Mastering Successful Business Exits: Insights from Ian Pavlik and Tim Mueller – Part 2
Welcome to the IAMCP Profiles and Partnership, the podcast that showcases how Microsoft partners and IAMCP members boost their business by collaborating with other members and partners. I'm your co-host, Anthony Carrano. And in each episode, I'll be talking to some of the most innovative and successful partners in the Microsoft ecosystem. The International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners, otherwise known as IAMCP, is a community of Microsoft partners who help each other grow and thrive.
Anthony Carrano:Members can find and connect with other partners locally and globally and access exclusive resources and opportunities. Whether you're looking for new customers, new markets, or new solutions, IAMCP can help you achieve your goals. We'll hear their stories, learn from their experiences, and discover the best practices and strategies they use to increase customer loyalty and grow revenues. Whether you're a new partner or an established one, you'll find valuable insights and inspiration in this podcast. We hope you enjoy this podcast and find it useful and inspiring.
Anthony Carrano:If you do, please subscribe, rate, and review us on your favorite podcast platform. And don't forget to follow us on social media and connect with us on our website, www.profilesinpartnership.com, where you can find more information, resources, and opportunities to partner for success. Thank you for listening, and now let's get started with today's episode. Welcome back to part 2 of our podcast series featuring an in-depth conversation with Ian Pavlik and Tim Mueller. In the previous episode, we explore the intricacies of selling a business and the meticulous preparations required to ensure a successful transition.
Anthony Carrano:Our guests shared invaluable insights on the strategies and challenges that many business owners face. In this episode, we continue our discussion delving deeper into the dynamics of cultural and technological integrations post sale and the critical factors that contribute to a seamless transition. Ian provides a candid look at his personal journey from navigating the complexities of selling his business to establishing the public foundation, which focuses on youth education and food security. Meanwhile, we also have Tim who sheds light on the importance of readiness and strategic planning in the m and a landscape. This episode promises to be packed with practical advice and thought provoking reflections for anyone considering the sale of their business or looking to understand the multifaceted world of mergers and acquisitions.
Anthony Carrano:So without further ado, let's dive back into our enlightening conversation.
Anthony Carrano:What would be your advice, to you know, let's say you have, you know, owner operator right now, and let's say their identity is tied to the business. They're interacting with, you know, at least the, you know, their their top customers that make I'm just making up a number here, but let's say, you know, that's 60, 70% of their revenue. But they're coming at a point where, like, you know what? I do wanna consider I do wanna look at, you know, a future exit.
Anthony Carrano:What would be a few things that you would say, "Hey. You need to do right now"? Right, to start getting you on that path like you just described? Like, some some instant, you know, instant action items.
Ian Pavlik:One that I worked on and that I recommend is was recommended to me. Go away for a day, turn off all your phone and computer midweek, and do not be make yourself inaccessible for 24 hours, and then find out what broke. When you come back into the office, all hell broke loose and blah blah blah. It was a problem because you were inaccessible for 24 hours. Go fix those things.
Ian Pavlik:Then after whatever period of time, go away for 2 days and turn off the inaccessible. Figure out what broke. Get to the point where you can be away for at least 7 for an entire week inaccessible. To the point where, say, 2 or 3 weeks through a cycle of some point, get that. So think of it that way.
Ian Pavlik:Don't just try to go away for a 2 week vacation and turn it off. Do it in segments knowing that I know there was one point back in 2018, I, my wife and I went and climbed Kilimanjaro. And I knew I was gonna be inaccessible for 10 days at at the maximum. And so that was kind of a a goal for me. And for about a year and a half before that, I worked through that schedule.
Ian Pavlik:So that that's I think or can really reveal where you are inter, you know, integral to the operation of your business.
Anthony Carrano:That's excellent advice. Now you've you know, you mentioned something. This this process was 10 years in the making. I know earlier we were talking about just the conversations you are having, you know, you know, with your partners and then doing, you know, the the you know, between that, you know, getting it socialized internally, making yourself inaccessible, a focus on the reoccurring, you know, revenue to increase the, you know, the EBITDA multiple. So a lot a lot of thought and detail, you know, was into this process.
