The partners and staff of A-R Partners are pleased to announce that Bob Lawrence, CA-CPA and Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) has joined the firm effective October 2014. Bob’s focus will be to work with the owners of small and medium-sized businesses to enhance the value of their businesses, primarily from the perspective of potential purchasers, and to ensure that the business and its owners are “exit ready”.
Numerous recent studies highlight the fact that most business owners are not ready to exit:
- According to a survey by PriceWaterhouse Coopers, 12 months after selling, 75% of business owners surveyed “profoundly regretted” the decision to sell.
- According to the Family Firm Institute, only 30% of family-owned businesses survive into the second generation.
- According to the Exit Planning Institute’s 2013 State of Owner Readiness Survey, 2/3 of business owners are not familiar with all their exit options, and 49% of have done no exit planning at all.
However, the CIBC estimated in 2012 that 40% of business owners in BC are planning to exit in the next 5 years. To provide value to these businesses, Bob, together with our other staff, will work with business owners to:
- Identify the factors that impact value for their unique business, and develop and implement strategies to enhance those value factors;
- Ensure that the corporate structure, tax planning and personal financial planning are optimized to maximize the net proceeds to the owner upon exit;
- Review strategies to ensure that the business owners are prepared for “life after exit”;
- Identify and implement strategies to ensure the continuity of business success for the prospective purchasers after the current owners have exited.
Since leaving public practice accounting in 1992, Bob has served in executive management positions with companies in a variety of industries, including manufacturing, retail, resource extraction and software development. Throughout his career, Bob has been involved with dozens of acquisitions, divestitures and mergers. With his “hands on” operations and management experience, he can identify with the challenges facing business owners, especially as they look 5-7 years down the road at their inevitable business exits.