know.

(11:34) And I think you hinted on a little bit about it. (11:37) And I know you’ve helped M&A deals and business integration across North America. (11:44) Maybe unpack two of the biggest challenges small businesses face when they decide to sell, like you were saying, but they weren’t really prepared before it’s too late.

(11:55) They don’t just sell tomorrow. (11:57) They’ve got to get things in order. (11:59) So what do these businesses, how can they get ready?

(12:03) They have kids that can take over. (12:05) They are looking to sell it. (12:06) Talk to me a little bit about selling it.

Lowell

(12:09) Yeah. (12:09) So there’s, I mean, the first thing is, is that you need to have a sound strategic outlook for the business. (12:20) It really helps because what, whether it’s a geographical area or product areas or understanding where you’re making your money in the business, right?

(12:34) You need to really understand that and have a sound plan for that. (12:38) So many businesses you go into that are smaller to say, well, we make enough money or we make money here. (12:44) We don’t know where we make our money.

(12:46) We need to, we want, we just make money. (12:49) Buyers are going to want to know where are you making your money, right? (12:53) And they’re not prepared to understand that.

(12:57) And there’s a lot of times that I’ve been through this where we started to sell a business and then we had to stop because we weren’t ready. (13:05) When a buyer, when a potential buyer comes in and has to hear 18 accepts or butts, or we’re going to do this, or we’re going to do this, or we’re not going to do this, but they don’t want to hear it. (13:18) They don’t want to hear it.

(13:19) So when you go to market your business, you want to have a clean set of financial statements that has historical, good historical pattern, as well as a sound, you know, when you go to sell a business and you know, this probably the basic way that you do it in an industrial, it’s not like these high flying tech businesses that are valued based on revenue. (13:43) You know, I’m living in the real world, not the tech world. (13:45) So, you know, what is your EBITDA?

(13:48) What’s your adjusted EBITDA? (13:49) And it gets multiplied by a multiplier. (13:52) And that’s typically the value of your business.

(13:55) If somebody picks up your financial statements and you can’t read the financial statements, and then they go in and they find out and they ask about this and about that. (14:03) And then you’ve got 18 adjustments to EBITDA to get to adjusted EBITDA. (14:07) Then everybody’s exhausted.

(14:10) And they’re like, what is this? (14:11) So you start out and the owner thinks it’s worth the EBITDA is 5 million. (14:17) And then a potential buyer comes in and picks it apart, and they will pick it apart.

(14:21) And they say, well, no, this is only worth 2 million. (14:24) So now your 25 million is worth 10 million. (14:26) I mean, there’s lots of ways to calculate the multiplier as well.

(14:30) So it’s preparation in that vein of knowing what are you doing with your business? (14:37) Where are you making your money? (14:38) You would be surprised how many businesses you go into.

(14:40) And I say, well, where’s our sales and margin analysis by product line? (14:46) Well, why would I do that? (14:48) Well, it’s kind of important.

(14:51) And it’s really, this is a line I use all the time too, is I say, I’ve worked in, you know, probably seven different businesses over my career before I started my business and my own business. (15:00) And I said, you know, I go into business and there’s been people in the business 20, 30, 40 years. (15:06) And you go in and there’s 10 things they know about that business, right?

(15:10) But I find that typically they know their business, but eight and a half of those 10 are true. (15:16) And it’s the 15% that they have bad data on or their guts wrong, because something is not the way it was 25 years ago. (15:26) And you prove it to them with factual data numbers that show, no, you’re not making 30 points on this.

(15:34) You might’ve thought you were, but when you really look at your business, you’re making five points on it or worse, you’re losing more money. (15:42) So the more losing on that product. (15:44) So the more you sell of it, the more you lose.

(15:46) So again, people are smart. (15:48) People know their business, they are experienced in it, but you need somebody to really put that roadmap out there for you. (15:56) And again, again, that’s the concrete strategic side.

(16:01) The other part is the emotional side. (16:03) So people might think they want to sell the business and then it gets close and they say, well, what am I going to do? (16:09) How am I going to survive?

(16:10) What am I going to do day to day? (16:14) And that’s kind of drives back towards that preparation for life after your business and that kind of generational divide that we’re going through right now.

