Pro Serv Podcasts Archives - Page 15 of 17

April 19, 2021June 28, 2023

How to Reduce Investor Risk When Selling a Business

Episode 28: The Boutique: The Fine Line Between Risk Taking And Carelessness

One of the keys to selling your business is to reduce investor risk and eliminate the risk for the buyer. In this episode, Greg Alexander and Sean Magennis discuss how owners can increase the attractiveness of their firms and the mistakes they must avoid when reducing investor risk.

Why Do Owners Struggle to Reduce Investor Risk When Selling a Business?

Sean Magennis [00:00:15] Welcome to the Boutique with Capital 54, a podcast for owners of professional services firms. This show aims to help you grow, scale, and sell your firm at the right time for the right price and on the right terms.

I’m Sean Magennis, CEO of Capital 54 and your host. In this episode, I will make the case that one of the keys to selling a business is to eliminate the risk for the buyer. I’ll try to prove this theory by interviewing Greg Alexander, Capital 54’s chief investment officer. Greg has helped many boutique business owners increase the attractiveness of their firms by reducing investor risk. Greg, good to see you.

Greg Alexander [00:01:05] Thanks, Sean. This will be a controversial episode.

Sean Magennis [00:01:09] I love it.

Greg Alexander [00:01:10] Some of our listeners are running firms that carry a lot of investment risk, and I bet some of them don’t even know it. I might inadvertently call some babies ugly today.

Sean Magennis [00:01:20] Well, the good news is we do not have a live studio audience, so you will not hear the boos. On a serious note, tell us why some boutique owners have blind spots in this area when selling a business.

Greg Alexander [00:01:36] Firm owners think like operators; they do not think like investors. Therefore, they approach a deal with all the reasons it works. Whereby, the investor approaches a deal with all the reasons it will not work. For investors, their number one goal is to not lose money. A return is expected for sure. But the rate of return is considered only after the threat of capital loss is calculated.

Sean Magennis [00:02:05] Greg, you’re correct on this one. Our listeners are owners of firms, but they are also entrepreneurs and founders, and as a breed, we’re an optimistic bunch. We have to be. I can see how this glass is half full mentality can be a hindrance when trying to develop a business exit strategy and selling a business.

Example: How Not to Exit Your Business

Greg Alexander [00:02:26] Yeah. Let me share a story to bring this to life. So a few years ago, a media buying firm put itself up for sale. For those unfamiliar with a media buying firm, these firms buy advertising space for media companies and sell it to advertising agencies. The advertising agency uses the space to place ads for its clients.

This firm’s specialty was newspapers. This was pre-Internet. A roll-up of media rep firms was happening. A few large firms are buying up all the boutiques. This owner was getting a lot of interest. Yet, he blew it. He had a golden opportunity to exit immediately for a very high price, and he royally screwed it up.

Greg Alexander [00:03:13] Sadly, he eventually had to file bankruptcy because, as you know, the newspaper advertising business got crushed by the Internet. What was the fatal mistake made by this owner? He was unable to complete due diligence quickly.

His financials were a mess. His personal life was wrapped up in them. He was unreasonable with his add-backs . His family members were on the payroll and didn’t do any work. His salary was not reflective of the true cost of the position. He took family vacations and charged them as business expenses. I mean, this guy was a real cowboy. All of this could have been worked out. However, a land grab was underway.

Greg Alexander [00:04:02] Speed was of critical concern. The firms, particularly the big firms, looked at his books and concluded it was simply too much work. And it would take too much time to figure out this mess. So they bought this guy’s competitor instead. His competitors were running tight ships and could close quickly. This was a tragic story.

Sean Magennis [00:04:28] Geez, what a shame. So the moral of the story is to run a tight ship. Greg, what advice would you have for our listeners to help them avoid this type of tragic outcome when selling a business?

How to Reduce Investor Risk: Mistakes Professional Services Firms Should Avoid

Greg Alexander [00:04:41] The big lesson here is that there’s a fine line between taking risks and being careless. Entrepreneurs are risk-takers , and therefore they build great boutiques, but this cannot go too far. If it does, once in a lifetime, wealth creation opportunities can pass you by.

Sean Magennis [00:05:03] Greg, give our listeners some examples of how they might be taking it too far. What mistakes should they avoid?

Greg Alexander [00:05:10] Gosh, there are so many. For example, don’t cheat on your taxes. Investors and potential acquirers hate cheaters. Don’t be careless with the law. You know, if you push the limits here and get caught. Lawsuits will get filed against you. These get found during diligence. That can kill a deal as fast as you can say sorry.

And heaven forbid if you were in the crosshairs of government regulators, you know, then you’re in real trouble. You’re not going to be able to sell. So stay far away from regulators. So those are just a few obvious mistakes to avoid when selling a business.

Sean Magennis [00:05:45] Those are great examples, Greg, and extremely good reminders.

Sean Magennis [00:05:53] And now a word from our sponsor. Collective 54 is a membership organization for owners of professional services firms. Members join to work with their industry peers to grow, scale and someday sell their firms at the right time for the right price and on the right terms. Let us meet one of the collective 54 members.

Brenna Garratt [00:06:18] Hello, my name is Brenna Garratt. I own Sustena Group of Business-to-business brand development firm. Most of our clients are mid-sized B2B companies with investor or private equity backing.

Our key areas of focus are business, and tech-enabled services, technology, and health care. We work closely with executive leaders and private equity firms. Our clients seek our help when their brand strategy is out of sync with their business strategy.

We solve these challenges by developing a strategic foundation, the brand infrastructure, and go-to-market brand activation programs to help our clients articulate their business and brand. If you’re interested in learning more, please visit sustenagroup.com or connect with me at [email protected]. And lastly, a nod to Collective 54. The organization has been absolutely invaluable to me.

Sean Magennis [00:07:10] If you are trying to grow, scale, or sell your firm and feel you would benefit from being a part of a mastermind community of peers, visit Collective54.com.

Questions to Ask When Reducing Investor Risk and Selling a Business

Sean Magennis [00:07:29] So, this will take us to the end of this episode. And as is customary, we end each show with a tool. This allows a listener to apply the lessons to his or her firm. Our preferred tool to use is a checklist. And our checklist-style is a yes-no questionnaire.

We aim to keep it simple by asking only ten yes-no questions. If you answer yes to eight or more of these questions, you have successfully de-risked your deal. If you answer no too many times, you are too risky for investors. So, let’s begin.

Greg Alexander [00:08:05] Number one, do you have five years of audited financials?

Greg Alexander [00:08:10] Yeah. I mean, such an easy thing to do.

Sean Magennis [00:08:12] Exactly.

Greg Alexander [00:08:13] Pay somebody; they can do it. It’s beneficial not only when selling a business , but it also is beneficial as an operator because it gets you thinking about your business as an investor would.

Sean Magennis [00:08:22] Great example. Number two, do you have five years of tax returns? Number three, are you operating according to industry-standard accounting principles? Number four, do you have a few, if any, add-backs?

Greg Alexander [00:08:39] I mean, don’t be a cowboy.

Sean Magennis [00:08:40] Exactly. Number five, is your personal financial life clearly separated from your business financials? Number six, have you ever been sued? Number seven, have you ever sued anyone? Number eight, are you clear of any outstanding legal action?

Greg Alexander [00:09:05] If you have any, settle.

Sean Magennis [00:09:07] Yep. Number nine, are you using industry-standard legal contracts with clients, employees, and suppliers? And number ten, are you compliant with your industry regulations?

Sean Magennis [00:09:24] In summary, do not give a buyer a reason to say no when selling a business. Run a tight ship. Run your boutique by the book. Operating in the gray area will make a potential buyer nervous. And any gain from doing so is just not worth it.

Sean Magennis [00:09:44] If you enjoyed the show and want to learn more, pick up a copy of Greg Alexander’s book titled “The Boutique How to Start Scale and Sell a Professional Services Firm.” I’m Sean Magennis. Thank you for listening.

April 12, 2021June 28, 2023

Episode 27: The Boutique: The Subtle Art of Scaling Your Culture

As a firm scales its culture erodes. Bureaucracy creeps in as a firm gets larger. The owner shifts from an inspirational leader into a law enforcement officer which is not healthy. On this episode, we discuss how to build a great culture in professional services firms.

TRANSCRIPT

Sean Magennis [00:00:15] Welcome to The Boutique with Capital 54, a podcast for owners of professional services firms. My goal with this show is to help you grow scale and sell your firm at the right time for the right price and on the right terms. I am Sean Magennis, CEO of Capital 54 and your host. On this episode, I will make the case that as a firm scales its culture, erodes. Bureaucracy, creeps in as a firm, gets larger, this converts the owner from an inspirational leader into a law enforcement officer over time, which is not healthy. I’ll try to prove this theory by interviewing Greg Alexander, Capital 54’s chief investment officer. Greg, while owner and CEO of SBI, built one of the great cultures in professional services firms, he has much to share on the subject. Greg, good to see you. Welcome. Great subject.

Greg Alexander [00:01:21] Yeah. Sean, it’s good to be with you. I’m looking forward to today’s conversation.

Sean Magennis [00:01:25] Excellent. Greg, let’s start with an understanding as to why affirms culture erodes as it scales. Why does this happen?

Greg Alexander [00:01:34] You know, the reason is pretty simple. Founders of boutiques did not know how to scale a culture. And the root cause of this is there’s very little material available to founders on this subject. And most founders do not recognize the importance of scaling a culture until it’s too late.

Sean Magennis [00:01:50] And why is it important to scale a culture?

Greg Alexander [00:01:54] Culture defines how things get done, and defining how to do things matters, especially as the firm gets larger. There is more work to be done by more people. A hazing culture gets in the way of scaling because employees do not know how to behave. And when this happens, founders react by installing bureaucracy with lots of procedures and rules. This turns him or her into a law enforcement official. And once rules replace creative freedom, politics creep in and politics destroys firms. Employees shift their focus from serving the client to serving the boss and scale stalls out.

Sean Magennis [00:02:41] Boy, do I understand this one. Greg, you’ve taught our audience about the three life cycle stages of a professional services firm. Those are phase one growth, phase two scale and phase three exit. It appears that culture is a strength in phase one growth, but it becomes a weakness in phase two scale. Why is that?

