M&A Unplugged

The most common pitfalls buyers face can be avoided, however, if buyers can pay attention to them in due time. Joined by Joe Beer, the VP of Operations at Sun Acquisitions and over 200 deals under his belt, Domenic Rinaldi shares the top 7 most common due diligence pitfalls that buyers encounter during M&A transactions. For more comprehensive guidance, download our due diligence best practices guide and checklist, as well as, additional free resources on our website at www.k2adviser.com/resources

It goes without saying that getting due diligence right can make or break your transaction. Your go-to M&A expert, Domenic Rinaldi, devotes this episode to give you a roadmap on due diligence. He discusses the best practices that successful deals have in common and provides a checklist of tasks to undertake during diligence. For more comprehensive guidance, download our due diligence best practices guide and checklist, as well as, additional free resources on our website at k2adviser.com/resources

For those who delve into business acquisitions, huge changes may be coming their way. Doug Adams of Emerson Capital and Domenic Rinaldi talk about the significant amendments to the CARES Act and the waving SBA fees for all new deals. This huge news will result in cheaper acquisitions for buyers and more earnings for sellers. For more comprehensive guidance, download our due diligence best practices guide and checklist, as well as, additional free resources on our website at k2adviser.com/resources

Many entrepreneurs & businesses turn to wealth management firms for help in managing finances & assets. To learn more about this industry, Domenic Rinaldi interviews Tom Hine of Capital Wealth Management. He discusses how he started his own financial planning career, and how he built his business through conducting 7 acquisitions.  For more comprehensive guidance, download our due diligence best practices guide and checklist, and additional free resources on our website at k2adviser.com/resources  

Many successful entrepreneurs know that, in one way or another, you will have to find your exit—one that leaves you far better than when you started. In this episode, Domenic Rinaldi invites serial entrepreneur and CEO of CareerGrig, Greg Kihlstrom, to talk about Greg’s experience growing a business through acquisition and then selling that same business years later for a much higher multiple. He shares how he was able to integrate a business into his existing operation and how to methodically prepare your business for a sale. While taking us throughout his journey, Greg lets us in on the lessons he learned, the pitfalls many entrepreneurs fall into, and how he is helping bridge the gap between having a full-time job to being a freelancer. For more comprehensive guidance, download our due diligence best practices guide and checklist, as well as, additional free resources on our website at k2adviser.com/resources

What a year it has been! If you are still here standing, then you deserve a pat on the back for making it through. Now that we’re at the end of this chaotic 2020, it’s time to look back and recount the things we gained and the lessons we learned. Domenic Rinaldi bids this year goodbye in this last episode of 2020 as he provides an end-of-the-year recap and a good story about deal preparation. After all, what is a good way to end a challenging year than prepare for the next and make it the year it could have been and more? Join Domenic as he signs off 2020. For more comprehensive guidance, download our due diligence best practices guide and checklist, as well as, additional free resources on our website at k2adviser.com/resources

Many businesses have admirable visions, enticing goals, and meaningful purposes, but still fall short in attaining success. Most of the time, it is caused by a lack of a well-targeted business mindset. Domenic Rinaldi talks with Michael Zipursky, the CEO of Consulting Success, in discussing how to redirect your focus, hone an effective message, maximize outsourcing services, and pinpoint your target audience in order to start an effective, self-managing team. Michael also shares some useful tips on buying another business and coping with the business challenges caused by the pandemic. For more comprehensive guidance, download our due diligence best practices guide and checklist, as well as, additional free resources on our website at k2adviser.com/resources

The landscape from where banks operate has changed. In this episode, Domenic Rinaldi discusses how the banks are handling M&A transactions in lending these days with the help of Doug Adams of Emerson Capital. With his expertise, Doug shares how deals are getting financed when the revenues of a business have been impacted positively or negatively, what the banks are looking for during underwriting, how to look at the deal structures when buying a business during this time, and more.  For more comprehensive guidance, download our due diligence best practices guide and checklist, as well as, additional free resources on our website at k2adviser.com/resources

The COVID-19 pandemic has put all of us into this environment of uncertainty that moving forward often feels like walking with eyes closed. In this episode, Domenic Rinaldi goes solo to help us make sense of what is happening now in the M&A marketplace. He answers whether or not deals are happening and how they have changed during this period of time and likely in the future after COVID. Domenic provides some great key things to think of before doing a deal, no matter if you’re a buyer or a seller.  For more comprehensive guidance, download our due diligence best practices guide and checklist, as well as, additional free resources on our website at k2adviser.com/resources

Due diligence and integration should have equal weighting in any acquisition. As integration is gaining more and more steam, more acquirers are asking how to do integration these days compared to years ago. Joining Domenic Rinaldi on today’s podcast is Mark Walztoni, who shares his high-level formula for approaching this phase, along with how to avoid some of the common pitfalls. This episode will surely help you be prepared for your next acquisition. For more comprehensive guidance, download our due diligence best practices guide and checklist, as well as, additional free resources on our website at k2adviser.com/resources

When we have just acquired a business, it can be easy to dive into transforming and growing it immediately. However, this episode’s guest, Jennifer Goldman of Jennifer Goldman Consulting, is all about the opposite. In fact, she tells you to stop and start by doing nothing other than developing what she calls a “simmer pot”. Domenic Rinaldi uncovers what this means as he and Jennifer go right into the things you need to go over with your business operations and develop a roadmap for changes. Don’t let the excitement force you to make hasty decisions.  For more comprehensive guidance, download our due diligence best practices guide and checklist, as well as, additional free resources on our website at k2adviser.com/resources