Melissa

(16:27) So, and I love that. (16:30) There’s so much in that I want to poke on, but I’m going to, I’m going to move to something else with you. (16:37) I think I’ve heard this recently.

(16:39) You mentioned, you know, with some of the baby boomers that they’re like, we operate debt free. (16:47) We have no debt. (16:49) And I would say that that kind of personally limits their growth a little bit personally.

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Lowell

(18:03) Yeah. (18:04) I mean the, the general concept that’s coming out of everything else that we talked about is that debt is verboten and I don’t want to owe anybody anything. (18:13) And I’m only going to grow through organic means right now.

(18:19) So I’ve worked for businesses. (18:21) It goes even one step further than not borrowing, right? (18:24) I’ve worked in businesses that I’ve been big businesses spitting off $20 million of free cashflow a year and that families, their right to do it are taking the cash out of the business.

(18:35) And I look at them and I say, how is it possible that there’s not one possible net present value, positive net present value business line or business or something, some product or project that we can’t reinvest at least some of that back into the business. (18:54) Now, even if we go and we get a 10 or 12 or 14% return on it, it’s gotta be better than sitting in, even when times are good, sitting in T-bills for four or five or 6%. (19:05) It’s that, it’s that risk averse mentality.

(19:09) And a lot of family owned businesses operate on, well, that happened in 1985 and we’re never doing that again. (19:17) Or we got killed in the 2001 bubble, or we went through the financial downturn. (19:26) Yeah, you, you have to be in a position and have a contingency plan built out every year or every few years in case something goes wrong, because there’s always going to be something that goes wrong.

(19:39) So not only are businesses not borrowing money, they’re not reinvesting earnings back into the business. (19:50) So I’m a big proponent of appropriate debt. (19:54) Now, one of the things I say to all my potential clients and clients I work with is, what are your personal goals and what are your business goals, right?

(20:04) So your personal goals when you’re 35 or 40 might be very different than what they are when you’re 60. (20:12) And what do you need to do in that business to achieve your personal goals, right? (20:19) And that’s what drives the difference between, and it doesn’t exactly even have to be an entrepreneur.

(20:27) It just has to be somebody who has a growth mentality in a business versus a sustenance mentality. (20:34) Now, it’s not bad, right? (20:37) If you just want to sustain and keep doing what you’re doing, and you’re willing to live with that, that’s fine.

(20:42) But debt is, you know, the, you know, why do you think that private equity guys use the leverage in a business? (20:51) It’s because leverage gives you more earnings potential, right? (20:56) Now, I’m not a fan of over-levering anything, right?

(20:59) And some private equity groups do that, but using the appropriate amount of debt to fuel growth, to fuel profitable growth is, that’s what, I mean, in the end, that’s what capitalism is all about, right? (21:17) So again, it’s just hard to look at businesses that have opportunities. (21:26) Now, if I go into a business and it’s a declining market, and they’re just milking, I’m not, don’t go borrow more money to do that.

(21:35) Use your brain, but use debt wisely. (21:40) And it’s not evil. (21:42) And that’s what it’s come from people is it’s evil.

(21:45) You know, you hear your grandfather or your great-grandfather saying, I never want to owe anybody anything, right? (21:50) And they didn’t even have a mortgage, right? (21:52) Much less a car payment, right?

(21:55) Like borrowing used judiciously is very powerful.

Melissa

(22:00) Yeah. (22:01) And I ask that because I know many of these people that hold their money in cash in a high yield account because they want to have money for a rainy day. (22:14) So it’s such a good point.

(22:16) And then I love what you said about get a plan personally and professionally. (22:22) I find that plans are North stars and they’re changing a lot in our world as technology change, we age, we get older. (22:32) Like you said, in my thirties, it was very different strategy than my parents that are older.

(22:41) They care more about their health, their medical, where I didn’t really care about my medical because I was never really sick. (22:50) And so I want to unpack that a little bit more and talk about, is it a hobby? (22:56) Is it a business?

(22:58) And I know you’ve said that many owners don’t know if they’re running a true business or if it’s their hobby. (23:07) So talk to me a little bit about how you help leaders step out of that emotional fog and start treating their company like the actual valuable asset that it is.