Greg Alexander [00:03:10] That’s a great observation. You make a very important point here, Sean. The reason culture breaks down during phase two scale is because scaling is messy. The chaotic nature of scaling means that employees work while the system starts to break down due to all the growth. As previous methods are replaced with new procedures to accommodate the scale, employees struggle to adapt. And it is at this precise moment that they need to know how to behave. And this is when a strong culture can be very helpful. For example, let us imagine an exercise, a picture you and I meeting with a firm in Phase one growth. The firm is, let’s say, twenty five employees and has been in business for about five years. We ask each employee the following questions. Number one, what kind of behavior does the firm hire to? Number two, what types of behavior does the firm promote to? And number three, what types of behavior gets people fired? The answer is coming back from this group of 25 employees will be very similar and crystal clear. This will demonstrate employees know how to behave. Now, let us imagine, we are meeting with a firm in phase two scale. Let’s say this firm’s about 100 employees and has been in business for, let’s say, 15 years. We ask each employee the same three questions. What kind of behavior does the firm hire to what kind of behavior does the firm promote to? And what what types of behavior gets a person fired? The answers coming back from this group of 100 employees will be dissimilar and unclear. And this will show that employees do not know how to behave.

Sean Magennis [00:04:59] I can see that. And the hypothetical example makes common sense, but I’m not sure I understand the so what? Why should a listener care if employees do not know how to behave?

Greg Alexander [00:05:12] Good question. The reason our listeners should care is because during the scale phase, they cannot be everywhere and do everything themselves. They need to know their employees are representing the firm the way the founder wants it to be represented. Employee behavior shows up everywhere, shows up in sales calls, in job interviews and client meetings, etc.. If the culture does not scale, the firm will bring in the clients, hire the wrong employees for client satisfaction and so on and so on. And in the end, a eroding culture will result in missed budgets.

Sean Magennis [00:05:45] Yep, OK, I get it now. A strong culture is how a founder can succeed without having to be personally involved in everything. Greg, I recently listened to an interview. An interview you did on John Warrillow’s Built to Sell podcast. It became very popular as thousands of people have now listened to it. One of the reasons it was so well-received is you talked about the famous SBI culture. Would you share some of this with our audience today?

Greg Alexander [00:06:16] Sure, boy, there is a lot to share here, and I should not repeat what I shared with John as listeners of this show can go listen to that one. But let me share some of the story with you here. So my firm, SBI, was in the consulting space. One of the challenges in that industry is very high employee turnover. It is not uncommon for consulting firms to run it, let’s say 30 to 40 percent annual employee turnover. And we ran it less than 10 percent for years. One of the reasons for the high turnover in consulting is big consulting firms fire employees for not being compliant with the procedures in the rules. I mean, these firms have an operating manual for how to eat lunch. It’s insane. Personally, I hate rules. I recruited mavericks and hired rule breakers. My firm only had three rules. This meant an employee back then can only get fired for three reasons. And they were number one, if you steal from me, you’re gone. Number two, if you lie to me, you’re gone. And number three, if you mess with it with another employee’s ideal life, then you were fired. So, for example, if you goose an expense report, you were out. If you lied to me about a project or the outcome of a sales call, you were gone. And as it related to number three, we had every employee tell us what their ideal life was, meaning exactly how they wanted to live in the role the job with us played in that life. If you were someone who caused a teammate to be miserable, you got fired. This meant no midnight emails, no finger pointing, you know, none of that bad behavior. So my basic philosophy was you had lifetime employment with me, if he did not break the three rules, I hired adults and I treated them like adults. I did not question their work ethic and I did not let suspicion destroy trust. It was an innocent until proven guilty culture, not the other way around, as so many companies are. Everybody was clear as to what behavior got you fired. The net result of this was we scaled rapidly, we won big, we won fast, and we won more often than the typical firm. And this is what led to our remarkable exit. In my case, we scaled our culture by keeping it very basic. We prevented bureaucracy from creeping in and we relentlessly eliminated politics from affecting behavior. And I should note, this culture was not for everyone, but that was OK. I liked it that way. I wanted lots and lots of people to tell me I was nuts and that they would never work for me because those that opted into my tribe were my peeps, so to speak. I knew if I could recruit enough of my peeps, I could really do something special. And we did.

Sean Magennis [00:08:59] Greg, this is a great story. And my journey with you is is so bang on with this. I mean, it’s it really, truly is remarkable. I encourage your listeners to look to Greg as a role model in how to really scale a culture. Doing so is very important to be true to yourself and lead with your authenticity. And now a word from our sponsor, Collective 54, Collective 54 is a membership organization for owners of professional services firms. Members joined to work with their industry peers to grow scale and someday sell their firms at the right time for the right price and on the right terms. Let us meet one of the collective 54 members.

Courtney Kehl [00:09:48] Hi, my name is Courtney Kehll. I own Expert Marketing Advisors. We serve B2B tech companies across the U.S. These clients turn to us for help with establishing best practices, growing and scaling up companies, as well as even launching or plugging in holes across there and marketing. If you need help with any of these areas or even interested in partnering, reach out to me at www.expertmarketingadvisors.com.

Sean Magennis [00:10:14] If you are trying to grow scale or sell your firm and feel you would benefit from being a part of a community of peers, visit collective54.com.

Sean Magennis [00:10:30] OK, this takes us to the end of this episode, and as is customary, we end each show with a tool. We do so because this allows a listener to apply the lessons to his or her firm. Our preferred tool is a checklist. And our style of checklist is a yes, no questionnaire. We aim to keep it simple by asking only 10 questions. In this instance, if you answer yes to eight or more of these questions, your culture is working for you. If you want to know too many times, culture is more than likely getting in the way of your attempts to scale. Let’s begin.

Sean Magennis [00:11:12] Number one is your culture important to the success of your boutique? Number two, does every employee understand the way things get done around here? Number three, does every employee understand what you are trying to accomplish? Number four, does every employee understand how they personally contribute to these goals? Number five, is it clear which behaviors are awarded? And number six, is it clear which behaviors are punished? Number seven, is it clear which function inside the boutique is the dominant function? Number eight, is the leader of that function, the leader of the boutique? Number nine, is the culture scaling naturally the way you want it to? And number ten, are you nurturing the culture as you scale?

Greg Alexander [00:12:21] You know, nine and ten are related and worth adding a little something to them. So cultures should scale naturally if the culture is healthy. Yep. Then people are going to take ownership of it and they’re going to scale it for you. If that’s not happening, then it’s upon it’s the responsibility of the founder to nurture it. You know, almost think about it like a plant. You know, you’ve got to fertilize it, you’ve got to water it. And there’s things you can do to nurture the culture to make sure it’s happening.

Sean Magennis [00:12:51] Critical. Great finishing comment, Greg. So in summary, culture allows a boutique to retain its identity as it scales. Culture is a welcome substitute for bureaucracy that can plague scaling boutiques. If you enjoyed the show and want to learn more, pick up a copy of Greg Alexander’s book titled The Boutique How to Start Scale and Sell a Professional Services Firm. I’m Sean Magennis. Thank you for listening.

March 29, 2021June 28, 2023

Episode 26: The Boutique: 2 SALES TOOLS TO WIN BIGGER, FASTER, AND MORE OFTEN

There are two sales tools that allow boutique founders to win bigger, faster, and more often. On this episode we discuss how to increase sales effectiveness of professional services.

TRANSCRIPT

Sean Magennis [00:00:15] Welcome to The Boutique with Capital 54, a podcast for owners of professional services firms. My goal with this show is to help you grow scale and sell your firm at the right time for the right price and on the right terms. I’m Sean Magennis, CEO of Capital 54 and your host. On this episode, I will make the case that there are two sales tools that allow boutique founders to win bigger, faster and more often. I’ll try to prove this theory by interviewing Greg Alexander, Capital 54’s chief investment officer, Greg is arguably the world’s leading expert in sales effectiveness in the professional services industry. Today, he will share some of this magic with you. Greg, this is your baby. Good to see you.

Greg Alexander [00:01:14] Hey, Sean, I’m excited about this episode. These two simple tools are powerful, yet for some reason they are not used with as much discipline as they should be. So hopefully this show will help with this.

Sean Magennis [00:01:26] OK, Greg, let’s jump straight in. What are the two tools?

Greg Alexander [00:01:29] OK, so the two tools are the demographic profile and the psychographic profile.

Sean Magennis [00:01:35] And give me a simple working definition of each.

Greg Alexander [00:01:38] OK, a demographic profile is a description of a particular type of client based on unique identifier such as gender, age, industry, job title, geography, etc. It focuses on quantifiable attributes and is objective. The psychographic profile is a description of a type of client based on unique identifiers as well. But in this case, it’s things such as wants, needs, goals, challenges, priorities. It focuses on qualitative attributes and is subjective.

Sean Magennis [00:02:13] And why should leaders of boutique professional services firms care about these two tools?

Greg Alexander [00:02:19] These tools help leaders of boutiques win bigger deals win these deals faster and win them more often.

Sean Magennis [00:02:27] Greg, how do they do that?

[00:02:29] Selling services is much harder than selling a product. When a prospect buys a product, they put their trust in the product itself. When a prospect buys a service, they put their trust in the people delivering the service. Therefore, establishing trust is essential to win bigger, faster and more often. The best way to establish trust is to know the client better than they know themselves and without question know the client better than the competitors. There is an old saying he who knows the client best wins, and I believe that

Sean Magennis [00:03:05] Some of the old sayings are the best. I think this one was tested recently during the pandemic and it held up. When you must limit human contact, guess who you let in the bubble? The people you trust. Greg, demographic profiles and psychographic profiles are not new tools. Did you know the Englishman John Gaunt invented demography back in 1662?

Greg Alexander [00:03:31] I did not, but nice pull.

Sean Magennis [00:03:35] Did you know that the use of psychographics in the marketing of services began at Stanford University in December of 1917?

Greg Alexander [00:03:42] I did not know that. But I see you are a power user of Wikipedia.

Sean Magennis [00:03:45] Thank god for Wikipedia. I bring up these stats to prove my point. These tools have been around forever. If they truly can help win bigger deals faster and more often, you would think they’d be used more often. However, when I look at firms, they are either not present or if they are present, they are used incorrectly. Why is this?

Greg Alexander [00:04:09] In my opinion, the main reason is founders, especially are domain experts. They are not business experts. Let me explain myself, so, for example, if I asked an owner of a cyber security firm about the technicalities of network security. They could talk to me for weeks, however, if I asked the same owner to describe their client profile, it would be a 10 minute conversation. Because they are not business experts, they do not understand that knowing the client deeply is the key to growing revenues with new and existing clients. Most of them are technicians of a sort, domain experts, but they are not business people, so to speak, meaning worldclass a generating revenue and profits. To grow a firm, a founder must be great at both he or she must be skilled at working on the business in addition to working in the business.