Anthony Carrano:I applaud you for that. Was there any thought given to, like, what were maybe the, the key criteria you were looking for in a potential buyer? Was there any conversations about that? If so, maybe, you know, share this a little bit of, you know, what those conversations were and why.
Ian Pavlik:So that was probably one of the biggest barriers to why I didn't dip my toe into understanding the M&A market earlier, because I felt like we were a Frankenstein. You know, we were kinda like three businesses in one that had some overlap, but there was some some clear distinction between three different business units. And I thought, why would anybody want us? How I don't see anyone else there that fits like us. And it wasn't until I started talking to some m and a firms and then talking with Tim, and that was really what got us to work with Tim, was how, I guess, how much he held our hand and educated us.
Ian Pavlik:And his advice was you don't know until you start talking. I don't know what the potential buyers might want. And, sure, maybe it's a split. Maybe somebody might want this 3rd and the other two might want the other two-thirds or or whatnot. So it was there was a lot of uncertainty. I put up my own barriers for why I thought people did not want to buy us as opposed to thinking about us why they might wanna buy. And and and as we went through the dating process with a number of, potential, buyers, it became clear. Some were, like, don't need that part. I'm just interested in that element. Or there were some that were interested in the whole part or didn't understand how we were or just wanted to replace my seat and take over versus, like, Tim talked accretive value with, you know, merging in.
Ian Pavlik:So I was a bit of a barrier there because I didn't appreciate or understand what the options were. I wish I'd educated myself a little bit sooner, but that was really what the I learned from from Tim and his team.
Tim Mueller:Yeah. One thing I might add with that is that, you know, to better understand what the seller's long term vision is changes who we bring to them for conversations. So Ian clearly said, I think it's time for us to move on from the business. Not, you know, the second we we sell, but at some point in the near future, we'd like to move on. So at that point, that opens up for us to bring in what we call search funds, where there's someone who just wants to buy a business and run it, which we brought a couple of those guys to talk with them. It lets the strategics, you know, a much bigger, you know, pavliks.com comes in, like Sylogist, and buys them.
Tim Mueller:Or you have a private equity that may want to roll pavliks.com into an existing portfolio company. Whereas a CEO that says, "Hey. I'm looking for a growth partner, and I wanna stay on and run the business and grow with them." That starts to narrow the field a little bit more so to the private equity firms that say, listen. We want the talent to stay in place for maybe ever or at least for a long time versus, let's say, a search fund that is an executive that wants to kinda parachute in and run the business.
Tim Mueller:And so that made our job a lot easier once we started talking strategically with Ian and and his family members. And and I will put throw a shout out to them is that family businesses are not easy. But I saw, such a collaboration with the the Pavliks, you know, in in how they viewed the legacy of their business as a family business and the roles that each of them played and the trust that they had in each other that the decision was made for the betterment of the good of everybody. And, man, that was so refreshing for us to see because you go in a little bit shy, not knowing that's family dynamics because they could be toxic. But this was just a wonderful example of doing the right thing for the family.
Tim Mueller:And now, you know, as we'll talk a little bit more in this podcast about the foundation that Ian is running, you know, they did well, and now they're doing good. And and that's a beautiful thing to see as well.
Anthony Carrano:And I appreciate you sharing that, Tim. And before we move to, like, the next segment, I guess the the the question, Ian, is so as you you went through this journey, you mentioned how, you know, you were setting up some of your road there was roadblocks that you were setting up. How did you finally get to a place to to settle up on, yeah, this is the right, you know, buyer for my business?
Ian Pavlik:For us, we felt that keeping the business together as a whole would make our staff happy, would make our customers happiest. So when we found a buyer in Syllogus that was interested in the company as a whole, that was, that made us comfortable. We saw a strong leadership team there, and that was important. In hindsight, I wish I had interviewed more of their, leadership team. Not that there was anything wrong in the end, but I didn't do as much as maybe I should have as the as the seller.
