RANDY LONG: How Taking a Risk Helped Me Create a $337 Million Company (MUST WATCH)

You might be focused on growing your business, but what do you have planned after that? Have you thought of selling your business, passing it down to a family? Well, stay tuned for Allie and you'd because we're going to get you the answers that you need now. Welcome to Ally and you, the Business Success and lifestyle show. I am Alyson Maslin and my friends call me Allie. I'm a business growth mentor and we come to you every single week, bringing champions and, you know, entrepreneurs that have refused to back down even when the going has has become challenging like we all know it does in business. And today I'm super excited because if any of you have thought of at some point, gosh, I'd really like to build my business up to sell. But you don't even have any idea where to start. Then you definitely want to stay with us through the end of the show because my special guest, Randy Long is the CEO of Long Business Advisors, a premier consulting firm that helps business owners to build, transition and sell their Braveheart businesses. Now what the heck is a Braveheart business? We're going to talk about that in a minute. But Randy is a lawyer. He's a certified exit planner, which you need when you're going to transition out of your business. And he is the author of the Wall Street Journal and Amazon best selling book the Brave Heart Exit. We're going to talk about that today. Seven steps to your family business legacy. So welcome.

Thank you.

Randy, I'm so excited that you're here.

Me too. It's a beautiful place here.

Yeah, thanks. We kind of like it here.

Yeah.

We call this the happy place. You know, I think everybody needs to be surrounded with color, you know, because that lifts you up. So, you know, I think recently with our clients, we were having an event and I said, how many of you. We had a room of Maybe there were 40 people in there. And I said, how many of you would like to eventually sell your business? And I think 85% of the people in the room raised their hand.

Right.

But the funny thing is people don't really talk about it that much, you know.

That's right.

So I think this is such a big topic. But before we get into all that, how did you get into this specialized niche? I mean, what is your big why around it?

My big why had to do with when I was growing up, I worked for lots of entrepreneurs. I loved working for the people that had the fire in the belly, you know, and I loved the energy that they had and I loved the fact that they got up every day and they put their name on the line, they put their net worth on the line, their efforts, their energy, and they took risk. And those people I call the Bravehearts and the reason I do, and I think of them as heroes in this country is because those people have made the United States the economic engine of the world. And I have dedicated my life to serving those people and also happen to be one of those myself, an entrepreneur. So I love the whole space. I've always been in it.

Wow, that's already. I'm already inspired. You know what, that's such a good reminder because I think business owners so much are in the thick of their business, they're in the day to day, they forget that they really are making such an impact in the greater good.

They are. Most people live their whole lives and never sign a paycheck. You know, it is a rare few that are willing to put their money and their time and their energy and their name on the line. And when it comes to on Friday afternoon, they're the ones signing the checks. So I respect that.

I signed several today, as a matter of fact. So when you're thinking about selling your business or passing it down to a family member, I mean, this is a very big decision. And I think probably people approach it like the year before and go, ah, I think I gotta get ready to sell. So where do you even start to decide where to go?

Let me just say that. And I've handled a number of business sales of people that decided they wanted to get out within a year that you know, they're ready to go. But really it's a fairly big mistake. And part of the reason that it's a mistake is because if you don't prepare for the transition or the sale, you leave a whole bunch of money on the table and a whole bunch of control, a whole bunch of options and you're kind of stuck just getting what you can get. So because there's also an economic cycle in which we live, we like to prepare our businesses for sale towards the best time in the economic cycle every time. So this is like my fourth one now where I've been through this. And our best and biggest successes come from the people that will play the long game and then choose to sell within the right point in the economic cycle. So it's a really big deal.

Yeah, that's definitely something to think about. And I know that we're kind of a quick results, fast action kind of society. But if you really do plan ahead, you're going to Avoid probably a lot of the regrets, mishaps that happen. So that's, that starts. So let's back up a little bit. Succession planning, what does that mean exactly? If you can just share that.

Yeah, I would say that succession planning is actually kind of a subset of exit planning because succession planning is essentially preparing for a transition to the next person that's going to take over. So that's usually considered somebody that's going to, you know, inside of a company, somebody that's going to replace the CEO or possibly you're going to leave the company to a child and you could think of that child as being your successor. But there's so much more breadth and depth to plan for, both in the business and on the family side. And if you, if you think of it as just succession, you're missing a whole bunch of the puzzle.

Right.

You leave a lot.

There's a lot of pieces. Well, I've sold four, four of my companies. And you know, thinking back, of course on especially the early years, I had no idea what the heck I was doing. I needed you.

Right.

