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Jason Glisczynski, Author, CFP®, CPWA®, CEPA®
Moderated a panel at WICPA last week that I think every manufacturing business owner in Wisconsin needs to hear. We discussed that only about 30% of businesses that go to market actually sell. Of those, only about 10% of sellers receive what they believed the business was worth. If you run those numbers, roughly 3% of owners get the exit they expected. It takes it from a suspected market problem to a planning problem. We had four incredible people on stage: Keith Louie from QPS Employment Group, who led their transition to a 100% ESOP, Kevin Kraft from Wisconsin River Partners, who buys and grows lower middle market manufacturers, and Erik Owen, CPA, CEPA from Oak Hill Business Partners, who specializes in exit planning and value creation for closely held businesses. This is what came out of that conversation, and I want you to sit with it. The biggest thing that tanks a deal is not market conditions. It's owner dependency. When the strategy lives only in your head, and your team just executes tasks without understanding where you're going, buyers see that. They price it accordingly. The second thing that kills deals is financial statements that can't tell a clear story. If your books are a mess, your working capital is unclear, and you're running year-end adjustments, buyers will reconstruct the numbers themselves. That never ends in your favor. Something that surprised people in the room: more than half of all business exits are not voluntary. Death, disability, distress, divorce, and disagreement, the five D’s. They don’t ask for permission. 100% of owners will exit their businesses. The only question is whether it’s on your terms. The owners who achieve the best outcomes start preparing 5 to 10 years in advance. They build management teams. They clean up systems. They reduce dependence on themselves. They know which customers and products are actually profitable, not just which ones look good on the surface. They don’t wait until they want to sell to think about what comes next personally. If you're a manufacturing owner in Wisconsin and this hits close to home, I'd welcome the conversation. #WICPA #ExitPlanning #ManufacturingBusiness #BeTheBuffalo #SilvertreePlanning
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