Ian Pavlik:You know, you think of it's the buyer who's asking most of the questions, and I did, and they were very open and transparent. But it was the, that was something that we felt very comfortable in handing the keys over to them. It was our plan and our criteria all along was none of the the Pavliks, the the owners wanted to stay along around for longer than 12 months or whatever is needed to make sure there's a smooth and happy transition for our staff and for our customers. That was important for us, but we weren't interested in in hanging around in a some sort of ongoing management capacity. So when we saw there was a strong management team and everybody was aligned that way and they had gone through some, some acquisitions before.
Ian Pavlik:So that was good. This wasn't their first rodeo, and they had a a transition, plan already in place. Those were, signals for us that this was this work as well as the offer being very good.
Anthony Carrano:That helps.
Rudy Rodriguez:Yeah. So one of the things that, you know, I alluded to in the due diligence process is cultural and technology integration. Those are challenges that we all go through. You know, I've gone through it in in bringing in people, and and there's different philosophies that people have. And I won't share my horror stories, about what you do, doing that.
Rudy Rodriguez:But what are what do you think are the most successful factors for a business from both sides, from both the the seller and the buyer side for successful integration into into the new business?
Tim Mueller:Rudy, that's an interesting question because, you know, I'm sitting here in the business of M&A knowing that almost 60% of all deals are not deemed successful in the rearview mirror. 60%. And so, and and 100% of those are really dealt to the fact that there wasn't enough due diligence in, let's say, the cultural aspect of integrating the teams. You know, the the great thing about our Microsoft sellers is that they care about the businesses. They built it, and they've had sleepless nights.
Tim Mueller:And and they've really put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into it, so they want a soft landing for their their employees. They want to be able to continue to service their customers so that their legacy stays strong, and they also obviously want to have, you know, the economics of it of an exit be strong for them and their own family. But, I really can't prepare our clients much for the cultural integration because they are who they are. And all I ask them is to be transparent about what they do and how they treat their employees. Don't change anything in the months or weeks leading into the deal because, you know, our buyers are professionals, and they can see whether or not you've now put on your best suit and tie metaphorically for the deal.
Tim Mueller:So just run the business as though it's not gonna be sold. Talked about your culture and and your employees, with total transparency. And then it really is up to the buyer to get in deeply and to compare the way that their ecosystems work and their culture. You know, you've got to ask the tough questions that if the seller has an unlimited vacation policy, but the buyer has a very strict, you earn your vacation by your service hours and years, then those two might not match really well if you're now going to change it. And if you don't change it, the buying company says, how come they get unlimited vacation and we don't?
Tim Mueller:Or, you know, if if the seller usually has a huge benefit awards gathering every year and they take their team to a a city, you know, destination, Vegas for a weekend or whatever it might be, but the buyer never does it. And now that's gone from the the the the combined businesses. So those are probably more, surface level things, but there are things that are idiosyncratic or the nuances of blending cultures together. Cross border deals are hard because those inherently do have cultural differences in the way that employees work, even down to now hybrid work from home versus work in the office. So your question has got a lot of different tentacles to it, you know, Rudy, and it's really important on the cultural side that the buyer be exhaustive in their ability to understand who they're buying.
Tim Mueller:And and I would tell you, most cases, the buyer doesn't even know what they bought until they're 6 or 8 months into it, both from a cultural and environment, but also even digging into the books and their customers. They really don't know what they've bought until well into the integration. And then I think on the technology side, there are a lot of buyers that say, you know, we we have not been as technologically fat forward as the seller is, and they may want to adopt the way that the seller, uses technology, whether it's through their billing process or processes that they they use within servicing their customers or in Ian's case, building this beautiful platform that it was scalable. And so, we again look at those buyers to do an exhaustive search on how well the technology can scale, and if in fact it is right for their current customer base to pick up and cross pollinate.