Sean Magennis [00:05:04] OK, Greg, I think we’ve established what the tools are and why they’re important and why they are underutilized. A percentage of our audience are overachievers. They will get off this podcast and immediately go to work on creating these tools. How can they get started?

Greg Alexander [00:05:22] Geez, I would need a day long workshop to do this justice, but let me give the overachievers a cheat sheet. So let’s start with a demographic profile. So make a list of all your clients, current and past. Identify the decision maker, the person who bought your service for each one document the following race, age, gender, ethnicity, industry, title, education, geography and income level. Use the 80 20 rule. What is common among each of your clients? This will get you to a V1 of a demographic profile. You should have. You should have all this data inside of your internal systems. If you do not, these days there is no privacy and you can find it in all the social media platforms. Let’s switch gears to the psychographic profile, which is much harder. Take a statistical sample from the above, say maybe 30 clients or so, and interview them. Ask them about, what are their wants or their needs or their desires? What are their goals, maybe immediate, intermediate and long term, what are their challenges standing in the way of accomplishing these goals? What are their priorities? And how do they set priorities? What interests them inside and outside of work? What is their attitude? Are they optimist or a pessimist? Are they activists or passivist? Use the 80-20 rule here as well, what is common among each of your clients, this will get you to a V1 of a psychographic profile.

Sean Magennis [00:07:04] That’s very helpful I got that, very practical, and once they have the two tools built, what do they do with them?

Greg Alexander [00:07:11] Everything. I mean, there is no part of a boutique. This information will not change. I mean, every sale script changes, every process to deliver a service gets rewritten to reflect this enhanced understanding of the client. The firm should change its marketing messages, its price positioning, their hiring profiles of staff. I mean, the list goes on and on. To win bigger, to win faster and more often, requires a boutique to obsess over the client every little detail. Without this information dynamically updated regularly, you are not client focused. You are throwing darts against the wall, hoping something sticks. Here’s little fun thing to do at the next staff meeting when sitting around the table, be sure to have one seat at the table empty. Put a sign in the seat that says client when the team is trying to make a decision turned to the client who now has a seat at the table and ask what would the client say if he or she was in the room? This signals to everyone that the client is at the center of everything you do.

Sean Magennis [00:08:16] This is just fantastic. It’s brilliant and a good reminder of two tools that have been best practices for decades. Thank you, Greg. And now a word from our sponsor, Collective 54, Collective 54 is a membership organization for owners of professional services firms. Members joined to work with their industry peers to grow scale and someday sell their firms at the right time for the right price and on the right terms. Let us meet one of the collective 54 members.

Josh Mastel [00:08:54] I’m Josh Mastel, the CEO of UpRoar Partners, which is an outsourced sales solution for leaders of B2B organizations across the U.S.. At the end of the day, there’s only one reason why companies and teams missed their revenue targets, and that’s because of a lack of quality opportunities inside their sales pipeline. We fix this exact problem for our clients by deploying our sales methodology that’s been proven and executed by our team of salespeople. And the whole goal is to remove all of the hassle of generating sales opportunities completely off of your plate.. So if you have a dry pipeline and you’re not confident that you have enough, that that’s enough opportunities to get you to your revenue number by the end of this year, get in touch with us at www.uproarpartners.com or my email at [email protected].

[00:09:37] If you are trying to grow scale or sell your firm and feel you would benefit from being a part of a community of peers, visit the Collective54.com. OK, this takes us to the end of the episode, let us try to help listeners apply this. We end each show with a tool. We do so because this allows a listener to apply the lessons to his or her firm. Our preferred tool is a checklist and a style of checklist is a yes no questionnaire. We aim to keep it simple by asking only 10 questions. In this instance, if you answer yes to eight or more of these questions, then your ideal client profile is working for you. If you answer no too many times, then your ideal client profile is not working for you and you are likely getting in the way of your attempts to scale. Let’s begin the questions.

Sean Magennis [00:10:44] Number one, you have a demographic profile of your target client?

Greg Alexander [00:10:50] And it’s important to mention this is the client you want. Not maybe that’s different than the client you currently have.

Sean Magennis [00:10:57] Number two, do you have a psychographic profile of your target client? The same thing.

Greg Alexander [00:11:03] Correct.

Sean Magennis [00:11:03] Number three, do you have an elevator pitch that speaks directly to the target client?

Greg Alexander [00:11:09] That’s oftentimes a humbling experience.

Sean Magennis [00:11:11] Yep.

Greg Alexander [00:11:12] Record yourself as to what your elevator pitch is and pull out your demographic and psychographic profile and say, how would this sit with them? Oftentimes it’s off.

Sean Magennis [00:11:20] Number four, do you understand the personal goals of the client?

Greg Alexander [00:11:25] People of people, people buy from people, so personal goals are just as important as professional goals.

Sean Magennis [00:11:31] That’s right, great point. Number five, do you understand the professional goals of the client? Number six, do you understand the obstacles preventing the client from accomplishing their personal goals? And number seven, do you understand the obstacles preventing the client from accomplishing their professional goals? Number eight, do you understand the likely objections that your client is going to submit to you?

Greg Alexander [00:11:57] Right, so if you understand their obstacles professionally, personally and make your pitch, you should you should be able to anticipate what are they…

Greg Alexander [00:12:05] Exactly.

Sean Magennis [00:12:06] Good point. Number nine, do you understand the client’s top priorities? And number 10, do you understand the emotional makeup of the client?

Greg Alexander [00:12:17] Goes to client experience, right.

Sean Magennis [00:12:18] This is fantastic. Greg, thank you. In summary, know thy client. Get inside their hearts, their souls and their minds. Try to know them better than they know themselves. Take this knowledge and drive it into everything you do. When a prospect bumps into you, they should say to themselves, these people, get me. If you enjoyed the show and want to learn more, pick up a copy of Greg Alexander’s book titled The Boutique How to Start Scale and Sell a Professional Services Firm. Thanks again, Greg. I’m Sean Magennis and thank you for listening.

March 22, 2021June 28, 2023

Episode 25: The Boutique: The Hero Syndrome: A Dirty Little Secret About Professional services Firms

There is a dirty little secret about owners of boutique professional service firms. It is called the Hero Syndrome. If left unchecked, it will prevent you from scaling your firm. On this episode we discuss how to deal with this problem.

TRANSCRIPT

Sean Magennis [00:00:15] Welcome to The Boutique with Capital 54, a podcast for owners of professional services firms. My goal with this show is to help you grow scale and sell your firm at the right time for the right price and on the right terms. I’m Sean Magennis, CEO of Capital 54, and your host. On this episode, I will make the case there is a dirty little secret about owners of boutique professional services firms. This dirty little secret is called the hero syndrome, and if left unchecked, it will prevent you from scaling your firm. I’ll try to prove this theory by interviewing Greg Alexander, Capital 54’s chief investment officer. Greg has some great suggestions on how to deal with this problem. Greg, great to see you, and welcome.

Greg Alexander [00:01:09] Sean, it’s good to be with you. Boy, what a topic we have today. I love that we tackle issues on this show that most shy away from.

Sean Magennis [00:01:18] Exactly, Greg. Excellent. Let’s start with the definition. What what is the hero syndrome?

Greg Alexander [00:01:25] The hero syndrome is when the owner of a professional services firm has his or her identity wrapped up in the firm. The clients and the employees need the owner, and this makes the owner feel like a hero, the hero style owner gets his or her personal validation from owning the firm, and it is appropriate to call it a syndrome as it leads to sickness and eventually death because the owner becomes a severe bottleneck.

Sean Magennis [00:01:57] And Greg, why do our listeners, owners of boutiques, suffer from this?

Greg Alexander [00:02:03] Man, why does the sun rise in the east and set in the west? The hero syndrome is part of human nature, I think. Founders of boutiques are human. This means they want to be part of a tribe, they want to be recognized. They want to feel needed to feel as if they matter. Owners of boutiques like all of us suffer from insecurities. And one way to deal with these insecurities is to build a firm completely dependent on the hero, the owner, our listeners. I mean, it is not a joy entering the battle as a hero and saving the day. I think human nature is why this happens repeatedly.

Sean Magennis [00:02:46] And you call it a dirty little secret. Why is the hero syndrome kept a secret?

Greg Alexander [00:02:54] In my opinion, there are two primary reasons why this is not openly discussed as often as required. First, it takes an above average level of self-awareness to recognize this problem, and in my experience, self-awareness is lacking. And a lot of founders, I think many of our listeners are suffering from the hero syndrome right now. Yet do not know it. Maybe this show can bring some awareness to this issue and the second reason this is kept a secret is no one wants to admit they’re holding their firm back because they like being the hero. I mean, it’s embarrassing. Imagine a staff meeting whereby the owner stands up and says to employees, I have an announcement to make. I’m an egomaniac and I love being the hero. Therefore, I’m unwilling to get out of my own way. And you are just going to have to deal with the consequences and the poor results.

Sean Magennis [00:03:49] Yeah, that would be super embarrassing. I can see why this is a dirty little secret. Let’s give the audience the benefit of the doubt and assume they are aware of the issue. What can they do about it?

Greg Alexander [00:04:04] The answer to this question is the best founders work themselves out of a job, they make themselves obsolete and build firms that can succeed without them. This is when hyperscale kicks in.

Sean Magennis [00:04:16] Aha. Found founders need to go from the hero to the invisible man.

Greg Alexander [00:04:22] That’s well said.

Sean Magennis [00:04:22] And how do you do this, Greg?

