Scaling Your Business: How Private Equity Can Support Entrepreneurs

When your net worth is over $100 million, you don't care for an exit opportunity. You're just in it for the long term anyway. Smaller investors and those who are more activists want to have a say what they invest in and when they exit. And that's how we set up ebay. And that's the purpose of Egate, giving investors access to private equity deals. It goes hand in hand with talent acquisition. How are you going to attract the right talent if you don't have a website?

As a business owner, there's a lot of emotion attached with giving up any ownership. There's the fear of losing control of what you've built. I definitely understand and appreciate why there's a bit of a block from a business owner's perspective.

Good day and welcome to the Wealthy Entrepreneur Podcast. I'm your host, Bob Goverau. It is a pleasure to have you with us today. I want to remind you that this is the place where we dissect the elements that contribute to entrepreneurial success, from mindset and leadership to profits and revenue. Now I've got a partner that we're going to share with and bring in today as a special guest. He works in the private equity space, but it's not traditional private equity. It's something a little bit unique, but it's something that I think all business owners need to hear about, understand, learn about and see if this is something that might be a fit for them. Because I'm considering that same situation for myself. In fact, I think I've already considered and I think it is a good fit for me and I'm excited to work with this organization to see what the future holds a partnership together. And I want to bring that value to all of you as well. So in this episode I'm joined by Ara Sahin, a seasoned investor and finance executive with over 20 years of experience in private equity mergers and acquisitions and value based leadership. Ara's impressive career spans global finance, including roles at some of the big four accounting firms, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte and HSBC Private Equity, where he's led significant international deals and developed a deep understanding of capital deployment and operational transformation. He's also served on a pretty powerful, influential board here in Canada. The Terry Fox foundation has spent a significant amount of time, efforts and involvement with that group, allowing them to continue to have the success that they have as well. We're going to hear a little bit about that. But most importantly, what I want Ara to share today when he joins is that he founded a new modern private equity firm that's focused on long term alignment, operational value and investment access to private equity that we normally wouldn't be able to get access to. Lots of really great experiences already with Ara and his team Pegate, which is incredible. I'm really, really excited to bring Ara in today to share his perspective, to share his insights, to talk about how maybe private equity could be a really great solution for achieving financial freedom in the owners of, in, in the lives of business owners while they're operating, but also looking at ways to get them paid upon succession as well. So without further ado, I want to bring my good friend Ara into the show. All right, so really excited to have Ara today. Join me. Ara, how are you today, my friend?

Doing well. How are you, Bob?

Good. It looks like you're out in nature today. Maybe at a cottage, something that's really relaxed. Feels good.

Listen, you know what, I feel very fortunate that our paths have crossed and I'm sure we'll chat about this a little bit more as we get deeper into the podcast. But you know, I'm really excited about what it is that you've created. We'll, we'll let you intro that. But excited for our two companies to be able to collaborate going forward because we're both in the same space, really helping support business owners in a multitude of different areas. But really excited to have you here. Why don't you kick this off, just sharing a little bit of your background about how you got started and how you got to where you are today.

Oh, great. Thanks for having me. Best background for me. I think I've always been an entrepreneur. I've always enjoyed businesses. I started my first business When I was 14, I registered a business at 15, paid my way through university and it was almost a hobby for me to think about business and how to improve things. And it was thanks to my brother. I never wanted to be. Cause I didn't love accounting. But then at the time he said, why don't you get your ca and one day you could do this thing called mergers and acquisitions.

Oh yeah, that sounds pretty cool.

That sounds exciting.

Yeah. So that was. So the goal was to get into mergers and acquisitions from early on and how I could add value to businesses. And that's what I did.

Okay, so clearly you went through, you got your ca. Now cpa. What was your experience like doing that? Where did you, where'd you get your, your formalized experience to get your ca?

So I went to the, arguably the Vicia School University in Canada. I went to Waterloo then my five years. I have my Masters of Accounting. Impressive people at bars all the time.

Oh yeah, I'm sure.