Rudy Rodriguez:I really appreciate the way you described that, Tim, because that that is such a real challenge when when you're purchasing a company, and the culture is it just has to change at some point. And and, I I could like I said, I I remember some members of some of my team saying, just go in and fire everybody and start all over again, which is not that was never my my approach. So, Ian, I've got a question for you because this leads into since you're you've sold your company, How did you manage the transition of of the business to Sylogist? I'm sure you had some challenges. And then with staff members and things like that, again, the cultural, the the business processes, all the challenges that are and surprises that can come up.
Rudy Rodriguez:Can you share a little bit about what you ran into?
Ian Pavlik:Yeah. For sure. I'll be honest. I didn't think enough about the day after the deal closed leading up to it. I was focused on that.
Ian Pavlik:And then when it happened, I was like, oh, yeah. So now I gotta keep running this business, but it from a in a different perspective, in a different way. And so that that was hard. It was a lot of one-on-one conversations with staff. Initially key staff and then sort of sort of spread out from there.
Ian Pavlik:You know, making sure everybody understood that, it's business as usual, but is it really? It is, but everybody's a little bit anxious. Change is hard no matter what. And so so my my my focus, my responsibility was around keeping everybody calm, being honest, because, yes, there were some check you know, suddenly invoices went out differently and pay happened. And to your point about, vacation, vacation was calculated differently.
Ian Pavlik:Still the same way, but in a slightly different manner, and that causes a lot of confusion and and angst. So so it was just kinda trying to smooth things out. I was challenged with now suddenly not being the boss anymore, which was funny for me. So for a few months, I had still responsibility for the operations. But when we wanted to hire a head count, I had to get approval, which was like, really?
Ian Pavlik:Okay. How do I go about doing that? So, you know, that was a bit of a a a hurdle for me. And then very quickly, I became not responsible for the P&L. And that responsibility disseminated away from me into different departments, and numbers weren't my thing.
Ian Pavlik:Whereas I always I live by the numbers. I love to look at them and analyze them. I found that sort of an interesting difficult change at first, and then it actually after a little while, it became a bit low. I could breathe a little bit because, sure, I had to make sure the revenue still happened, but, you know, all up responsibility started to disseminate. That was a little bit difficult to handle.
Ian Pavlik:But then over so I had had a 12 month, contract to stay on. And really, the last 3 months, I was there just in case somebody had a question. So it was a little, honestly, awkward for me because I felt like I needed to to be of value, but I guess my value was that was the backstop for historical context, the knowledge on customers, how we operated, what was going on. But, it was, it was an interesting time for me.
Rudy Rodriguez:So you brought up the that one word, customers. How did it impact your customers? Any surprises there?
Ian Pavlik:I feel like we handled that very well. I can't think of any customer that bolted or got significantly upset. In some more action, our bigger customers were kinda happy because, we were you know, we had grown from a 20, 30 to 40 to 50 person operation. And, you know, while we're 50 is big, for some of our really big customers, we're quite small. So they felt a little bit more comfortable with, oh, now you're growing when we're dealing with some of the the the our really big.
Ian Pavlik:We had a lot of pro sport customers and some, big government agencies and stuff. So I think in some ways, it helped there. Our much smaller local customers felt concerned. Oh, you're moving head offices away. You know, are you changing?
Ian Pavlik:What's going on? But again, conversations with them to say no, nothing is changing, and nothing did really change in that regard. A little bit of time, 2 or 3 or 4 months, and when they called, they still got a live person on the phone like they did before, then sort of the customer's anxiety waned. So I think we we focused on that because also my name was attached to the company, and I knew the customers. A good number of local customers knew me personally in the business world around here, and I didn't want to just leave them high and dry.
Ian Pavlik:So there is a, you know, a personal investment in it as well. So I think overall, it was a work. It was a conscious effort, but it worked well in the end.
Rudy Rodriguez:That's great to hear.
Anthony Carrano:This this has been great. I've really enjoyed this conversation. I feel like I can ask you guys probably about another dozen or 2 dozen questions. Don't worry. We've only got 3.