There are a number of components that you should be looking at any time you’re valuing a business. In this episode, Domenic Rinaldi dives into one of them – value drivers. What are the common value drivers that you should be looking at? Why are these value drivers so important? How does each of them affect a company’s valuation during an acquisition? Listen in and learn what things you need to look for in terms of money factors, people factors and industry factors that may increase or decrease a company’s value in the market. For more comprehensive guidance, download our due diligence best practices guide and checklist, as well as, additional free resources on our website at k2adviser.com/resources

Keith Knohl always dreamed of owning a business. He tried to start a few ventures during his long and successful corporate career. He decided that buying an existing business that already had ongoing revenues, profits, clients, trained employees, and a foundation was a much smarter and safer path to business ownership. Keith joins Domenic Rinaldi to share his journey of buying a business, which included retaining a buy-side broker to help him through all phases of the process. If you’ve never acquired a business before, there are many key takeaways in this episode that can help you plan for and execute your own business ownership process. For more comprehensive guidance, download our due diligence best practices guide and checklist, as well as, additional free resources on our website at k2adviser.com/resources

There are so many paths to becoming an entrepreneur. One of the common struggles many face beforehand is deciding whether to start a business or buy instead. If you found yourself in this dilemma, then this episode is for you.   Host, Domenic Rinaldi, goes solo to talk about the differences between starting and buying a business and what advantages the latter has over the other. He provides an outline of key things you need to consider in both, and, if you decide on buying, figure out what to look for.    For more comprehensive guidance, download our due diligence best practices guide and checklist, as well as, additional free resources on our website at k2adviser.com/resources  

There is a lot at stake in getting your communication strategy right during a merger and acquisition. Apart from just ensuring a healthy give and take between the two parties, you need a communication plan to trickle information down to your employees, customers and vendors. Domenic Rinaldi talks about this critical but oft-neglected aspect of M&A with Andrew Cross, Senior Vice President and partner at Walker Sands, one of the nation’s top integrated marketing firms. Andrew has been involved in a number of M&A transactions, helping clients build a successful communication strategy and execution plan. He knows from experience that the right messaging is essential in maximizing employee, client and vendor retention while preserving the company's brand.  For more comprehensive guidance, download our due diligence best practices guide and checklist, as well as, additional free resources on our website at k2adviser.com/resources  

Human capital is the most important asset of every company. This aspect of due diligence is so critical in the M&A process to see whether or not you are looking at the right company to acquire.  But how do we exactly calculate the return on investment in human capital? Is it even calculable in financial terms? Joining Domenic Rinaldi to give some clarity on this is Dr. Solange Charas, a human capital metrics expert and the Founder and CEO of HCMoneyball, a technology company that provides an application for organizations to calculate their human capital metrics. It is inevitable that we are going to see a radical change in how we view human capital.  For more comprehensive guidance, download our due diligence best practices guide and checklist, as well as, additional free resources on our website at k2adviser.com/resources

As a business owner, it is important to understand what a buyer is looking for in a deal so that you can position your company for a future sale. Representing this side of the M&A equation are Ben Mimmack and Andy Waltman of Baymark Partners, a lower middle market private equity firm based in Dallas, Texas to discuss how their firm is approaching acquisitions and insights on what the M&A market might look like over the next months. If you want to learn what things you need to work on to set yourself up for a profitable exit from your company, this episode is a must-listen for you. For more comprehensive guidance, download our due diligence best practices guide and checklist, as well as, additional free resources on our website at k2adviser.com/resources

Did you know that over 95% of businesses in the US fail to reach one million in annual sales?  Domenic Rinaldi sits down with Brett Trainor, a B2B startup mentor and investor who draws upon more than 25 years of experience in sales, marketing, demand generation, and customer service to help his clients. Extending his wisdom to us, he shares how business owners can get past the micro-business stage and start to grow. Brett also shares his 11-point checklist to guide you on how to scale your business and reach that one-million threshold. For more comprehensive guidance, download our due diligence best practices guide and checklist, as well as, additional free resources on our website at k2adviser.com/resources

An ever increasing number of traditional businesses are looking to grow and diversify by adding an online component to their business model. Just like in offline business, buying an online business that is already established and generating leads is way more profitable than starting a new one from scratch. Joining Domenic Rinaldi on this episode, online business mentor, coach and investor, Jaryd Krause shares how offline businesses can increase their lead generation and revenue just by buying an online business and integrating it to their business model. He also talks about the five fundamental things that you need to be looking at in online due diligence. Having learned how to do this through the school of hard knocks, Jaryd helps other people achieve the same level of success he had through his coaching programs and his own platform, Buying Online Businesses. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the M&A Unplugged Community today: k2adviser.com M&A Unplugged Twitter

There probably is an asset that is nothing more important in an acquisition than the people. They are the ones that make the engine run and carry the entire business. That is why knowing how to handle the integration of the people really matters. Helping you with that, Domenic Rinaldi interviews human resources professional Klint Kendrick to talk about the best practices for integrating employees during the mergers and acquisitions transaction. He talks about the due diligence that relates to HR, assessing culture, leadership and compliance, and the most important things to consider when it comes to human capital. Don't miss out on this great conversation to learn more about how you can avoid losing employees or productivity after acquisition and more.  Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the M&A Unplugged Community today: k2adviser.com M&A Unplugged Twitter M&A Unplugged Facebook M&A Unplugged Instagram