Lowell

(23:19) I mean, it’s hard. (23:21) It’s really hard. (23:22) Like anybody who’s going to come and tell you there’s a magic bullet and you can get people to look at it differently is hard.

(23:28) One of the ways that I do it is, so people, a lot of business owners see it as not necessarily a hobby, but they see it as their identity. (23:35) And that’s a really hard thing to say, okay, what’s, you have to have something else other than this as your identity. (23:44) No, I go to the workshop every day and I do this and blah, blah, blah.

(23:47) And yeah, but there has to be something else. (23:51) And some people you’re not going to convince. (23:53) Like I said, I’m one of the older Gen Xers and I want to do what I’m doing for another 15 or 20 years, literally.

(24:02) But if somebody came to me today and said, you can’t do this anymore and you have enough money, whatever, to not work, I have a list of like 80 things that I would like to do in the world. (24:14) I won’t go through them all here, but that’s kind of that generational divide. (24:19) One of the most powerful things I say, and people, at least half of them look at me like I’m crazy and walk away when I say it, and I don’t mind that, is getting to the logical side of it.

(24:32) So I say, okay, you’re a business owner, you’ve done really great. (24:36) You have a business that’s been in business a long time. (24:39) And let’s say you’ve amassed $15 million of assets, stocks, bonds, equities, real estate, everything that your theoretical financial advisor, wealth advisor is managing for you, right?

(24:56) Now we look over at your business. (24:58) And if we just look at it on a piece of paper and map it out, and we say, this business is worth $15 million ballpark. (25:05) I say to them on any given day, if I told you that you should invest 50% of your net worth in one individual stock, would you think that was a good idea?

(25:20) Absolutely not. (25:22) And what’s happening even further, and this is a hard conversation to have, but I have these conversations is, okay, so you’re a business owner and you’re getting into your 60s and you say, I’m the one who makes all the decisions here. (25:34) I run the whole business, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

(25:37) And I’m in the North. (25:38) So we say, yeah, but now I want to go to Florida for four months. (25:42) So not only are they not empowering somebody to run the business, it’s being run in absentia.

(25:48) So what’s happening is it’s not even that they’re not increasing value, they’re destroying value because they’re not focusing on the business. (25:58) And you have to have these hard conversations. (26:00) Some people are going to just look at you and tell you you’re a jerk and they’re going to walk away.

(26:04) But that’s how you find out who are the people that you want to work with.

Melissa

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(26:32) Just visit moneyripples.com forward slash secrets and enter the promo code EXEC. (26:39) And I love that you said that because I think I’m thinking of all these CEOs in my head that I know they also have a hard time relinquishing control. (26:48) So let’s say they want to go to Florida or they want to go wherever they want to go.

(26:52) So they go and they micromanage from afar in their business. (26:58) And so I’m also seeing kind of this shift of, okay, I’m going to step out. (27:04) I’m going to transition and pass it to either the family member, a CEO, or kind of whatever.

(27:11) But it’s almost like it’s worse. (27:14) It feels like that. (27:16) They’re, they’re, they’re kind of one foot in one foot out the clients that they’re servicing want them because it hasn’t properly been, you know, handed over and they’re cutting off the knees of the other people stepping.

(27:30) And so they’re really working against each other. (27:32) And so talk to me a little bit about, you know, that owner that wants to, you know, bring up the next generation while going to Florida or doing those 80 things that you mentioned, whatever those 80 things may be like, how do you get there?

Lowell

(27:51) I mean, it’s a, in a family owned business, it’s really rough, right? (27:54) Because you can say, okay, I’m the chairman or I’m the emeritus, but if it’s your son or your daughter or somebody you brought in, as soon as the shit started hitting the fan, they’re going to come in and second guess you. (28:09) So it, you really have to, it’s hard, but you have to cut the ties and say, okay, this is the person who’s going to run the business.

(28:21) Is my family member that is naturally in line. (28:26) This is a really hard one too. (28:27) Are they qualified to do it?

(28:29) Right? (28:31) Sometimes you have to say, no, they’re not qualified to do it. (28:33) Is their sister or their brother qualified?

