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Pro Serv Blogs

Why Sabbaticals Could Be the Key to Unlocking Your Firm’s Scalability and Value

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Since college, I have been a hustle-and-grind professional. It only got worse when I became an entrepreneur and ran my own show. I’d never taken more than a week-long vacation. Then recently, in September 2024, I took a huge leap and embarked on a once-in-a-lifetime journey: hiking the Camino de Santiago, a medieval pilgrimage route spanning 500 miles from the Pyrenees in France to northwest Spain. My wife and I hiked it in 26 days, carrying everything we needed on our backs. While it started as a personal adventure, it became a transformative experience for me and unexpectedly for my company.

Pro Serv Blogs

The 80/20 Rule on Preparing for an Exit for a Professional Services Firm: A Founder’s View

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Exiting a professional services firm will be a founder’s most consequential event. It will be the peak of their entrepreneurial journey. As a founder, I recently sold my firm to a growth-oriented private equity firm. Our sale process took 10 weeks, from the Letter of Intent to closing day. My M&A advisors have told me that our process was among the smoothest and most efficient they have ever seen. One key reason for this is the preparation completed before the process. There is a lot to prepare with limited time, so it is important for you to focus on the biggest bang for your buck. The 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, states that 80% of outcomes come from 20% of causes for any given event. For your exit event, focus on the 20% of prep that yields 80% of the success. Here is what I focused on:

Pro Serv Blogs

Stop Selling and Grow Your Business

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When I joined my father’s marketing research company in 1997 as his first employee, I had no idea that letting go of sales would ultimately 10x our revenue. My initial role was building our new research service, while my father handled all sales. Since our new service was an upsell to existing clients, the sales process was relatively straightforward at first.

Pro Serv Blogs

7 Reasons Why Founder-Led Sales Are Failing Your Firm’s Growth (and How to Break Free)

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In professional services, founder-led sales have been the lifeblood of growth for years. Many firms have thrived in their early days by relying on personal networks, referrals, and word-of-mouth.

However, as the landscape shifts, so does this model’s effectiveness. The way buyers make purchasing decisions has fundamentally changed, and the founder-driven, network-dependent approach is no longer enough to fuel sustainable growth. If you want to grow, scale, and ultimately exit your firm, the time to rethink your approach is now.

Pro Serv Blogs

Embracing The Fear – Learning to Grab Ahold of My New Responsibilities as a Founder

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Timing is everything. I became a firm shareholder just weeks before the start of the Great Recession. Years later, I became the sole owner. After stabilizing the firm after the exit of my majority partner, COVID-19 hit. Talk about bad luck. During those times, I was confident in the direction of the firm. Just keep spending time meeting client expectations. I wasn’t afraid – I was energized. My reward would be the eventual sale of my business.

Pro Serv Blogs

10 Tips for Entrepreneurs to Go the Distance in Professional Services

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As entrepreneurs in the professional service firm arena, we often embark on a journey with dreams of scaling our businesses, achieving success, and ultimately reaching the coveted exit. However, the reality is that many founders falter along the way, lacking the endurance required to go the distance. In a world where millions of firms are started each year, only a select few make it to a successful exit. Why? Because the path is long, challenging, and demands unwavering mental toughness.

Pro Serv Blogs

Exit Dreams and Tax Nightmares: The Lurking Threats behind your S Corporation

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A few years ago, we advised a group of professional services sellers in connection with a dream of an acquisition event: $100 million+ exit as a platform company to a well-known private equity group within the professional services space. The deal promised not only a healthy cash payment of $50-60mm at closing, but potentially, future riches from the sale of the owners’ rollover equity once the business achieved another exit at an even higher valuation.

Pro Serv Blogs

From Struggling Solo Founder to Thriving Firm: The Power of Giving and Joining Collective 54

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There’s a common thread among founders of boutique professional service firms – the pursuit of success, growth, and ultimately, a life-changing exit. Today, we’re going to share the inspiring journey of a brilliant founder who specializes in customizing and implementing the Snowflake software application. His story is not just about expertise but also about the transformative power of understanding when to give away value and when to charge for it.

Pro Serv Blogs

The Eject Button of Exits: Opportunities and Perils of Acquihires

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Founders, executives, and investors in professional services firms should be generally familiar with the motivations, elements, and commercial considerations that attend “acquihires.” These transactions not only present a viable (if not optimal) path to exit a professional services business, but they also present attractive opportunities to assemble qualified teams, import unique knowledge and capabilities, and ultimately grow or defend market share. This article seeks to help the leaders of professional services firms understand the circumstances in which they might be involved in an acquihire (either as seller or buyer), the motivations of each party in such circumstances, and common structures for acquihire transactions.

Pro Serv Blogs

How Good Are You at Predicting the Future? Reflections on Attempting to Time the Market for your Exit

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The road to a successful exit is littered with the bodies of entrepreneurs that have attempted to time the market1. Lest you become another casualty, I wanted to give you some things to consider before you try your hand at predicting how future macroeconomic or sector-specific conditions are likely to unfold. Start by accepting that you are never going to know the perfect time to sell with 100% certainty.

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