Greg Alexander [00:04:24] Boy, I could teach a week long course just on this subject. We only have a few minutes left on this show. So let me let me give you some quick suggestions. Let’s see. There is four things that come to mind. Number one, I would recommend stop being a control freak and try to replicate yourself in your employees. If an employee can do what you can do, 80 percent as well as you can do it. That’s a good thing. Do not feel threatened by this. Number two, it may be faster for you, the founder, to do something yourself, and you know that if you do it, whatever it is, you know, it will be done correctly. However, this is flawed thinking. Yes, it will take time to teach someone how to perform a task. And in the beginning, the employee will screw it up. But eventually you will replicate yourself and others to the point where you are no longer a bottleneck. Third, recognize there is a business case for eliminating you as the hero. Profits will go up when you do this. As the owner, you are the most expensive resource in the company. When you do something, the cost of completing the task is very high. The quickest way to destroy profits in a process of firm is to have senior people doing junior task work. And lastly, number four, the tactical program to launch is an employee certification program. An employee certification program proves to a founder that employee has reached a level of competency. If done correctly, an employee certification program can rapidly scale a boutique. Employee certification is a big topic, and we should reserve a future episode just to discuss it, to get it out here, every employee in the firm would be in a learning path certifying their knowledge. For example, the practical understanding of the subject matter, also certifying their skill, for example, their ability to do something. This approach systematically replicates an owner’s knowledge and skill into every employee in the firm over time and in perpetuity. And obviously, this removes the hero slash founder from being a bottleneck.

Sean Magennis [00:06:48] Excellent, Greg. So stop being a control freak, remove yourself as a bottleneck, and recognize the profit potential of doing so and roll out an employee certification program.

Sean Magennis [00:07:06] And now a word from our sponsor, Collective 54. Collective 54 is a membership organization for owners of professional services firms. Members joined to work with their industry peers to grow scale and someday sell their firms at the right time for the right price and on the right terms. Let us meet one of the collective 54 members.

Bryon Morrison [00:07:32] Hi, this is Bryon Morrison, CEO of Proxxy, your executive multiplier. And if you’re a Challenger executive running today’s small to medium-sized business, that’s going to be tomorrow’s next big thing. Proxxy is here to serve you. We provide a full-service chief-of-staff solution that gives you an experienced, well-trained professional to take over, automate those routine tasks while also providing strategic counsel and operationalizing your great ideas so you can keep driving your company forward. This is not a fractional executive that’s going to run out of time or cost you too much, and it’s not a virtual admin you’ll end up managing. Proxxy as a team and technology-based approach that gives you 24/7 coverage and gives you back at least eight hours each week. So if you want help from a pro that isn’t trying to climb a ladder or get more budget, get started with your own Proxxy chief-of-staff at www.remotechiefofstaff.com.

Sean Magennis [00:08:33] If you are trying to grow scale or sell your firm and feel you would benefit from being a part of a community of peers, visit the Collective54.com. OK, so this takes us to the end of this episode, and as is customary, we end each show with a tool. We do so because this allows a listener to apply the lessons to his or her firm. Our preferred tool is a checklist and our style of checklist is a yes-no questionnaire. We aim to keep it simple by asking only 10 questions. In this instance, if you answer yes to eight or more of these questions, this strategy is working for you. If you answer no too many times, this strategy is more than likely getting in the way of your attempts to scale.

Sean Magennis [00:09:31] So let’s begin question number one. Do you feel like you must do everything yourself? Question number two, do you feel like you must be in every key meeting? Number three, do clients require you to be directly involved in their projects? Number four, do your employees come to you for help constantly? Number five, do you have to micromanage everyone? Number six, do you have to review everything before it goes out? Number seven, are you working too much? Number eight, is it faster to just do the work yourself? Number nine, do you feel like it will get done correctly only if you do it? And number ten, are you turning over employees?

Greg Alexander [00:10:38] So number ten’s interesting if you have a turnover problem, it’s because people arn’t growing inside your firm. Yep. Nobody wants to be a robot of the founder.

Sean Magennis [00:10:47] Exactly. So, in summary, boutique owners do suffer from the hero syndrome. This is because of human nature and founders seeking emotional validation from their role as hero/owner. This insecurity gets in the way of scaling the firm because owners become a bottleneck. The founders who scale their firms make themselves irrelevant building firms that can succeed without them. If you enjoyed the show and want to learn more, pick up a copy of Greg Alexander’s book titled The Boutique How to Start Scale and Sell a Professional Services Firm. I’m Sean Magennis. Thank you for listening.

March 15, 2021June 28, 2023

Episode 24: The Boutique: Are you Losing to “Do Nothing”?

Boutiques lose more deals to a competitor we call “Do Nothing” than any other competitor. On this episode, we discuss how boutique owners can improve sales results by defeating this pesky competitor.

TRANSCRIPT

Sean Magennis [00:00:15] Welcome to The Boutique with Capital 54, a podcast for owners of professional services firms. My goal with this show is to help you grow scale and sell your firm at the right time for the right price and on the right terms. I’m Sean Magennis, CEO of Capital 54 and your host. On this episode, I will make the case that boutiques lose more deals to a competitor we call do nothing than any other competitor. I’ll try to prove this theory by interviewing Greg Alexander, Capital 54’s chief investment officer. Greg has helped many boutique owners improve sales results by defeating this pesky competitor. Greg, good to see you and welcome.

Greg Alexander [00:01:06] My man Sean, good morning. Good to be here.

Sean Magennis [00:01:08] OK, Greg, let’s jump in. Can we start off with a description of the competitor we are calling, “do nothing”?

Greg Alexander [00:01:16] Sure. So do nothing refers to the project that went away. The prospect did not hire a firm any firm. They just decided not to move forward with the project. In other words, they decided to do nothing.

Sean Magennis [00:01:28] Got it. The quirky name makes perfect sense. And Greg, you feel this competitor is the top competitor boutiques must defeat to grow. Why do you feel that way?

Greg Alexander [00:01:39] So founders of boutiques are time starved. They have too many things to do and not enough time in the day to get them all done. When they pursue new business, the pursue takes up a lot of time. If this time spent does not produce revenue, it can be devastating. Fifty percent of all lost deals are lost to do nothing in the professional services game. This stat was true in my firm and it is proving to be true in the firms led by collective 54 members. Defeating this sneaky competitor will save Founders’ a ton of time and boost revenue.

Sean Magennis [00:02:11] Wow, 50 percent is a big number. This just became a priority for many of our listeners. Before we get into the recommended solution, can you share with the audience the root cause of this issue?

Greg Alexander [00:02:24] Sure. So the root cause of the problem is founders of boutiques are peddling solutions, looking for problems. They are selling vitamins when they should be selling painkillers. Let me explain my analogy. People buy painkillers when they are in pain. When someone is in pain, they do not decide to do nothing. They buy immediately. In contrast, people buy vitamins occasionally. It is an optional activity, maybe tied to a New Year’s resolution or some new health kick. However, many people, when faced with the decision to buy vitamins, just decide to do nothing. It’s not urgent. Boutique Founders’ can get enamored with their solution. They think every prospect needs it, and they are surprised when many prospects decide not to buy it. They have a solution looking for a problem to solve. This is the root cause of this issue. Vitamin instead of painkillers.

Sean Magennis [00:03:16] Yes, Greg, I can see this. So founders can fall in love with their solution. And at times this can blind them to the commercial realities of the marketplace. They get caught up in the technical sophistication of their solution and they do not think about how it will be bought and sold. Greg, I imagine you have some practical advice to avoid this mistake. Please share it.

Greg Alexander [00:03:40] I do. And I’m excited to share it because it’s based on common sense and it is easy to implement. There are four things to do. First, be sure you can state the problem you saw for clients, clearly. This seems like a duh comment, but surprisingly it is not. For example, when I ask a boutique founder what problem they solve for clients, they tell me about their solution. They do not tell me about the client problem. I recently asked an IT consulting firm what problem they solve with clients, and he said we provide cloud migration services. This is not a problem statement. This is a solution description. In this instance, a better answer might have been our clients are trying to migrate legacy apps to the cloud. This is taking too long, costing too much and causing too much downtime. Now, that’s a problem statement and positioning a solution against this has a much better chance of resulting in a win.

Sean Magennis [00:04:33] This is a great before and after illustrative example. The difference between a solution description and a problem statement is subtle, but it’s so important. Greg, you mentioned four things to do. We covered the first. Let’s hear about number two.

Greg Alexander [00:04:49] OK, so the second thing to do is determine if the problem you are solving is pervasive. To grow your firm, you need lots of sales opportunity. If you are solving a problem only a few clients are experiencing, you are limiting your growth. This is a big reason why “Do Nothing” is the number one competitor. A founder gets in front of a prospect, makes the pitch and the prospect says something like, I can see why your solution is very valuable. And if I had the need for it, I would consider hiring your firm. But it does not apply to me right now. Check back with me in six months. You just lost to do nothing. You just wasted your time and a prospect which is never going to buy. If you have to kiss a lot of frogs who never turn into a prince, you will be celebrating your one hundredth birthday before you scale focus only on pervasive problems.

Sean Magennis [00:05:37] Greg, I must admit, I’ve heard many prospects say that to me over the years, almost verbatim. If I think about how many hours I wasted in pitch meetings with prospects like this, I cringed. Anyway, okay I’m hooked on the subject. Tell me about the third idea on defeating do nothing.

Greg Alexander [00:05:56] OK, so number three is proving that the problem is urgent. When a founder pitches a prospect, the prospect is determining if what he is hearing is worthy of making it on his priority list. Prospects just like founders of boutiques are time time starved. If they are going to take on another project, it better be worth it. Prospects prioritize their projects based on urgency. The most urgent go first and get the most budget, the least urgent go last and get the smallest budgets.

Greg Alexander [00:06:29] The action for the founder is to prove that your solution solves an urgent problem and therefore it should be prioritized. Our listeners are wondering right about now how they do this. We don’t have enough time to go into this on this episode. So let me just hit the tips of the wave. To prove you a solution solves an urgent problem, do two things. Number one, calculate the cost of inaction. Make sure the prospects know exactly how much it’s going to cost them if he does not act right now. Number two, show that the pain is getting worse over time. Make sure the prospect knows that if he does not act now, it may be too late down the road. A small problem today will be life threatening six months from now. So let’s giddy up.

Sean Magennis [00:07:19] I had heard the urgency suggestion before, but I had never heard it from a thought leader on how to create the urgency. Calculating the cost of inaction and showing the client the problem is escalating are brilliant ways to get a prospect to move from buy to buy now. Let’s hit the fourth idea.

Greg Alexander [00:07:40] OK. The fourth recommendation to defeat do nothing is to confirm the prospect is willing to pay for the solution. Often founders make the pitch. The prospect says yes, and he sees the price and he changes the yes to a no. When asked what happened, the prospect says we just don’t have the budget for that right now. And guess what? He just lost the do nothing. The fix to this is to confirm that prospect is willing to pay for the solution to the problem. So how does one do this?