Yeah. But I have, I actually, I love my experience there. I love my, my colleagues there. I'm still friends with a lot of them. It was, it was just, it was fun in this way what people think about Watergl. But it was a great experience. Cause it was co op. So I worked for Big four early on, got tremendous experience. It was torture, like audit. No one enjoys audit. I used to say, as long as you could tolerate it, then you're good because it's huge learning.

Wouldn't say everybody doesn't enjoy it. I am also in that space with you. That's not what I want to do. But some people love it. So that's not for us, but that's okay. So you, you did do audit experience. Okay, this is good to know.

Yeah, had to. And funny enough, my first audit when I was with Deloitte, it was up north, Kimberly Clark pulp and paper plant. And way up north like Terrace Bay, Ontario, minus 40. And things come around. One of our acquisitions, Kingston Refractory, actually that plant became a client of ours. So it was like after the 30 years. So great experience because you get to meet with the CEO, CFO and, and really understand business. So my whole goal is how could I learn out of this process. And for me, every time I change careers, it was when, okay, I'm, I'm, I'm not learning anymore. I need to move on. So for me it was tremendous learning through the audit experience. But I also did some M and A as well. And then I moved to Dubai with PwC and. But we started the M and A practice there, transaction services and did almost everything. There's three of us. And it was, that was tremendous experience. Like that's when private equity was starting. We serviced private equity. One of our clients was HSBC Private Equity did a lot of work with them and ended up joining them as a director. So that was seeing a country grow, right? That is probably like Toronto 50 years ago, you know. So it was just, just boom.

So, okay, so I didn't know this part. So you went over with PwC and there were only three of you in the Dubai PWC M and A office. Is that what.

Yeah, we started it, it was a partner director and now it's probably in the region. Over a thousand people. Yeah, we led some really interesting, you know, transactions. We did fraud investigations, turnarounds. We, we did the biggest restructuring. A family office that had over a billion Reals in debt with 30 banks including HSBC and, and HSBC understood the transaction, the private equity side and ended up making a ton out of that transaction. So it was really interesting where modeling came in and understanding how financial model works and how you could benefit from that. So that was really interesting. So it was great experience and ended up joining the private equity world from that experience and learned a lot there as well.

So now were you doing private equity while you were in Dubai or was that when you came back?

No one in Dubai. So I moved to HSBC Private Equity. They had two funds. The first fund was only a hundred million and was extremely successful. And that's where I, you know, that, that really influenced our strategy here in Toronto for, for Pegate because the smaller deals were a bit more work. It's actually same amount of work, large transaction versus a small transaction.

Just one less, one or two less zeros on the end.

Exactly. But you have a lot more upside on smaller transactions, a lot less competitive. But you could truly add value if that's your business model, which it is ours for Peg.

So, so walk me through Pegate then. Right, so you, you have this big four experience. You, you do M and A work, you end up over in Dubai, which is a pretty cool experience to begin with, getting some international time, building an M and A practice. You exit into private equity, you get a taste for it and then you come back and you build Pegate. Tell me about how that journey's been so far.

You know, it's been excellent. And part of the experience in Dubai was I had my own businesses as well and also supported entrepreneurs in their exits. So I did go on my own. I left private Equity the fund in 2009 and set up my own practice where I would support people exiting and preparing them for exit. So, so basically adding tremendous value and getting some upside out of it. And while I was doing that, a lot of friends would ask me, all right, you know, do you have any investment opportunities for me? Because I, I'm not big enough to go into a fund or I want to have a say because as you know, if you invest in a large fund like kkr, you're writing a big check, they're going to do very well. However, you don't have an exit opportunity. But when your net worth is over a hundred million dollars, you don't care for an exit opportunity. You're just in it for the long term anyway. But smaller investors and those who are more activists want to have a say what they invest in and when they Exit and that's how we set up and that's the purpose of basically giving investors access to private equity deals and those that they can't really access at the tickets they want to invest in or those that they want to have a say what they invest in and when they exit.

So, and which I love. So let's walk a little bit deeper for my audience here who is typically the entrepreneurs or people looking to start their business or exit their business. Can you walk me through what private equity actually is?

So private equity is really investing instead of the, in the public markets. We invest in private businesses and it's just a lot less complicated than investing in a publicly traded business. You have more of a say. There's less cost of managing that portfolio. So a lot of private equity would take a public company private. So they take control and take it, take it private. So it just means private investment really. But it's generally reserved for big checks, institutional investors, family offices and ultra high net worth people.