(28:36) No. (28:37) Well, then you either have to say, this is where you say, it’s time to sell the business because we don’t have somebody to run it. (28:44) Or you go and you hire somebody, a professional to run the business, but then you have to let that person run the business and you can’t micromanage the day-to-day of the business because that person is going to get fed up with you and leave.

(29:01) So it’s really hard. (29:03) And how do you balance? (29:04) I don’t have the perfect silver bullet, right?

(29:07) So say you’re somebody who’s 50 or 55 and you say, okay, my daughter is the person that I think is going to run this business. (29:16) They, all my kids have gone to college. (29:18) They’ve all done it.

(29:19) This, my daughter has the interest. (29:21) She wants to do it. (29:22) And she has the aptitude and the skillsets to do it, right?

(29:25) She’s going to sit at my heels or sit with me for five years or 10 years. (29:31) And then at that point, I’m turning it over, but it’s really easy to say, and it’s hard to do, right?

Melissa

(29:40) And it’s true because I think that I’ve been in those positions and worked for those companies where the owner brought in an experienced CEO and they were bringing their family members up. (29:52) And I didn’t know if I was talking to the owner or the CEO or who was really in charge. (29:57) So I think about all the wasted cycles and the stop starting and this money spent and the direction changed and really being part of that.

(30:07) Ultimately, I left that company because they couldn’t get aligned. (30:10) And I think about all the people that are out there as an owner, nobody’s going to do the exact way that you do it with the perfect metrics. (30:21) There’s what, how many different ways to skin a cat.

(30:24) And I think at some point you got to let go and depending on what you believe in, either let God or just kind of step out and carpe diem and do those 80 things, right?

Lowell

(30:38) Right. (30:38) And the hard part is, is that I have lots of theories and lots of concepts on things, but it comes back to the way that the business has been run based on the size or the family nature of it. (30:50) One of the hardest things for people, professionals to learn is to appropriately delegate, right?

(30:58) So if you’ve never been comfortable delegating and you always have the attitude of, well, it’s just, they’re not going to do it right. (31:07) I’ll just do it myself. (31:08) You’re going to not be successful in my opinion.

(31:13) And in order to appropriately delegate, you’re going to have to understand that people are going to make mistakes, right? (31:20) Thank God I’ve never been in a business that was life and death. (31:23) I say to people all the time, I say, well, let’s make a decision with the information we have.

(31:28) We’re never going to have perfect information. (31:31) And if we make a mistake, the good news is we’re not brain surgeons, right? (31:35) Nobody’s dying on the table.

(31:37) We make a mistake. (31:38) We make a decision. (31:39) We make the best informed decision that we can make.

(31:41) And if it’s the wrong decision, have the fortitude to say it was the wrong decision and let’s fix it. (31:47) Whether it’s with personnel or product, whatever it is. (31:52) But, you know, I’ve worked with lots of people who, you know, will overanalyze something and analyze it.

(31:58) You’re never going to get to the perfect information and you have to do that. (32:02) But, you know, that’s what the kind of family-owned business executive owner has been done. (32:10) It’s all their responsibility and they make all the decisions.

(32:13) And they’ve never had to delegate either because it wasn’t big enough or they could control everything. (32:19) And then you get to a certain point and you can’t do that anymore. (32:21) I mean, the reality is, is you get to a certain age and you don’t have the same capabilities that you had before.

(32:27) Yeah.

Melissa

(32:28) And you just don’t have the, you know, you slow down a bit. (32:32) I think now traveling from one continent to the other continent, you know, I used to rinse and repeat easier than I rinse and repeat now. (32:40) And so I think you just have these different constraints, family constraints, health constraints, choice constraints.

(32:46) Like I know that flying when there’s six feet of snow is not super exciting to me anymore. (32:54) Right. (32:55) And so I think it’s true, but I love something that you said that I think like, I really believe in clarity around all things.

(33:04) I think clarity is how I’ve seen businesses be so, so grand and also seen them really fail when we’re kind of clear, but we just keep going and everybody’s guessing and nobody’s pulling at the same end of the rope. (33:21) And so, you know, I love that you, the plan that you talked about, like really sit down, having a strategy and making sure everybody is in agreement and alignment. (33:32) And, and when there’s errors, they don’t agree.