Greg Alexander [00:08:10] Every proposal must come with a cost justification and the cost justification must be believable, populated with the prospects own figures. For example, in my time in SBI, we would sell prospect’s projects around sales effectiveness. Each proposal came with the cost justification based on two things. Number one, decreasing the prospects cost to acquire customers and number two, increase in the lifetime value of each customer acquired. These two items were expressed in hard dollars, and the math was based on the client’s current baseline.

Greg Alexander [00:08:47] In each, our fee was placed in this context, the client could clearly compare the benefit in the cost of the project. As a result, we defeated do nothing regularly. I am not sure what metrics our listeners would use in their cost justifications, but I do know they need to figure that out if they are going to defeat do nothing regularly, it is the only way to get the prospect to having high willingness to pay.

Sean Magennis [00:09:13] This is fantastic. So overcome the prospect price objection with a cost justification in the proposal and make it easy for the prospect to have a high willingness to pay. These four ideas state the problem clearly to pursue only pervasive problems, prove the problem is urgent, and use a cost justification to increase the prospects willingness to pay. This will defeat, do nothing and help our audience members grow.

Sean Magennis [00:09:46] And now a word from our sponsor, Collective 54. Collective 54 is a membership organization for owners of professional services firms. Members joined to work with their industry peers to grow scale and someday sell firms at the right time for the right price and on the right terms. Let us meet one of the collective 54 members.

John Ferguson [00:10:12] Hi, my name is John Ferguson. I’m the CEO TBM Consulting Group. We’re a global operations and supply chain consultancy, serving manufacturers, distributors and field service organizations in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. Our primary clients, our C Suite operations executives and operationally focused private equity firms. TBM helps to reduce costs, improve cash flow and to leverage those gains for sustainable, profitable growth. We provide diagnostics, go forward plans and hands on implementation support to create speed, flexibility and responsiveness throughout our client’s manufacturing and supply chain operations. If you need help leveraging operational excellence to accelerate value creation, contact us at TBMCG.COM. My direct email is [email protected] Or you can reach us via 1-800-438-5535.

Sean Magennis [00:11:13] If you are trying to grow scale or sell your firm and feel you would benefit from being a part of a community of peers, visit Collective54.com.

Sean Magennis [00:11:29] OK, this takes us to the end of the episode, let us try to help listeners apply this. We end each show with a tool. We do so because this allows the listener to apply the lessons to his or her firm. Our preferred tool is a checklist and our style of checklist is a yes no questionnaire, we aim to keep it simple by asking only 10 questions. In this instance, if you answer yes to eight or more of these questions, you are not losing to the competitor called Do Nothing. If you answer no, too many times, you are losing to the competitor called Do Nothing. Let’s begin with the questions.

Sean Magennis [00:12:17] Number one. When you explain the problem to your family, do they understand it? Number two, when you explain the problem to your friends, do they understand it?

Greg Alexander [00:12:29] So the reason why family and friends is here is because they’re not in the weeds, right? So if they can’t understand it or if they do understand it, then, you know, you’re communicating clearly. You know, I will add one little funny story. Yeah. So I used to bring my dog Rocco to work. And if I was in these early days of SBI and if I was pitching on the telephone, if he got up and left, I knew I was in trouble.

Sean Magennis [00:12:52] Rocco was a smart dog.

Greg Alexander [00:12:52] He was.

Sean Magennis [00:12:52] Number three, does the problem exist in more than one industry?

Greg Alexander [00:12:59] This goes to pervasiveness.

Sean Magennis [00:13:01] Number four, does the problem exist in companies of all sizes? Number five, does the problem exist in many geographies? Number six, are clients paying to solve the problem today?

Greg Alexander [00:13:17] Right, which is a great way to judge whether the problem is urgent, if they’re already spending money to solve it, then they’re voting with their wallet.

Sean Magennis [00:13:23] Right. Number seven, have clients been paying to solve the problem for years?

Greg Alexander [00:13:29] Yep another important thing, right?

Sean Magennis [00:13:32] Number eight, if the client does not solve the problem, are the consequences severe? Number nine, is there a trigger event that puts the client into the market for your solution?

Greg Alexander [00:13:44] Right. So a trigger event is is something that happens to the client that causes them to act.

Sean Magennis [00:13:50] And number 10, when clients have the problem, do they work to get it solved by a certain deadline?

Greg Alexander [00:13:56] From from buy to buy now.

Sean Magennis [00:13:58] It’s great, Greg. So in summary, do nothing is defeating you 50 percent of the time, whether you know it or you don’t know it. So to beat this competitor. Be sure to pick a problem to solve that is pervasive, urgent, one that prospects are willing to pay to solve. And be sure you can explain it simply. In other words, start with the problem, not the solution. If you enjoyed the show and want to learn more, pick up a copy of Greg Alexander’s book titled The Boutique How to Start Scale and Sell a Professional Services Firm.

Sean Magennis [00:14:38] Greg, thank you again. I’m Sean Magennis and thank you to our audience for listening.

March 8, 2021June 28, 2023

Episode 23: The Boutique: EXIT HACK: BUILDING A LARGE UNIVERSE OF POTENTIAL BUYERS

A key to selling your professional services firm is building a wide and deep universe of potential buyers. On this episode, we discuss how to develop broad interest with potential acquirers.

TRANSCRIPT

Sean Magennis [00:00:16] Welcome to the Boutique with Capital 54, a podcast for owners of professional services firms. My goal with the show is to help you grow scale and sell your firm at the right time for the right price and on the right terms. I’m Sean Magennis, CEO of Capital 54 and your host. On this episode, I will make the case that the key to selling your firm is to build a wide and deep universe of potential buyers. I’ll try to prove this theory by interviewing Greg Alexander, Capital 54’s founder and chief investment officer. Greg, maybe more than any other thought leader understands how to develop broad interest in a boutique from potential acquirers. Greg, great to see you and welcome.

Greg Alexander [00:01:06] Thanks, pal. Great topic today. By the end of this show, I hope our listeners learn how to tilt the supply and demand equation in their favor.

Sean Magennis [00:01:13] Amen. So maybe we should start out with that very thing. Supply and demand. How does this economic theory apply to selling a professional services firm?

Greg Alexander [00:01:25] OK. It might not be obvious, so let me explain. Supply and demand will impact one’s ability to sell the firm. Let’s consider first the supply side. If there are many boutiques like yours available for sale, valuations are going down and the opposite is true. If you are the only firm in your niche willing to sell, valuations are going up. And if we flip the coin, and considered the demand side. If the universe of buyers is wide and deep, the chances of a successful exit increase. If the number of potential buyers is small, exiting will be difficult.

Sean Magennis [00:01:58] Excellent. I can see how supply and demand effect valuations and the probability of exiting. This begs the question, how does an owner of a boutique manipulate supply and demand?

Greg Alexander [00:02:10] So this is where the investment banker earns his feet. It is their job to generate lots of demand for your firm. They are skilled at doing this using a variety of methods, starting with market maps, adjacencies, segmenting the private equity investors and many others. They are experts at throwing a wide net.

Sean Magennis [00:02:31] Greg, it’s one thing to build a list and yet quite another to generate real interest from firms on this list. How is this done in your experience?

Greg Alexander [00:02:42] This is where the owner and the banker need to partner. The investment banker will build an exhaustive list of potential buyers. But he or she will need the owner’s help preparing the pitch. An owner can contribute at this stage, by given the banker compelling strategic rationale to buy your boutique and I advocate for developing this deal, rationale for each buyer, for customizing it for that specific buyer. This will increase the positive response rates the investment banker generates.

Sean Magennis [00:03:14] Excellent Greg. So let’s save our listeners some time by giving them some examples of what might go into such a customized pitch.

Greg Alexander [00:03:24] There are many, but here are a few since our show is meant to be short. Maybe buying a boutique opens up a new market for a strategic acquire. Or maybe if I buy your boutique, it will strengthen my value proposition and help me sell more of my core services. At times I must acquire because I’m at a competitive disadvantage in buying new fixes that a common one these days is firms buy boutiques to diversify revenue streams. For example, my firm has too much client concentration and I can buy you. Which brings a whole new set of clients. These are but a few, do you get the picture?

Sean Magennis [00:04:03] I do Greg, so simple and practical examples listeners can use as a starting point. Really excellent.

Sean Magennis [00:04:13] And now a word from our sponsor. Collective 54, Collective 54 is a membership organization for owners of professional services firms. Members join to work with their industry peers to grow scale and someday sell live firms at the right time for the right price and on the right terms. Let us meet one of the collective 54 members.

Brenda Hurtado [00:04:39] Thank you, Sean. Hi, my name is Brenda Hurtado. I’m president of The Point Group. The Point Group is a marketing communications firm built from a different model. We’re an integrated full service agency with strategists from both the agency side and the client side. Our unique combination of business acumen and marketing expertize brings a fresh perspective and approach to find creative solutions that truly make a difference and drive business results. For more than 25 five years, we’ve worked with startups, the Fortune 50 brands to help them enter new markets, position them for growth and improve their customer engagement strategies. At the Point Group, we create work that works to learn more about the company. See us at thepointgroup.com.

Sean Magennis [00:05:23] If you are trying to grow scale or sell your firm and feel you would benefit from being a part of a community of peers, visit the Collective54.com.

Sean Magennis [00:05:40] So this takes us to the end of this episode. And as is customary, we end each show with a tool. We do so because this allows a listener to apply the lessons to his or her firm. Our preferred tool is a checklist. And our style of checklist is a yes-no questionnaire. We aim to keep it simple. By asking only ten yes-no questions. In this instance, if you answer yes to eight or more of these questions, you have a large universe of buyers. If you answer no too many times your buyer pool is too small, which means you might not be able to exit. Let’s begin.

Sean Magennis [00:06:21] Do you know how many firms like yours are for sale?

Greg Alexander [00:06:25] Quickest way to find that out is play the role of an acquirer. Pick up the phone, call people and say, hey, you want to sell your firm? I’m interested in buying. And you can get a really quick gauge for how many firms like yours are for sale.

Sean Magennis [00:06:36] Excellent. Number two, have you completed a market map?

Greg Alexander [00:06:42] For those in our family with that term, does Google market map, and there’s lots and lots of how to step by step guides to create one.

Sean Magennis [00:06:49] Correct. Number three, has this market map produced an exhaustive list, exhaustive list of potential buyers? Number four, does this map include adjacent markets?