Anthony Carrano:And so but it this is this has been I I just want this has been really rich, so I really appreciate, the conversation so far. So let me ask you this, Ian. I know as we're, you know, you know, as you've gone through and shared your journey, you know, about with selling, you know, your business and, you know, that process. Tell us a little bit about, you know, what it was like and, you know, to work with IT Exchange Net on your transaction.
Ian Pavlik:They were wonderful. You know, when we were at the point where we thought, I wanna I wanna find out how do I sell my business, what do how do I go through, who do I call. I had actually met with Tim face to face, I wanna say, 5 or 6 years earlier at a at a Microsoft conference. I think it might have been to Vegas. And I remember that we were sitting in a little sort of restaurant before it opened at a table, and and I was trying to fish.
Ian Pavlik:Like, I had no idea how much we were worth and what's going on. And Tim was frank and honest. He said, you're not there yet. You know, your revenue's too low. It's it's you're not mature enough yet.
Ian Pavlik:In hindsight, he was absolutely right. So when the time came around 5, 4 or 5 years later, I had seen the name around, and I talked with a couple different firms. And then when I talked with Tim, he spent, like, almost an hour on the phone with me, explained the process, how it's this this is the first time I was doing it. I know some people have gone through this. I'm like, you know, Rudy, he'd done it, rinse and repeat, and gone through.
Ian Pavlik:But for me, it was the first time and maybe the only time that I'll do it. So it was important. And Tim really held my hand and then introduced me to his team that was able to take me through the marketing process and then the speed I call it the speed dating round, I guess, with all the potential buyers and then into the due diligence and then the deal closed. And that was very helpful. And then he also introduced me to a lawyer that he had done some other transactions with, and that was really helpful because now I had somebody that I knew Tim trusted.
Ian Pavlik:So therefore, by association, I should. And, and they were very helpful. They've done similar transactions before and, in the Microsoft space as well. So I wasn't explaining to sort of my traditional lawyers that I use in the rest of the business, who we are, what we did, what was the Microsoft partner ecosystem like, you know, how did recurring revenue, what was interesting to, like, all that stuff. The lawyer that Tim recommended, you know, knew everything and came in and and really helped us.
Ian Pavlik:So I know I'm giving Tim a lot of praise, but he deserves it. Him and his team were were excellent and really, really made this process as as easy as it as I think as it should be.
Tim Mueller:Ian, thank thank you for that. Let me just underscore the importance of that lawyer who understands those mid market technology deals as part of the equation. Probably the single most important person, once you get to the LOI stage, is the transaction attorney. Because he or she understands idiosyncratic language within purchase agreements and literally can save the seller 1,000,000 of dollars of headaches, down the road if they make sure they catch some of the gotchas that are in the purchase agreement and then can horse trade a little bit in order to make it seller friendly. And we have a whole host of folks that we trust that are not overly expensive because these are smaller mid market deals.
Tim Mueller:They're not $500,000,000 deals. And, but can't say enough about how important they are to the process.
Rudy Rodriguez:Well, Tim, I've got one final question for you. You know, I'm gonna circle back to the beginning where you were talking about the the Microsoft AI partner program now. And, you know, the whole evolution taking place in in our industry, there there's a lot of changes taking place, and not every partner is is adapting quickly, although I think people are learning more and more every single month. And and we certainly are trying to help them through the IAMCP. So what trends are you seeing or, you know, happening in the marketplace now that are going to affect the the Microsoft partner M&A space landscape in the next few years?
Rudy Rodriguez:No. We know technology is gonna affect it. What other trends are you seeing? Because there's many facets to to the IT industry. What do you see how each one is getting impacted?
Tim Mueller:Yeah. I'll start by saying that, you know, the conversation that he and I had, and I think it was at Inspire in Vegas, we 5 years before you went to market, is something that I have with a lot of people because I will tell you plainly there are a lot of people in in my shoes that all they wanna do is get the company to market. And we have found that if you rush it to market, nobody's satisfied 6, 7, 8 months later, and and everybody has just wasted their time as opposed to playing more of the long ball where you say, you know what? Here's a road map of things you need to do. Let's talk once a year or whatever it might be, and 3, 4 years down the road you like might be mature.