(33:35) They think they should have the business because it was their dad’s business. (33:39) And they may think they’re more qualified than the CEO they’re bringing in. (33:44) And really there’s politics in all of this.

(33:47) So as a CEO stepping in to this family dynamics can also be really difficult. (33:54) And so I love kind of all the things you said and really, you know, tying it back to that plan, personal professional, and getting really clear about, you know, what the expectations are, what are we delivering by when and who’s doing it. (34:12) And it seems simple, but I’ve seen, you know, simple things become really, really not so simple.

(34:20) So I want to kind of enclosing getting any final thoughts or anything that you want to share with our listeners today from the lessons learned in your time in this space.

Lowell

(34:32) Yeah. (34:33) I mean, over riding theme is don’t wait until your fate is cast on you. (34:43) Be proactive and take action when you have the time to do it in order to have a plan in place to make it happen.

(34:52) Because, you know, one of the, I’ll tell you another little anecdote that I do all the time is I, I talked to business owners and they’re 65, 70, and they’re predominantly men. (35:02) So I say, well, what happens? (35:05) My favorite line, and I say it to everybody, what happens if you get hit by a bus?

(35:10) And the first thing they say, and I say that in every company, no matter what position, what happens if that person, but if, what happens if you get hit by a bus? (35:17) Well, the first thing they say is, well, my wife will be fine. (35:22) And I said, well, your wife will be fine financially because you have assets.

(35:26) You probably have life insurance, but who’s going to run the business? (35:30) Well, I don’t know. (35:30) And I said, well, do me a favor.

(35:34) And I tell this story all the time. (35:35) I said, well, go buy some key man. (35:37) They call it key man, key person insurance that if something don’t hire me, don’t do any of the planning, but do that.

(35:44) So if something happens to you, your wife and your family who are grieving, who don’t know how to run the business and have all of your employees, who’ve been there for 30 years, coming to them and worried, don’t have to deal with grieving for their loss on top of having to deal with this business. (36:01) So get a half a million dollars. (36:03) And the first answer is their first response is, it’s not that expensive, 10 or $20,000.

(36:08) You can get a half a million a policy, and you can hire somebody to professionally run the business for a couple of years till you figure out what you need to do. (36:16) Now there’s a whole nother layer of figuring out getting the right person to run it, which is what we talked about, but that’s the overriding thing. (36:24) To me is don’t put your fate to chance, plan and move on.

Melissa

(36:31) Yeah. (36:31) And I know we’re not talking about wills or things like this, but I think the other thing that’s interesting to me is kind of like a will, your plans need to change and they change with, you know, like you said, deaths, change, moving AI technology, the changing world, inflation, politics, all the things. (36:55) And so you really have to have those difficult conversations on a regular basis and understand what we’re pulling towards.

(37:05) But I really appreciate so many things that you shared with us today. (37:11) What is the best way for our listeners to connect with you and learn more about what you do?

Lowell

(37:17) Yeah. (37:18) So the easy, there’s several ways. (37:20) The easiest way is to go to my website, which is impactcfo.net.

(37:27) I have many ways to set up a meeting with me, see my content, see all of my media. (37:37) But the best way is I have some free offers for cashflow analysis and other things, but I have a, just click the link and set up a meeting with me. (37:47) A half hour, hour meeting to get to know each other.

(37:51) And we can go from there. (37:52) Also, you feel free to email me directly at Lowell, L-O-W-E-L-L at impactcfo.net. (38:00) Or I have this old fashioned thing called a cell phone.

(38:04) You can call me directly and it’s 847-212-4081. (38:11) 847-212-4081. (38:14) I’m not hard to find.

(38:15) And the great thing is that my mother did me a favor in 1968. (38:21) She didn’t know about Google, but if you Google Lowell Mora, there’s only one of me. (38:28) So you can’t, you cannot not find me if you want to find me.

Melissa

(38:33) I love that you said that in a hundred of hundred air aired podcast, you may be the only one who has given their phone number away. (38:43) So there you have it all. (38:44) You have his phone number.

(38:45) You have his contact. (38:46) He is the one. (38:47) He is the only, thank you so much for being here today and sharing your time and knowledge with our listeners.

(38:54) That’s the executive connect podcast.