Yeah. And it, it's been fascinating too and I think, you know, anybody from the Canadian space that's listening is paying attention to the US space. Private equity is going bonkers down in the US and it's exciting to see right what how it's, it's changing the market.

So yeah, as you know, the tax regime in Canada favors business owners and investors in private business. Like by far, there's no, no, there's no competition. So the taxes that you would pay in a private investment are significantly lower or deferred compared to a publicly traded business like so for, for your investor base. I'm sure a lot of entrepreneurs know this. They have the lifetime capital gains exemption, which is tremendous. And that's how a lot of people accumulate wealth through business ownership. But you don't have to own and operate the business. You could just own shares in a private business and you still qualify for that 1.25 million per person, almost tax free capital gain.

I love that and I love that you said almost because, because it's close. It's close. You know, it's, I always love that too when we're, we start doing some planning, you know, maybe introducing a family trust to get access to more of it. And, and I usually say it's exempt income, but it doesn't, it's not completely tax free. There's a few little loopholes which we, we can work around, but it just takes a little bit of time and anyway, it's exciting and I love, I love what you're creating which is really the everyday investors opportunity to invest in something that's bigger than them. Right. And that they wouldn't otherwise be able to get access to. You know, you're not really going to be walking down the street and see your neighbors running their business and say hey, can I buy in and you know, write you a check for $50,000? It's way more complicated than that. But working with a group like Pegate, they do all of the hard work, put in the structure in place so that you could invest in your neighbor's business and write a check for 50,000. You just may be one of a few investors who might be working with that. So I love your model. Can you talk to me about this? Because obviously we've had these conversations. Part of the reason why I like your model so much. But what are some of the areas where if you're talking with a business owner like me that you guys would come in. What are the sort of opportunities for partnership and what would that look like and what would the benefits for a business owner be that would want to work with private equity?

A great question. So typically what we look to is what how can we add value to a business and what the value we would bring to especially smaller business. So we're not targeting very large businesses here because we think those businesses we could probably add less value to and it's more competitive and no one's really targeting the smaller companies that we are. So. And we're buying them at reasonable multiples, able to grow them. So what the value we would bring. We really focus on three things, Bob. So one is marketing. So a lot of these owner managed businesses don't really have a marketing budget. And I love it that they're the marketing person. They bring in the work. But then they haven't really professionalized that process. So very simple tactics and strategies. We would up the game in terms of marketing so it's less reliant on the business owner. The other one is people so just professionalizing the team. Typically if they don't have a number two in place, we would look to promote or hire one. But it, it goes hand in hand with the marketing because when you, we, we've we're just going through a business, we've acquired a business we're with, with a very basic website and we're in the process of acquiring a business with no website. Imagine that. Right.

So what a, what a great opportunity though, right?

Exactly. So, but, and then it, it goes hand in hand with talent acquisition. How are you going to attract the right Talent. If you don't have a website, right. Especially the, the young, they want to go like you have a great website. So if I'm going to apply to, to work for Brevarol, I'm going to be impressed. I'm going to say this company is going places. Especially the fact that we do all this amazing podcast marketing work. Like you want to be part of the team because you see it growing and that's what we try to do because talent acquisition is key. And the third is at really systems and financial systems mainly or in operating systems to help it scale. On the last transaction, we're just going through an ERP implementation with NetSuite. A bit of overkill, but we're looking long term that if we really want to scale this business across Canada, we, we should do this now. And it. And it's been a great implementation so far.

Yeah. And, and I'm going to pump your tires with a couple different things that I see as value that you guys bring especially for. We're a business of 200 ish people now.

Right.

We've had the ability to bring in our leadership team and sort of get them in place. But for a lot of businesses who are looking to grow and scale and haven't had that ability. Right. To come to work with private equity and they can bring in those skills and resources and help bump up your team.

Right.