Tim Mueller:There are things that companies are not, necessarily embracing quickly enough right now, which will diminish their value, if they don't get on board. So some of that may be in their hiring practices where, you know, 6, 7 years ago, place mattered as far as where employees were. And so if you were based in Boston, you had a very rich, you know, group of people coming out of the universities to to recruit to physically come in your office and work in Boston. And some of the other major markets, you know, Austin, Texas has a wonderful piece, so does Columbus, Ohio with Ohio State. But other cities where companies were based were maybe a little bit, at a disadvantage with their employees.
Tim Mueller:Now the world is open. And with remote working, you have the ability to attract the best talent. And so buyers are saying, you know what? Why aren't you doing that? Why are you keeping your universe so small and only bringing people in that necessarily might be in a 30 mile radius of your business?
Tim Mueller:That's 1. Number 2, I think this might be number 2, 3, 4 is your adaption to technology or adoption to technology and where you stand in your your philosophy on this one. You know, we still have, you know, Great Plains type of integrators, right, that, you know, have not evolved quickly enough because they had follow on work, and they felt they can keep moving and not being too intimidated or being intimidated by the Microsoft Dynamics Suite and everything that has to offer there. You know, so it's that inability to evolve with the Microsoft, you know, offerings that are out there. But by the same token, if you're only if you're 5 miles wide and an inch thick in your offerings, that doesn't help you either because you're now competing against some of the large players that have a lot of expertise in a lot of different areas within Dynamics.
Tim Mueller:So I think you need to choose your lane and be the best at it. And if you find that you're not being competitive in the market with only offering, let's say, Teams or Azure, and you're losing a lot of deals with people that say, listen. I want kind of one one hand to shake, one throat to choke, and I'd rather have a much bigger firm than the writings on the wall that it may be time to start looking to sell your business. And and I will give one one more note to the to the sellers is that, you know, what Ian did really well was he wasn't timing the market. He was making sure that they were at the right place and they were in the right mindset to sell.
Tim Mueller:Because if all you do is time the market, then usually bad results happen. And markets can swing pretty quickly depending on geopolitical issues, the market. You know, we're seeing, you know, the Fed likely going to bring interest rates down, but, you know, people didn't time that 5 months ago when they went to market. So it's a matter of making sure that your company is ready from all there. And and so I'll put a quick plug in that we do have something called Ready, Set, Go, and it's a free readiness assessment for those contemplating a sale, but just don't know if they have the readiness.
Tim Mueller:And we'll grade you on financial preparedness, your operations, your vision, your marketing, and and make sure that, you know, what you bring to market is something that is very embraced by the buyers.
Rudy Rodriguez:That's a great answer. It's a great answer. I really appreciate it, Tim.
Anthony Carrano:Yeah. That that was great. And, Tim, I was just gonna ask you. Is there a URL somebody can go to to, access that Ready, Set, Go?
Tim Mueller:Yeah. It's it's on our home page, which we can, put put in perhaps the the podcast, but it's, itexchangenet.com. And, and we'll we'll get back to you the same day, obviously, and and and schedule a time to do this concursory, you know, readiness program.
Anthony Carrano:Okay. Yeah. And we'll definitely have that in the show notes, for sure. Alright. Well, Ian, so we've we've talked, you know, you shared, you know, just about how you've you know, you grew your business.
Anthony Carrano:You navigated the process of selling it. Briefly touched on a little bit about Mount Kilimanjaro, hiking that. We'll maybe have to revisit that in a follow-up maybe. Well, tell us though, what are you doing today?
Ian Pavlik:Well, I find I'm almost as busy as I was when I was running the business. But the great thing is I'm doing the things that I'm passionate about. So, as Tim alluded to, and I love that saying, when you do, well, you do good. And my wife and I were passionate about about a couple core things focused around youth, and that was education and food security. So we very quickly we started The Pavlik Foundation, a charity, and we are focused on providing educational opportunities to youth and helping the youth with food security.