Greg Alexander [00:07:02] Yeah, and this is important. Don’t think too narrowly. You know, there’s markets to the left and right, a view that also contain possible acquirers.

Sean Magennis [00:07:10] Number five, does the map include private equity firms with a known interest in firms like yours? Number six, have you developed the strategic rationale to buy your firm? Number seven, have you customized this deal rationale for each potential buyer? Number eight, do you know the leading investment banker in your niche? Number nine, have you approached them about representing? And number ten, has this investment banker creatively enlarged the universe of potential buyers for you?

Sean Magennis [00:07:56] In summary, keep in mind that supply and demand will impact your exit. Take the time to strategically approach the market. The goal is to build a wide and deep universe of buyers. There are many more buyers than you likely realize, some of them just might respond well to what you have built. And one of them might be willing to pay you a lot for your firm.

Sean Magennis [00:08:24] If you enjoyed the show and want to learn more, pick up a copy of Greg Alexander’s book titled The Boutique How to Start Scale and Sell a Professional Services Firm. I’m Sean Magennis. Thank you for listening.

March 1, 2021June 28, 2023

Episode 22: The Boutique: The Quickest Way to Scale

A change to your pricing strategy is perhaps the quickest way to scale. It does not require an investment to implement and the benefits are immediate.

TRANSCRIPT

Sean Magennis [00:00:15] Welcome to the Boutique with Capital 54, a podcast for owners of professional services firms. My goal with this show is to help you grow scale and sell your firm at the right time for the right price and on the right terms. I’m Sean Magennis, CEO of Capital 54 and your host on this episode. I will make the case a change to your pricing strategy is the quickest way to scale. I’ll try to prove this theory by interviewing Greg Alexander, Capital 54’s founder and chief investment officer. Greg is truly an expert in the pricing of professional services. Greg, great to see you and welcome.

Greg Alexander [00:01:03] Sean, it’s good to be with you. I look forward to helping our listeners pick some low hanging fruit today.

Sean Magennis [00:01:08] Excellent. And in this instance, I would say the fruit is not low hanging. It’s on the ground. So our listeners just need to bend over and pick it up. Greg, why is a change in pricing strategy the quickest way to scale?

Greg Alexander [00:01:24] Because it does not require an investment to implement. There is not staff to add or service offering to develop, and the benefits are immediate. Charge more today than you did yesterday.

Sean Magennis [00:01:34] And you feel most owners of boutiques mess up their pricing strategy and get this wrong. Why do you feel this way?

Greg Alexander [00:01:41] So there are several reasons. So boutiques often do not know what their services are worth to their clients, and they are often unaware of what clients are willing to pay for the services. Many firms cannot even logically explain to prospects why they charge what they charge. And worse, they cannot quantify the amount of value the prospect receives from an engagement. Too often, the pricing strategy is in without it’s based on intent, internal costs, worse boutiques rely too heavily on what their competitors charge for similar services. And lastly, the BD team are often awful at overcoming sales objections, and they come up in the sales campaigns.

Sean Magennis [00:02:25] You know, wow Greg, I counted seven mistakes firms are making in your response. It appears pricing strategy is a real obstacle, preventing boutiques from scaling. Is there a solution to this problem?

Greg Alexander [00:02:38] Yes. The good news is, is that this problem is simply salt. It takes some sound judgment, but the pricing best practices are readily available.

Sean Magennis [00:02:48] Can you give our listeners a few to get them going?

Greg Alexander [00:02:51] Sure. So the first recommendation is to develop a pricing strategy that matches your business strategy. So, for example, if a firm sells to small businesses, the high volume, low price model makes sense. If you sell complex solutions to large companies, a high cost, low volume approach is best. Another recommendation is to focus on price positioning as it affects perception. And in this context, perception is reality. The price you charge sends a signal to the client. If you price too low, your work will be considered low quality. If you price too high, you will be perceived as being difficult to engage. If you price the same as your competitors, you’ll be perceived as undifferentiated. And one more might be to understand what clients value at the attribute level. A mistake owners of pro serve firms make is they think in the aggregate. When it comes to pricing, be sure to understand what attributes of your offering are valued most in influence to perception of your performance in this specific area. This will result in the ability to charge more. There is more perceived value here.

Sean Magennis [00:04:12] Greg, that’s really fantastic advice. So three specific takeaways that I’m seeing is match the pricing strategy to the business strategy, your price positioning and price at the attribute level, not in the aggregate. Greg, you have an incredible track record and the story of SBI’s pricing strategy has become legendary in some circles. Can you briefly share it with the audience as a way to bring these ideas to life?

Greg Alexander [00:04:43] Yeah, I think calling it legendary is a bit much, but I can say it was a key to our scaling quickly. So my firm was a management consulting firm and the management consulting industry is structured into three tiers. Tier one of the mega firms think McKinsey and Bain, etc. Tier two are the midsized boutiques and tier three other small startups. So my firm, SBI, was a Tier two management consulting firm, a mid-sized boutique highly specialized in the niche of B2B sales effectiveness.

Greg Alexander [00:05:22] My price positioning approach was to price below tier one, but above tier two. And what signal does this send? It sent the signal that we were the best of the tier two boutiques and this had the good fortune of being true. Thank goodness. The practical impact this had on us was a top one percent profitability. Our prices were compared to the mega firms. They were not compared to the Tier two firms.

Greg Alexander [00:05:54] In essence, we created a new tier like a Tier 1A and the scale benefits of this were huge. We threw off loads of free cash flow, which we plowed right back into the business. And this resulted in scaling much faster than otherwise would have been accomplished.

Sean Magennis [00:06:14] Greg, that’s a great real life example. Thank you.

Sean Magennis [00:06:20] And now a word from our sponsor. Collective 54, Collective 54 is a membership organization for owners of professional services firms. Members join to work with their industry peers to grow scale and someday sell live firms at the right time for the right price and on the right terms. Let us meet one of the collective 54 members.

Lauren Davenport [00:06:46] Hi, my name is Lauren Davenport and I own the Symphony Agency, a health care communications firm. We serve U.S. based health care provider organizations with multiple doctors and multiple locations. Our clients turn to us for help when they hit a stage of stagnant growth and need more patients or more staff to reach their projected goals. We solve this problem by developing messaging strategies that connect with their audience and implement outreach programs that extend past their current network to attain the resources needed to reinvigorate their growth. If you’re struggling with stagnant growth and need more patients or staff to reach your 2021 goals, connect with me online at SymphonyAgency.com or by email at [email protected].

Sean Magennis [00:07:39] If you are trying to grow scale or sell your firm and feel you would benefit from being a part of a community of peers, visit collective54.com.

Sean Magennis [00:07:56] This takes us to the end of this episode. And as is customary, we end each show with a tool. We do so because this allows a listener to apply the lessons to his or her for our preferred tools, a checklist. And our style of checklist is a yes-no questionnaire. We aim to keep it simple by asking only 10 questions in this instance, if you answer yes to eight or more of these questions, your pricing strategy is working for you. If you answer no too many times, pricing is more than likely getting in the way of your attempts to scale. So let’s begin.

Sean Magennis [00:08:36] Question number one, do you know what your offering is worth to clients? Number two, can you quantify the value of your work in hard dollars? Number three, do you know what clients are willing to pay for your services? Number four, can you explain the logic of your pricing in a way that makes sense to clients? Number five, does your price illustrate to the client the link between price and value? Number six, do you charge the most for the service features that your clients want the most? Number seven, do you charge the least for the service features that your clients do not care much about? Number eight, do you allow for clients to choose their price by presenting options? Number nine, is your sales team skilled at overcoming price objections? And number ten, have you built into your system an annual price increase?

Sean Magennis [00:10:03] In summary, know your worth. Do not undervalue yourself. What you do is exceptional. Price accordingly and scale quickly.

Sean Magennis [00:10:15] If you enjoyed the show and want to learn more, pick up a copy of Greg Alexander’s book titled The Boutique How to Start Scale and Sell a Professional Services Firm. I’m Sean Magennis. Thank you for listening.

February 22, 2021June 28, 2023

Episode 21: The Boutique: The Ultimate Measure of Productivity

Yield is the ultimate measure of productivity. In this episode, we discuss how professional services firms scale faster by thinking about different ways to improve yield.

TRANSCRIPT

Sean Magennis [00:00:15] Welcome to the Boutique with Capital 54, a podcast for owners of professional services firms. My goal with this show is to help you grow scale and sell your firm at the right time for the right price and on the right terms. I’m Sean Magennis, CEO of Capital 54 and your host. On this episode, I will make the case that yield is the ultimate measure of productivity. I’ll try to prove this theory by interviewing Greg Alexander, Capital 54’s founder and chief investment officer. Greg has helped owner’s scale faster by thinking about different ways to improve yield. Greg, good to see you and welcome.

Greg Alexander [00:01:03] Hey, pal. Good to be with you. Appears today we are going to discuss the most often looked at metric in all of professional services.

Sean Magennis [00:01:11] Yes, we are. Yes, we are. To begin. How about you provide us a working definition of yield?

Greg Alexander [00:01:18] Sure. So yield is simply the average fee per hour times the average utilization rate of the team. For example, if a boutiques average fee per hour is 400 dollars and the average utilization rate is 75 percent, then the yield is three hundred dollars per hour.

Sean Magennis [00:01:37] OK. That is really easy to understand. And why is it relevant to our audience, which consists of owners of professional services firms who are trying to scale beyond the lifestyle business?

Greg Alexander [00:01:49] Huh. So it is mission critical to those trying to scale. And here’s why. The typical boutique runs off an assumption of a 40 hour workweek and a 48 week year. This equates to 1972 hours per employee using our earlier example at 300 dollars per hour. The boutique will do five hundred seventy thousand dollars in revenue per employee. So a 100 person firm, let’s say, with this year will do fifty seven point six million in annual revenue. Understanding yield means you understand how much you can scale to. It establishes a ceiling and therefore it is so important for our listeners to understand.

Sean Magennis [00:02:32] Got it. So the suggestion to listeners then is to do the math and determine the scale ceiling. Let’s suppose we don’t like the answer. Greg, we want to scale past the ceiling. What can they do then?

Greg Alexander [00:02:45] Good question. And that is how we want all of our listeners to be thinking, how big can I get? Most boutiques can quote you their utilization rate from memory. This is a well tracked metric and it should be boutiques that have made it past the startup stage, have already optimized for the utilization rate. They would not have survived otherwise. Therefore, an improvement in utilization rate does not lead to scale. The point of diminishing returns has occurred unless, of course, you’re going to ask employees to work on Christmas Day. The scale owners need to turn to fees.