But I remember one, I built a Homeopathic Academy of Southern California. It was the largest homeopathic school in this area and I was ready to transition out of it. I felt like I had done my work, my mission, and I ended up selling it to the woman who was my right hand person in the company and, and she ended up just staying. We took a year to go through the process because we wanted to make sure the students stayed on and they felt comfortable and so forth. So I definitely get what you're talking about, but I think we probably could have done a better job. But you know what, the school is still running today.

Yeah, that's a success. I mean, sometimes I deal with business owners that they've just reached an emotional end and they're at the point where they really don't. They want to get out and they're willing to take a haircut to get out. We like to have people, you know, three to 10 years in advance, frankly, depending on the complexity of the business and how much they want to grow it. So I've worked with some businesses from startup to sale, which went seven to 10 years. And you know, some of those businesses we sold for, you know, north of $100 million.

Wow.

And a bunch of them, I love to work in the space, that's roughly 5 to 50 million. Because if you get the businesses early enough, you can have this massive impact on both the family and the business. You can set up the Family for generational wealth. You can eliminate the IRS from pulling 40% of your net worth away from you. There's a whole bunch you can do if you plan.

This is important stuff. This is really important to think about. And so that leads me into, let's say that it is something that you want to do ten years from now. What is it that you need to start thinking about or working on now?

Well, that far out, which is really great. And my preference, it's nice to get an overview. So I would honestly, I would say a great place to start would be my book because I haven't seen anything like it. And that's the reason I wrote it, for a good overview of what you need to do and also for a bunch of the people that really can't afford me, you know, but I still want them to realize the best they can and everything they can get from their business.

Right. And so we are recording this live so you can hear the, all the action happening in Cardiff. Well, it is a beautiful book. I love this, this cover.

Thank you.

And so that's great. So that's definitely a place to start. And so how do you know, let's say that you are considering, let's say I want to sell a year from now or two years from now. How do you know what are the things that you need to know are in place that you're ready for you.

To maximize business so that it's a true symbiotic relationship, which means they both live better, have more time, they become worth more money, they have more to give to their communities and to their families. And it's just a, it's a win across the board if it's well done.

Yeah. And that's the part, the giving back, that's what excites me too.

Me too.

You know. So now let's talk about your book and a little bit more what it specifically does your book cover in helping them make that exit.

Well, what my book specifically covers we have in this book what we call a seven step process. And it deals with, you know, making the right decision up front which way we're going to go. Because you have to determine the direction. We've got to identify what the resources are. What am I starting with? And let me just say that too, that at the beginning of a transition planning for us, we always get evaluation done on the business because that anchors for us where we're going to measure growth from in the future. It also gives us a sense of understanding where are we with regard to knowing how Much money these people have and what they're worth towards going to what their dreams are. I've done appraisals in the past where the family said, you know, we want to get out with $10 million. I appraise the business and it's worth 12 or 15. I was like, you're ready to go. Let's just go to market because that is what you want. And other times they like, I had one about six months ago and you know, the family wanted 25 million. We get in there and you know, the companies were seven and they were totally. And the reason why they didn't get that is because they did not understand what it was like to look through their company through the eyes of a buyer. So that was a big eye opener.

In the world idea of being in love with your product.

That's right.

You've got to. It's really about being in love with the people that want your product.

That's correct. That's correct. So, and then the next thing we focus on is building the team that I need to pull off their unique situation and I bring them in when I need them. But we've got to have really good people at the table. And I fire employee. I mean, I fire professionals sometimes because sometimes they've started with them when they were young and they've outgrown their ability to really keep up and they don't know it or they're too. The relationships are too long and they don't want to get rid of them. But I have some bad stories about people that didn't get rid of them when I told them to. Yes. But no time for that. The next thing we focus on is the value catalyst, which is what is it that's going to make the company worth more money? And we build those pieces, then we work on also the idea of business durability. And business durability goes to making sure that if something comes up before we get our plan done that the family still realizes all the value of that business and they're taken care of. And, and you know, whether it's. And sometimes you can lose a key employee that's really important to your company and it can go down because of that.

Right.

So there's a bunch of things to get under control.

Yeah. Oh, I love this.

Yeah. And then we, then we work on what we kind of like the legacy part of this, which is making sure that we're building value and saving value into the next generation. That's both on a financial level and also on a human Capital and faith level, I guess I'll say, because we want. We want the things that are important in that family to be transitioned down to the next generation. Not just money. We just get them money. It might destroy them. You know how that goes. Yes, we've all seen that.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. And in fact, I, you know, I have mixed feelings about the whole trust fund, too, because I know when someone has a big pile of cash, they're waiting. You know, unless they have that inner drive already, they may not really reach their full potential.