Part of the people side of things. But one of the really fascinating pieces and one of the reasons that I, I'm excited to work with you guys so much is that a lot of times business owners, you know, you're building this business, you're reinvesting in growing this thing, but it's a constant reinvestment. And you know, you, you'd never really have an opportunity to get a cash event where you're able to pull out some, some of your hard earned equity that you've grown. And as a business owner, a lot of times that sort of transaction happens when you completely exit and you find a buyer. And let me just quickly say to everyone who's listening, the ability to actually sell your business at the end of the day is not as high percentage wise as you think it may be. Right. It could. Because a lot of people feel that they're going to be able to exit their business in the future and that's their paycheck. But if you don't have a systemized, well run organization that's based solely on you as one individual, it's likely not going to sell. Definitely not going to sell. For a high multiple. But one of the things are that I'm so impressed with with you and your team. One, you guys actually come in as minority investors in many cases to, to be part of the growth versus hey, you know, we've built this business and the only way that we can get cash out of it is to just sell the whole thing. You guys actually come in, bring in some power, bring in some expertise, some leadership, some people, some marketing. You give a little bit of a cash event and you're in it with the business owner for the long haul. Right. To help them grow and exit successfully down the road. And I think that's such a powerful positioning for your group that I haven't seen before. And it's really exciting for a lot of small to medium sized business owners who are looking for that sort of experience or sort of feeling like they're capped on the level of expertise they can bring to their operation to partner with you guys and you know, have a little bit of a cash transaction, but also have a strategy for long term growth and exit. I know that wasn't much of a question for you, but I just wanted to share that.

No, I agree. I triggered a few thoughts. So one of the early investments we made at HSBC was two partners, fairly young, successful, but couldn't scale. And when we came in we just gave them that support that you know, you're doing the right thing through the board and just go for it. And yes, they cashed out a little bit, but that, that made them really go for it. So when you're, you're not only cashing out like you said, probably tax free, but also you're, you're de. Risking it. So, so it's not your house on the line because the banks here are not the friendliest when it comes to personal guarantees. And we don't work with personal guarantees. So, so that's one thing we do is we try to remove personal guarantees from the founder and, and that, and then just support that, that growth. And it does make a big difference. And I'm surprised actually a lot of the mindset of some business owners is, is very binary. Either I'm selling them zero or a hundred percent, which makes no sense to me. Right. So, but because there's no trust factor, they're almost, they don't trust the buyer. So I think we've established ourselves as, as very trustworthy. We're very straightforward, honest in our, in our, the way we work with people. And, and I think that's the best. When an owner doesn't exit a hundred percent and they, they invest, they exit partially and maybe exit fully with us or just hold on for some dividends.

And so couple things. One, as a business owner, I can tell you there's a lot of emotion attached with giving up any ownership. There's the fear of losing control of what you've built. So I, I can definitely understand and appreciate why there's a bit of a block from a business owner's perspective. My hope is working with you, right, is, is building the confidence with our 5,000 business owners, right, gaining that experience, sharing our story and our participation in potentially working with you guys as well, to say, hey guys, look, this is how well this has worked. Now, 5,000 businesses, let's, let's look at which ones are set up to succeed in this position and, and how do we support that? And you know, I, one thing I want to say, business owners who are listening to this as well, like this has definitely been an area that I've spent a lot of time the last few years understanding private equity space. And I think it's, it's interesting to think that you as a business owner, you've grown, you've invested, you've got it to a place where, where it is right now. And you may even feel like you're in a really good spot of momentum. But just imagine that momentum with the firepower and resources of a really strong partner, especially one that's coming in at a minority stake as well, to say, hey, you know what, this is still your business, you're still going to run it, but we're here to support you along the way to really multiply this and everybody wants that really, really powerful. Another thing I want to just bring up and maybe you can elaborate on it, but I believe one of the areas that you guys had brought up in speaking with me and definitely with other businesses is one of those exit plans. Again, a minority stake. And we're talking maybe 10, 20, 30, 40%, right? That's a minority stake, is actually selling it. You know, thinking of my business, for example, we were to sell 10%. Ara and his team come in, he's actually going to raise capital for that buy in. And one of the really cool things that they've, they've done in their structure is that they will go to your company, your employees, your senior managers, and they will say, hey, do you guys want to buy in to this through our private equity group? So not only, right, I, and I'm sure business owners, hey, what is the ideal exit plan for all of us. Well, it would be to have our employees take over. Right. Like that just has the feel good as long as they're going to pay what other people would pay. That's the feel good sort of transition plan. Well, Ara and his team have structured their private equity group where they allow team members to buy in. So not only, you know, are you getting this sort of cash transaction, but you're also getting maybe even further buy in from those that are already working in the organization. Ara, do you want to maybe just touch on how that could work?