Sean Magennis [00:03:23] So, Greg, just before we jump to fees, let me make sure I recap what was just said. You contend that most firms, when trying to scale, have reached the point of diminishing returns on utilization rates. And you feel this way because there’s only so much juice to squeeze out of the 40 hour workweek and the 48 week year, is that correct?

Greg Alexander [00:03:43] Yes, it is. So have a look at the U.S. business calendar. It is tough to get more than forty eight weeks. Employees need a couple weeks vacation. There are sick days and there are dead periods, such as the week between Christmas and New Year’s and Thanksgiving week, etc.. It is easier to get more than a 40 hour week, especially in the work from home setting as a line between work and life had blurred. Many people routinely work 50 plus hours a week. But in my experience, most of these extra hours are non billable. So they did not move the revenue line that much.

Sean Magennis [00:04:18] Okay, so let’s assume the 1920 hours per employee assumption holds as there’s not much one can do to improve it. Now you say it’s time to turn to fees. Why is that?

Greg Alexander [00:04:31] Yes. So remember, this is an equation with only two variables utilization rate and dollars per hour. Owners of boutiques have more juice to squeeze out of the dollars per hour variable and impacting the dollars per hour variable is not as easy as raising prices.

Greg Alexander [00:04:48] Most boutiques are in competitive markets. The intense competition drives downward pressure on fees. So if this is true for our listeners, what can they do to impact dollars per hour? So key to scaling in this context is to figure out how to become more valuable to clients. Clients will pay more for boutiques that bring more value to them. This is because clients turn to boutiques for specialization. These clients have moved away from the huge generalist firms. They are willing to pay more for highly specialized expertise.

Sean Magennis [00:05:27] That makes total sense, Greg. So it appears the key to higher prices is more specialization. Can you give the audience some ideas on how to increase their specialization?

Greg Alexander [00:05:38] Sure. In my experience, there are five forms of specialization that translate to higher fees, and they are, so number one specializing by industry vertical. Number two, specializing by function. So I serve the CFO or I serve the CTO. Number three is specialize in by segment. So I call on large enterprises or I call on consumers or I call on small business owners, etc. Number four is specializing on problem. So cyber security risk is a problem and I specialize around that. Number five, I specialize in geography. So here we are in Dallas, Texas, and I serve clients in Dallas, Texas. So let me give you a hypothetical example of a highly specialized firm. Clients would pay a premium for a consulting firm that helps product managers and enterprise software companies in Silicon Valley move to the cloud. To notice the five forms of specialization, we had the industry software companies, we had the function product managers, we had the segment enterprise, we had the problem moved to the cloud and we had the geography Silicon Valley. This firm’s yield, if it existed, would be high because it could charge a lot more.

Sean Magennis [00:06:56] That’s an excellent illustrative example. Thank you, Greg. And now a word from our sponsor Collective 54. Collective 54 is a membership organization for owners of professional services firms. Members join to work with their industry peers to grow scale and someday sell their firms at the right time for the right price and on the right terms. Let us meet one of the collective 54 members.

Tony Mirchandani [00:07:30] Hello. My name is Tony Mirchandani. I’m the owner of RTM engineering consultants. We’re a national engineering firm focused on the built environment. We provide civil, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and specialty services around the country. Our growth has come 50 percent through acquisitive growth and 50 percent through organic growth, as well as partnering with architects and developers. If there’s anything we can do for you, please feel free to reach out to me. I can be reached at [email protected].

Sean Magennis [00:08:04] If you are trying to grow scale or sell your firm and feel you would benefit from being a part of a community of peers, visit Collective54.com. So this takes us to the end of this episode. And as is customary, we end each show with a tool. We do so because this allows a listener to apply the lessons to his or her firm. Our preferred tool is a checklist. And our style of checklist is a yes no questionnaire. We aim to keep it simple by asking only 10 questions. In this instance, if you answer yes to eight or more of these questions, you are running a tight ship with excellent yield. If you said no too many times, you have a yield problem. And this will be an impediment to scaling.

Sean Magennis [00:08:59] Let’s begin. Number one, are your average utilization rates above 85 percent? Number two, senior staff above 70 percent? Number three, mid-level staff above 80 percent? Number four, junior staff above 90 percent? Number five, are you average fees above 400 dollars per hour? Number six, senior staff above seven hundred and fifty dollars an hour? Mid-level staff above 500 dollars an hour? And number eight, junior staff above 250 dollars an hour? Number nine, are you assuming a forty eight week year and 40 hours per week? And number ten, are you distinguished from the generalist, with three to five forms of specialization?

Sean Magennis [00:10:19] In summary, yield is the ultimate measure of productivity for professional services firms. Watch out for the trap of over rotating to utilization rates and under-indexing the second variable in the equation, which is dollars per hour. Drive up your fees by becoming more valuable to your clients, by becoming hyper specialized. If you do so, the limit on your scale is the sky.

Sean Magennis [00:10:52] If you enjoyed the show and want to learn more, pick up a copy of Greg Alexander’s book titled The Boutique How to Start Scale and Sell a professional services firm. I’m Sean Magennis. Thank you for listening.

February 15, 2021June 28, 2023

Episode 20: The Boutique: The Best Way to Get the Highest Price

The best way to get the highest price for your firm at exit is to get the comps right. In this episode, we discuss how to drive up valuations through the proper positioning of professional services firms.

TRANSCRIPT

Sean Magennis [00:00:16] Welcome to the Boutique with Capital 54, a podcast for owners of professional services firms. My goal for this show is to help you grow scale and sell your firm at the right time for the right price and on the right terms. I’m Sean Magennis, CEO of Capital 54 and your host. On this episode, I’ll make the case that the best way to get the highest price for your firm at exit is to get the comps right. I’ll try to prove this by interviewing Greg Alexander, Capital 54’s founder and chief investment officer. Greg is a master of driving up valuations through the proper positioning of professional services firms. Greg, good to see you and welcome.

Greg Alexander [00:01:06] Thanks, Sean. I’m looking forward to making our listeners some money today.

Sean Magennis [00:01:09] I love it. Let’s begin by grounding the audience in a definition of a comp. What does that mean?

Greg Alexander [00:01:17] So the term comp, comps, is short for the word comparables and the word comparables is meant to define the valuations in the terms, firms like yours get when they sell. For instance, the last time you sold your home, the price you sold for was determined by the price of similar homes in your neighborhood. By looking at comps, a buyer can get a feel for the fair market value of a firm.

Sean Magennis [00:01:44] Got it. So the last time we bought a home, our real estate agent provided me the cost per square foot of homes in our neighborhood and how they were selling. In essence, these were comps. So when selling a firm, does it work the same way?

Greg Alexander [00:02:00] It does. But in this case, there is no real estate agent. Instead, there is an investment banker who performs similar duties. Also, in this case, there is no cost per square foot. Instead, there is a multiple of EBITDA, which determines how much a firm is worth. Am I making sense here?

Sean Magennis [00:02:18] Yes, you are. So owners of firms hire typically an investment banker who markets the firm to potential buyers. And the price of the firm is determined by the multiple of EBITDA. Can you help the listeners understand how comps play a role in this?

Greg Alexander [00:02:36] Sure. It’s pretty straightforward. So when I sold my firm, I hired M.H.T. as my investment banker. I chose them because they had represented firms in my niche before and had firsthand knowledge as to how much firms like mine were sold for. This established our comps in practical terms when the price I was seeking from buyers was challenged. They justified our asking price by referencing the comps.

Sean Magennis [00:03:02] Got it. So I think it would be great. Greg, if if you could share with the audience how category positioning affects the comps.

Greg Alexander [00:03:10] Sure. So I’ll use my personal story as the use case here. So my firm, SBI, was originally placed in the sales training category and this was not correct. We did not train sales teams. We were a management consulting firm specializing in sales effectiveness. The correct comps for us were other management consulting firms. This distinction was a big deal as it affects EBITDA multiples greatly. At the time, sales training firms were being bought for five and a half times EBITDA. Management consulting firms were being bought for nine times EBITDA. In addition, sales training firms were not perceived to be high growth firms. Yet my firm had a 10 year compounded growth rate of 30 percent when we were correctly positioned. As a high growth firm in the management consulting space, our multiple went to 11 times EBITDA. These two modifications to how our firm was positioned resulted in a multi-million dollar increase in the purchase price.

Sean Magennis [00:04:18] Greg, that’s that is a great story and it solidifies the mission critical nature of really getting the comps right. So this aspect of exit readiness is literally worth millions.

Greg Alexander [00:04:31] It truly is.

Sean Magennis [00:04:35] And now a word from our sponsor. Collective 54, Collective 54 is a membership organization for owners of professional services firms. Members join to work with their industry peers to grow scale and someday sell live firms at the right time for the right price and on the right terms. Let us meet one of the collective 54 members.

Brandon Hernandez [00:05:01] Hello. My name is Brandon Hernandez. I am the owner of Wholegrain Consulting. We service clients in the USDA, FDA and CPG food landscape. These clients turn to us for help in supply chain, Q8, QC, regulatory compliance, command source and selection and negotiation, and a small research and development arm. We solve this problem by being an outsourced, hourly, customizable solution for your company. If you need help with any of these areas, please reach out to www.whole-grain-consulting.com or you can reach out to me directly at [email protected]. Thank you.

Sean Magennis [00:05:42] If you are trying to grow scale or sell your firm and feel you would benefit from being a part of a community of peers, visit Collective54.com.

Sean Magennis [00:05:59] OK, so this takes us to the end of this episode. And as is customary, we end each show with a tool. We do so because this allows a listener to apply the lessons to his or her firm. Our preferred tool is a checklist. And our style of checklist is a yes-no questionnaire. We aim to keep it simple by asking only 10 yes-no questions. In this instance, if you answer yes to eight or more of these questions, you have your comps right. If you answer no too many times, you might lose millions because your comps are not accurate. So let’s begin.

Sean Magennis [00:06:38] Number one, do you have a list of boutiques in your category that recently sold? Number two, do you know the price paid for each of them? Number three, do you know the deal terms for each?

Greg Alexander [00:06:57] You know, right now our listeners are saying no, no and no to the first three questions, and that’s followed up with. I get why you want this data. How do you get it? Let me tell you how I did it. I just picked up the phone and I called the owners of these boutiques. And an interesting thing happened, which is worthy for the listeners right now. People love to brag about their deals.