Ian Pavlik:And a program that we actually just launched this fall, and we're piloting it in a couple schools is called Kids Pantry. So we identified that a lot of the schools in our community get food during the day, like there's breakfast programs or snack programs. Families can access a food bank type of service, but usually food banks only provide about a quarter or third of food need for a month. And so what we're doing now is we're actually identifying kids in the school that are food insecure and providing backpacks of food for them that we drop off on a Friday. So the kids come down to the front office, pick it up, take it home, and now the kid that child has food, healthy food for the weekend so they can nourish their body so that when they come to school, they're ready to learn and and hopefully thrive in school.
Ian Pavlik:And, you know, a child can't be successful in their life if they don't feel good about themselves and they're physically healthy and can learn. And we're not focused so much on trying to give things like scholarships to the best, brightest, smartest. Our hope is to take those kids that are maybe have challenges that aren't their fault, that is because they're a matter of circumstances, and give them the opportunity to to hopefully get a a step ahead and and break that cycle of poverty and, give them a chance of success in life. So it's that's what's keeping us busy these days. We're pretty excited about it.
Anthony Carrano:That's awesome. And where, where can people go to find out more about this foundation?
Ian Pavlik:pavilkfoundation.com That's our website, and, you can contact us on there and learn more about our Kids' Pantry program as well.
Anthony Carrano:And and people, they can donate, I assume.
Ian Pavlik:Absolutely. So, yeah, there's a donation form on our website as well. And, and what's neat is now we now have the ability for people to support a child. So if you can support a child, it costs about 20 to $25 a weekend to provide healthy nourish full meals the entire weekend for the kid. And, yeah, that's something that we just launched about 2 weeks ago.
Anthony Carrano:Oh, that's awesome. I really appreciate you sharing, and we'll also have that website in the in the show notes as well. Well, gentlemen, once again, thank you. This has been fantastic.
Anthony Carrano:I've I mean, this just the information that you guys shared and the time that you gave has just been so rich and rewarding. So definitely wanna thank both of you. We are we will have both, you know, websites in the show notes. So aside from, you know, the websites, is there is there another place where listeners can go to connect with you?
Tim Mueller:Well, we we have a a Vimeo channel, as well that has a lot of videos of, kind of how-to's and and, 2 minute takes for prospective sellers. And then we have a lot of information that we post in the in the form of articles on LinkedIn. So, Anthony, if we can give you those as well, that would be wonderful.
Ian Pavlik:Excellent. Anybody I have an open offer for anybody who wants a cough cup of coffee because I've always had a pod on here. If you're just driving through Barrie, Ontario, Canada, stop by my place and you can have a coffee. I'd love to sit on the front deck.
Rudy Rodriguez:On my way on my way, Ian.
Anthony Carrano:Once again, thank you so much. And, gentlemen, enjoy the rest of your day.
Ian Pavlik:Thank you very much, Anthony and Rudy.
Tim Mueller:Thanks, Anthony. Thanks, Rudy.
Rudy Rodriguez:Thank you, gentlemen.
Anthony Carrano:Wow. That was a great episode. I feel like I just sat through a Master Class on M&A , you know, for Microsoft partners and in the tech ecosystem. I learned so much, and I really appreciate, you know, once again, you know, Tim and Ian for for spending that time with us. I know I took away a lot of, you know, main points.
Anthony Carrano:Rudy, how about yourself?
Rudy Rodriguez:You're absolutely right. That was a very informative it was a Master Class on mergers and acquisitions. And and one of the things that I really appreciated was, one of the things that Tim talked about was the process that he likes to take sellers through to really prepare their companies and for all the items that they're going to have to deal with in selling their company, to make sure that the company is mature enough to be sold, that their systems and all their accounting information is ready to present. Because I know that's one of the things I went through when I sold my first company was the tremendous amount of work that's required when you're selling. And do you have a good reason?
Rudy Rodriguez:And are you mature enough to sell to really maximize the proceeds that you're gonna get from the sale? And both Tim and Ian shared quite a bit of information on what how much effort that's going to take. And sometimes it just takes time to be ready. And I would caution anybody selling their company, go through the process and be ready to sell because that's gonna be very, very important to you whether you stay with your the successor organization or not.