No, I love that. And that's the future. So employee ownership, I think people are realizing this, especially post Covid, that they want a piece of a business, they want to be a part of something, otherwise they'll change jobs every two years, especially young people. So we are structured so we're an exempt market dealer, first of all. So we're regulated by the securities Commission in Ontario. So we have regular recording, we have to follow various rules. But also we are registered with technology. So part of our registration is our platform, which we developed. And now we've just gone to a new version as well, which is really nice. So within that platform, yes, anyone can hold chairs, you know, outside of pg, but how do you trade them? What's the value of that share if you're stuck and the only person you could sell it to is your partner? So that, that's not marketable, that that's not liquid as liquid. So that's why we've, we, we have a platform where any investor, be it an employee or one of our investors, can actually trade their share anonymously so they post the price. And we've had several trades, by the way, and the largest one we've had is an employee buying out a single investor, believe it or not. So we were able to attract this employee because he saw the growth and in his, you know, great, great find, great for the business. And he ended up buying out an investor and he has a meaningful stake in the business. And so, so, and that's all through the platform. So we encourage it, not just, we allow it. Like we love it when there's employee participation. And we just, we're going through another process. We bought a business with the support of a key employee. We closed the transaction and two employees have approached us saying we're actually also interested in buying. And like you said, the price is set so that there's no argument or discussion. You know, professional people have agreed on a valuation price. There's a structure in place. So it's easy for employees to buy in.

So what you're telling me, and this is something new that I'm, I'm hearing from you today which is very interesting. So you're telling me that I'm a business owner and I want to work with Pegate and I want to try and get some employee buy in but maybe my employees aren't ready today. So I work with Pegate. Pegate buys a 10, 20% stake and at some point if that employee is ready and there's someone who's looking to also exit from that investment, they could eventually come in and participate in that company at a later date. Is that what I heard?

Absolutely, yeah. Anytime. Absolutely. So. And then not only they don't even have to buy out an employee, we could just issue new shares and it's usually different class of shares for tax reasons. So, so yeah, so they could just inject that capital into the business. It dilutes the investors but, and that's value add though our, even in our offering memorandums that we write these detailed offering memorandums for our investors so they know exactly what they're investing in. Investing in private equity is risky so, so we disclose all the risks but we also mentioned the opportunity for employee buy in and we generally reserve about 10% for employee buy in, maybe 20 depending on the size of the the business.

Well that's fascinating and what a great opportunity. Again, business owners, we're going to chat more about this and definitely throw your comments in below for anything that's sort of come up today or any questions you have because certainly myself or working with RN his team, we'll get you those answers. But I'm excited to be, you know, working with RMPEgate. I know we had done an event about a month ago talking about the ways that investors could be investing their corporate earnings to maximize, you know, long term growth and tax efficiency as well. So lots of really phenomenal things that you guys are up to. I want to talk about the fact that I know we've, we've chatted about Pegate a little bit and building the modern PE firm but I know you want to focus on building this business based on alignment, education and entrepreneurial access. What is your long term vision for Pegate and supporting the entrepreneurial space outside of what we've, we've sort of already chatted about.

So long term vision is to have a platform where it's, it's almost like the public market but it's still private where entrepreneurs can access capital their employees can buy in, investors can Access secondary deals, meaning someone wants to. So I like certain sector, I see three deals in that sector. So I could approach within the platform, say I actually, I want to support this. So building an ecosystem where investors can access deals, but also entrepreneurs can start planning their exit. And like you said, the minority exit. I think that's a great solution because imagine you're in your 50s, you're not ready to retire and but you need a partner or but you don't mind cashing out a little bit, letting your employees buy in and then gradually exit and maybe never exit. Because we're not a fund at the end. So pgate is not a PE fund. Each deal we raise on a deal by deal basis. And there's no timeframe. So we don't commit to investors that there will be an exit or there has to be an exit in a fund. It's typically seven to 10 years that they target that. And that's on purpose because a lot of our business owner partners don't necessarily want to exit, they want to grow. And as long as we're enjoying dividends, then it's a great investment.