Yeah. And if they're depending if they already have a. What's the word? Entitlement mentality, it's probably going to be a bad thing to leave them much money. And so sometimes I'll have people push that off until 40 or something, you know, because they want their kids to grow up before they get any money. And sometimes if you give money too early, you rob the kids of what it means to be successful themselves or.

To have that hunger.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

My, you know, being a single mom, I mean, I had times where I had zero money or had, you know, like, negative. And I'll tell you, you get your hustle on.

Yeah.

When that happens. And I'm grateful, really, for those times.

Yeah. And the last piece of that. Of that seven steps, that last step has to do with getting that owner ready for the next part of life.

Yeah.

Right. Okay.

Yeah, I love that. So you definitely need to get this book, the Braveheart Exit. And we're also going to outline on our library, which is the AMI Library, a checklist of the seven steps, too, so you can have with you as an overall summary. So you just. Well, we're going to go ahead and put the link below, but it's allisonmaslin.com and so you can get that and also get all the contact information and everything you need for Randy. And then I want to talk about the emotional piece of it because, you know, I've had. In my instance, when I sold the companies, I went right into another company and I was thinking about it, preparing for the show. It's like, yeah, that's kind of how I used to date also. That was really how I got over the last relationship. I really just.

You never really dealt with the pain.

Not really. I didn't like it. So I kind of took the easy way out there, but finally met my husband on that one. But, you know, when you're. It's all about the sale or it's like an Olympic athlete who spends their whole life training for this, that has been your life. And then all of a sudden it's like you think, oh, I'm gonna golf, I'm gonna sleep late.

And what happens too often, especially for men, men more than women, but still women too, they'll go into depression. So it is really important that they do the work of what are we going to transition to? And get excited about that. And one of the things, and you'll appreciate this I think, because we heard this at Genius Network one time, I think, well, I can't remember now who it was, but the idea was that they, with their spouse, they do, they take six weeks at a time and they try something new and they do it for six weeks and then afterwards they start something else. But if they love it, then they'll add that to their lives. If they don't, they move on and do the next. And so they keep trying to explore and learn about things that they haven't done or they always wanted to do, but they never did take the time to. So there's a lot of the personal sort of what can we do? That's one good thing. The other is what can we give? Because, you know, there is a tremendous amount of wisdom and talent that can be applied to. So there's so many needy charities around the country, both, both in the religious side, the church side. And also, you know, the, just the social side of people are hurting and needful and there's so many things that can be taught. You know, I mean, like they say, you know, teach the man to fish and you don't have to feed him again.

Right, right.

That kind of thing.

Well, you know, and I, and I think that, you know, those things are so uplifting. But I think you're absolutely right. Really thinking about it ahead of time, putting those things in place.

Right.

So that you're not sitting there and regretting. And I do know of some people that have actually gone back and purchased their company back.

Me too.

Even for more money than they sold it. Part of it is that they saw their business going down and then that was really hurting, painful for them.

I tell you where it's even worse. And that is when you do either a third party sale or whether no matter who you're selling it to, if you don't do it well, we like to make sure that our business owners take all the risk off the table before they transition control. Do you hear that?

Yeah.

Because what I'm doing, always tired of seeing is people that sell their businesses. They do a note, let somebody take over. They put 10% down and they transfer all the stock and everything's done. And then the next thing you know, 18 months later, I get a call, you know, hey, I did this note and I sold my business, but I haven't had a payment in six months.

Guess what? Yeah.

And then it's a legal mess. Right. So it just. So we don't like those end to end that way. We want to run that, that sale in such a way that all of their risk is off the table when the control transfers. That's a big deal.

So smart. So smart. Wow. Well, we could go on and on.

We could.

There's just so much to talk about. It's an important topic I don't think many people talk about. No, but it's like, gosh, millions and millions of business owners that want to sell their company. So you work so hard on strategy. Why wouldn't you start strategizing now about your sale?

Yeah. I mean, and you know, we're in the baby. I'm in the sort of the end of the baby boomer group. But I can tell you there are so many businesses that are going to be sold in the next five to 10 years that if your business isn't being run in such a way that it's really, really competitive, you won't sell and the others will.

Right.

So, you know, your viewers need to understand this can be a big deal.

Yeah. So it's super important to get the support you need to, to grow your business, obviously. Multiply your revenue, multiply your profits. Right, right. And start planning now. And the way to do that, read this book, go to our library, check out more of what Randy is doing, and thank you so much. You're very welcome for sharing your wisdom. This was awesome, wasn't it?

I love the time.

Yeah. So until next time, get out there and elevate yourself. You are absolutely worth it. Bye, everybody.