Anthony Carrano:Yeah. And on that note, I mean, just to piggyback on that when and when you're talking about this from at the company level and just how I you know, as if I recall, like, Ian shared about for them this process, you know, personally as as the the main principal was, I think he said something like 10 years in the making, you know, for him and and other members of the family. And, you know, specifically, when he just talked about, just the importance that he, you know, as the main principal, you know, become less significant by design, so that, you know, the buyer then it's not, you know, contingent upon him, you know, staying put in the company, for it to be successful. And so that that really resonated with me.
Rudy Rodriguez:And, you know, another thing that that comes up and have again, having gone through having sold a company is things you're not always prepared for, especially when you're staying behind to do the transition or if you accept a new role in the company to maximize your earn out. So are the and those things that you're gonna deal with are both cultural and technological changes in the post sale process. Because, 1, while you may have been the most important person in your company in building and and selling that organization, Now you're part of a different organization, so the culture can change on you. And how is that going to impact the employees that stay behind as well as the technology changes that also come to play? Because when you sell your company, is that company identical to yours or are you a key cog in the in their path forward in selling that company?
Rudy Rodriguez:And so that's part of the process that you as as a seller go through as you help integrate your organization into the new organization and help them assimilate the new culture and the new technology, because that's real important to make your your employees feel comfortable in that change because they are an integral part in the success of the new company.
Anthony Carrano:Yeah. No. Absolutely. And, you know, on that note, it just you're hearing you talk. It reminded me of one of the lines that Tim shared, and I I love this quote.
Anthony Carrano:I'm gonna use this quote, because it can apply, you know, even outside of just M&A. But when he said, you know, expectations not articulated is disappointment guaranteed. And I just, you know, whether I'm in, you know, communication with, you know, vendors, partners, whoever, you know, just the importance of setting, you know, the right expectations. And, you know, in his in this particular context, just the expectations, especially around as you're coming around just going through, like, the due diligence. And, you know, you know, folks listening will have to, you know, go back through, you know, the podcast and and hear it.
Anthony Carrano:But as he touched on some of the key areas of of that doing that due diligence to set the proper expectation just around, you know, number 1, risk, reoccurring revenue, strong margins on revenue, but then also, like, you know, does your technology, you know, scale? And, you know, as he touched on, those were, like, the kinda like the four main ones. But, I just I just found that to be fascinating and just the importance of, you know, keeping that, you know, that in mind, set the right expectations. You're doing the due diligence. But the big thing too is, you know, as we're as our listeners have, you know, been, you know, listening in on this particular episode about, hey.
Anthony Carrano:I'm interested in selling my business. The the point about, look, you're you're building your business. Keep the long term in mind. You know, don't do just do the things to take the shortcuts to try and spike the numbers to try and get a sale. But, you know, do it right, and, you know, good things will kinda happen.
Anthony Carrano:I think that's probably one of the best things somebody can do in setting that right expectation as, they look to eventually wanna do an exit.
Rudy Rodriguez:Yeah. So, you know, we had some great, great advice from both of our presenters today. That was really a wonderful episode. So in closing, I wanna thank everyone who's listened to this podcast for joining us on this episode of IAMCP Profiles in Partnership powered by Dunamis Marketing. We hope you enjoyed this podcast and we'll and we know you will find it useful and inspiring.
Rudy Rodriguez:If if you did, please subscribe, rate, and review us on your favorite podcast platform. And don't forget to follow us on social media and connect with us on our website, wwwiamcp.org, where you can find more information, resources, and opportunities to partner for success. One of the best ways to partner for success is to join IAMCP, a community of Microsoft partners who help each other grow and thrive. IAMCP members can find and connect with other partners locally and globally and access exclusive resources and opportunities. Whether you're looking for new customers, new markets, or new solutions, IAMCP can help you achieve your goals.
Rudy Rodriguez:To learn more, visit the IAMCP website, iamcp.org.