And I would say too guys, like again, for those business owners that are listening right now to this, what does all of this mean for you? Well, you ever heard of the term financial freedom? Right? So you're growing this business. It's taking every ounce of financial resource that you possibly can throw at it to grow this thing. And you know, you believe in it, you've got a really great purpose, a vision, you're building a team, you're maximizing your impact. And then you go, you know what, what if I bring a partner on here that can actually help add fuel to the fire and then I cash out and get financial freedom for life. Let's just say, for example, you've got a business worth, let's say it's worth $10 million, right? R& his team come in and they buy 20%, that's $2 million. You put that $2 million in your bank account, likely tax free if it's structured properly. You got to talk with our team first about that. But you get $2 million, you put that in an investment account, not outside of private equity, something that's a little bit more conservative as a long term play. And you're getting, you know, income for life there while you still own 80% of your company and driving your purpose and building your team and working with, you know, some strategic partners to help take it to the next level. Now you've got financial security for life. And now you can, you know, continue to go all in on your business and just know that life is taken care of. Right. It's just, it's a really cool model, Ara, and I think it's something that I'm going to be working with a lot of our business owners to execute on because I think it's extremely powerful.

Agreed. And one thing we do focus on is manager of buyouts. So, and we've done a couple of deals where we had someone looking to acquire a business and he's a executive and, and is, but does. Just doesn't want to work for a T4 anymore and has capital. And so that's, that's the beauty. So it really supports the owner manager who is, who's probably enjoying the size of the business. They don't want to grow further. That, that's the beauty of targeting retiring business owners. They probably could do a lot better financially, but they, they're content the million dollars is good enough for them while the business can really scale further. And that's where it, someone who's more hungry can come in. And, and that's what the platform's really good at, is connecting an operator with, with the right business and, and they take the business to the next level and the founder doesn't have to exit fully. They could, like you said, sell minority majority. For us, it doesn't matter. It's whatever makes sense for, for the seller. We don't insist on a certain percentage.

And it's, it's interesting too, like, even if you're thinking as a business owner, hey, I'd love to diversify from my specific industry. So let's say, for example, it's something that, that you feel at risk with AI right now. Right. But the business is still growing. There's a market and you're just feeling like, hey, the changing technology. I'd love to maybe diversify some of my risk. You could actually work with Pegate. Come in. Obviously your business has to be sustainable, otherwise they're not going to be interested. But you have a sustainable business but you want to diversify so you could have a buyout of a certain portion of your business and reinvest it in other markets with Pegate so that you've got multiple sources of income as well, which I think is, is pretty powerful too. So. All right. I'm fascinated by your business model. I love it. I'm excited to walk some of our clients through that process with you. I think it's a really exciting opportunity for many and for those that continue to struggle because they're building this massive goodwill that they can't leverage. This is a really great way to leverage and then gain a partner who can help support you on the next component of your journey. I want to talk to you about this because all of this is great. But I know that sometimes we talk about things that are outside of business and things that are really important to each of us. And you've got something that you've been involved in which has been the Terry Fox foundation for quite a few years. Do you want to walk us through your involvement with that group?

Yeah. Well, when. When I moved to Dubai there was a Terry Fox run there. So surprise, surprise, like Terry Fox's reach is global because cancer doesn't discriminate unfortunately.

So no boundaries.

No boundaries whatsoever. And there's a very well supported run in Dubai. I got involved in finance and it ended up chairing the committee and it ended up to be one of the largest ones in the world outside of Cuba. Cuba was big because a certain person would say everybody going to run you.

Have to do it.