Sean Magennis [00:07:16] Yes, they do.

Greg Alexander [00:07:17] So when you ask him, what did your firm sell for? They stick their chest out and they give you their big number. We ask him, you know what, the terms of the deal, where they express it to you. So don’t be bashful. Just pick up the phone. You’d be surprised what you find out.

Sean Magennis [00:07:31] Great advice, Greg. Number four, do you know the investment banker who represented each? Number five, do you know the names of the investors who bid on each of these deals? Number six, do you know who won the deal for each? Number seven, do you know exactly why the winner won?

Greg Alexander [00:07:56] And the right investment banker can help you answer all of these questions.

Sean Magennis [00:08:00] Precisely. Number eight, is your boutique in the correct category? Number nine, is the correct category for your boutique, obvious to potential buyers?

Greg Alexander [00:08:13] You know, that’s an interesting question, because I learned from my personal experience. I just assumed that people that were looking at my business knew that we were a management consulting firm. And what I realized was, is they had no idea, you know, who we were, what we did. And they defaulted us to the wrong category. And if I didn’t correct them…

Sean Magennis [00:08:34] Yep.

Greg Alexander [00:08:35] It would have cost millions.

Sean Magennis [00:08:37] Excellent point, Greg. And finally, number ten, you trying to sell your boutique to the right group of buyers?

Greg Alexander [00:08:45] There’s people out there that are looking for your type of business. And there’s people out there that would never buy your type of business. So make sure that you don’t waste any time talking to the wrong buyer group.

Sean Magennis [00:08:57] Excellent, thank you, Greg. And in summary, comps are very important. They can add and subtract a huge amount to the purchase price and they can significantly alter deal terms. Be sure you are positioned in the correct category and be sure to pursue the correct buyer group.

Sean Magennis [00:09:19] If you enjoyed the show and want to learn more, pick up a copy of Greg Alexander’s book titled The Boutique How to Start Scale and Sell a Professional Services Firm. I’m Sean Magennis. Thanks for listening.

February 8, 2021June 28, 2023

Episode 19: The Boutique: A Smart Strategy to Make Scaling Easier

A lack of lifecycle awareness and management prevents scale. It results in expensive senior people doing junior work. Boutiques with poor cash flow and low client satisfaction do not scale.

TRANSCRIPT

Sean Magennis [00:00:15] Welcome to the Boutique with Capital 54 a podcast for owners of professional services firms. My goal with this show is to help you grow scale and sell your firm at the right time for the right price and on the right terms. I’m Sean Magennis, CEO of Capital 54 and your host. On this episode, I’ll make the case boutiques often suffer from an identity crisis, and this makes scaling harder than it needs to be. I’ll try to prove this theory by interviewing Gregg Alexander, Capital 54’s founder and chief investment officer. Greg has developed an approach to solving this problem. It’s called lifecycle management. And I’d like him to share that with you. Greg, great to see you. Welcome.

Greg Alexander [00:01:09] Hey pal, good to be with you. I think it was Aristotle that once said when asked the key to happiness, know thyself. Today I’m going to modify this quote in state when asked the key to scaling know thy firm.

Sean Magennis [00:01:24] Excellent. So why do you feel boutiques need to know thyself when trying to scale?

Greg Alexander [00:01:31] Sometimes boutiques suffer from an identity crisis. They are unsure of the type of firm they are and the types of clients and projects they should pursue. This makes the challenge of scaling a boutique harder than it needs to be. You see, conflicting client needs drive, confusing staffing models, and this leads to overly complex financials. For instance, one month there is not enough work and employees are underutilized. And yet the next month the firm is at 120 percent capacity. These violent swings between boom and bust make it very hard to scale.

Sean Magennis [00:02:09] Yeah, I can see how this can make managing the boutique difficult and frustrating. So what advice do you have for listeners who might be suffering from this?

Greg Alexander [00:02:19] So the first step is to understand what type of firm you are, in my opinion. There are three types of firms. First, we have what we call an intellect firm. Intellect firm is hired by clients to solve difficult never before seen one of a kind problems. These firms are staffed by brilliant people, very senior, with lots of experience. An example might be a think tank or something like that where there’s P.H.D.’s everywhere. Second, we have what we call a wisdom firm, a wisdom firm decided by clients because they are a been there and done that style of firm. The client problem is new to that client, but is not a new problem. Others have had it and wisdom firms have accumulated the wisdom to solve this problem. These firms are staffed in a traditional sense. Partners, mid-level managers and some junior staff examples to think about from the consulting industry are firms like Bain and McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group. Third, we have what we call a method firm, a method firm hit hard by clients because of their unique methodologies. The problem is well understood by the client, but by hiring a method firm. It can be solved faster and a lot cheaper. These firms are staffed with lots and lots of junior staff who have been trained on this highly procedurized method. Examples are the BPO firms such as Accenture and the like.

Sean Magennis [00:03:59] Got it, Greg. So three types of firms, intellect, wisdom and method. But I’m I’m not connecting the dots as to how this understanding helps firms scale.

Greg Alexander [00:04:13] OK, so let me explain. So imagine you are in Method’s firm in one of your BD people sell an intellect like Project, a never before seen one of a kind problem. How will this project be staffed?

Greg Alexander [00:04:27] Well, it cannot be because a method firm does not have a bunch of gray haired P.H.D.’s lying around. This forces them to go outside the firm and either rent some contractors or hire some new talent. Both approaches come with different salaries and utilization rates, and this will blow up staffing in the financial models. Or let’s say imagine you are a wisdom firm and one of your BD guys goes after a method style project, one where the work can be off-shored or completed with junior staff. Well, in this instance, there will not be enough junior staff to do the work. So what happens? Senior expensive staff now must perform cheap junior level work. This destroys margins in the financial model.

Sean Magennis [00:05:10] Okay, now I get it. So the advice is to collect the type of client and the project to the type of firm you are. Only go off to work that the firm is staffed to handle based on skill level. By doing so, an owner, one of our listeners can predict the skills needed to perform the work. And with this understanding of required skills, the owner can forecast labor costs and utilization rates. And then, with precision on labor costs and utilization rates, the owner can more easily scale the firm. He or she can match the demand coming in with the supply on the org chart. Did I get this correct?

Greg Alexander [00:05:53] Yes, you did. You are about to ask me why owners do not do this. And the answer is because they lack discipline. They think all revenue is good revenue and they take any deal that comes their way when in fact some deals, if taken, can destroy a firm’s ability to scale. Adopting lifecycle management, which is what this is called, requires prudence to go without today for the promise of a better future. Greg, I get the concept, but I’m struggling a little to get the name. The lifecycle management. Can you explain it? Sure. So boutiques like humans have a lifecycle. For instance. They are born. They grow. They scale an exit much like a human is born. Comes of age, matures and dies.

Greg Alexander [00:06:50] And firms like humans are different based on where they are on the life curve. For example, is very common at birth, a firm is an intellect firm. The partners have some secret sauce to a brand new problem. Then as time passes, the secret sauce gets out.

Greg Alexander [00:07:10] Others have it and eventually it becomes a commodity. Well, an owner manages a firm very differently when it is an intellect firm than a wisdom or method firm. Everything is different from the pricing of deals to staffing, utilization, salaries, etc. So lifecycle management refers to the active management by the owner of the boutique as it scales through the lifecycle stages.

Sean Magennis [00:07:36] Okay, now I get it. And it does make a lot of sense. So this is an illustration as to why there are only about 4000 firms out of about one point five million that have actually reached scale. It’s hard to do. And it takes an exceptionally skilled owner to pull it off. And now a word from our sponsor. Collective 54, Collective 54 is a membership organization for owners of professional services firms. Members join to work with their industry peers to grow scale and someday sell live firms at the right time for the right price and on the right terms. Let us meet one of the collective 54 members.

Rich Campe [00:08:24] Hello. My name is Rich Campe. I’m the CEO of Pro Advisor Coach. We serve executive and leadership teams. We partner with organizations to create high performance team cultures of ownership and radical honesty. Our key is gamification. It’s about leverage versus effort. What if every player in your team knew if they were winning or losing both personally and as a team in 10 seconds or less? If you’re part of the collective 54 family, please reach out to me directly at 704-752-7760. Check us out at proadvisorcoach.com or [email protected].

Sean Magennis [00:09:05] If you are trying to grow scale or sell your firm and feel you would benefit from being a part of a community of peers, visit the collective54.com. So this takes us to the end of this episode. And as is customary, we end each show with a tool. We do so because this allows the listener to apply the lessons to his or her firm. Our preferred tool is a checklist. And our style of checklist is a yes-no questionnaire. We aim to keep it simple. By asking only 10 questions in this instance, if you answer yes to questions one through three. You are an intellect firm. If you answer to questions, four to six, you are wisdom firm. And if you answer yes to seven to nine, you are a method firm. And lastly, if you answer yes to question, ten lifecycle management should be a top priority.

Sean Magennis [00:10:10] Let’s begin. Number one, do your clients hire you for never before seen problems? Number two, do you employ leading experts in the field? Number three, do you have legally protected intellectual property? Number four, do your clients hire you because you have solved their problem before? Number five, do your clients hire you because you have direct, relevant case studies? Number six, do your clients hire you because you help them avoid common mistakes? Number seven, do your clients hire you because they are busy and need an extra pair of hands? Number eight, do your clients hire you because you can get the work done quickly? Number nine, do your clients hire you because you have an army of trained people to deploy immediately? And number ten, does your service offering start out as leading edge and over time become a commodity?

Greg Alexander [00:11:26] OK, so just a quick recap there. So yes, to one through three, your intellect. Yes to four to six, you’re wisdom. Yes to seven and nine, your method. And then obviously, number ten is regarding lifestyle management. So does your service offering start out as leading edge and over time become a commodity? If you answer the questions that answer, that question is yes, then you should prioritize lifecycle management.

Sean Magennis [00:11:48] Great. Thank you, Greg. So in summary, a lack of lifecycle awareness can make scaling more difficult than it needs to be. It can lead to poor cash flow and unhappy clients and employees.

Sean Magennis [00:12:01] If you enjoyed the show and want to learn more, pick up a copy of Greg Alexander’s book titled The Boutique How to Start Scale and Sell a professional services firm. I’m Sean Magennis. Thank you for listening.

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