Yeah, the Castro. So but. And it raised lots of funds for. Towards cancer research. That's how I got to know the Terry Fox family. And I'd always make right being an ex auditor. I'd give them all this like you got to be doing this. Where's the accountability? Where's this? So. So I was always giving advice that always solicited. So. So when the foundation made the bold move the family that they wanted to professionalize the board, they asked me and two others to join the first ever independent board. So we create. And that was great vision. On, on their part was myself. Bill Perstansky was very close to the family as well and Jim Gable who was heading Adidas Canada at the time. So the three of us were the original board members. We pre professionalized the board. We brought in new family members onto committees. So beyond Terry's siblings. So we had Terry Fox's nephews and nieces join the membership and had a voice and it was just a great transformation. Professionalized. And we hired a new executive director which took a long time and then unfortunately we lost them right before COVID so and the board just launched pgade and the board turned to me and said can you just run the foundation for just a few months until we hire a new executive director? Because we know how hard that is. I said absolutely not. Just. I was just launched. We just made our first investment. I. I can't so. And then Terry Fox Guild kicked in because it's. It is a. It is such a wonderful foundation. It's so grassroots high. One of the highest percentages in terms of your. Your funds go toward the actual cause. People there are amazing. There's, you know, so many runs, 10,000 runs, school runs across Canada, a thousand runs, community runs. It's more than just raising funds for cancer researchers, gives hope and so on. So make a long story short, I agreed. I said, fine, I'll do it for three to six months tops, as long as I could make change on the digital side, because I knew there was a pen and paper foundation and the opportunity was to go digital, so created a digital transformation committee there, and it was great. So we were prepared. And then I were going through the hiring process for my replacement, and then Covid hit.

And. But luckily we were really prepared.

You were digital.

So we ended up for the community runs across Canada. We ended up raising more money with one digital run than. Than a thousand runs across the country. We didn't lay off anyone. We. And we decided to give the message of hope to Canadians, so. So. And we had an amazing following, so we had millions of followers. And. And it's just the team just really performed, so. And now there's a new executive director who's doing tremendous work, has an amazing team, so. So really happy where that's landed.

Love that. Now, you may or may not, like, if I said that there was a school that was always a top performer as part of the foundation, would you. Would you recognize the school? Are you too far? Yeah, I would. Yeah. Yeah. So there. There's always been a school in Peterborough, which is where I went, and my kids are St. Peter's Secondary School in Peterborough. And every year, in fact, when I was there, the family would always show up because we were always raising the most amount of money anyway, I. I always love that. And I know St. Peter's is still pretty serious. Serious about their commitment to Terry Fox. So it's. It's something I've grown up with too. So it's pretty powerful.

No, thank you. Yeah, it is. It's. It's such a worthy cause and it's.

You know, what? Some of those things are just. That's what keeps us going a little bit. You know, you get tied up in paperwork and meetings and everything, and then you realize that, you know, your involvement in an organization can just be so impactful in changing the lives of everyone that it serves. It's. You know, that would be one of those organizations that. That really does great work. So kudos. To you on that, sir. Circling back. So thinking of the audience being small, medium sized businesses, entrepreneurs, if you had to go back and I know you're talking about your brother and he was sort of saying, yeah, go get your, your accounting designation and then go and do all these great things. Thinking back to where you started, what's one piece of advice you would give yourself then based on what you know now?

I, I wouldn't change much actually. I, I really enjoyed the path I've taken. I wish I had more money. That's, that's the one thing always, always to have that base earlier, you know, so that really helps. You know, money makes money and, and, and so when you, but you, when you're, and that's, that's one of the problems I think in Canada with entrepreneurship is you're married to that T4. Like you can't get a mortgage without a T4. So having that base, that support really helps. And that's when for me, that's when partnerships come in where, where if they're going to add some capital and value, what I wouldn't, I, I just enjoyed it. I, I really enjoy, I, I wish I didn't play one rugby game where I got a, my ACL corn but.

I could experience that. We golfed one day and you're, you're leaning on it a little bit by the end of the day.

So that, but no, I, I, I can't complain. No. Blessed. And thank God for where I am and the people I, I meet. And including you, Bob, I know I can I give some kudos to your business, by the way.

Sure. Hey, like no, you can't, you can't.

So the fact that you, you support entrepreneurship and business owners, that, that's what really drew us to, to your business. Like that mindset is amazing. So as your clients succeed, obviously so will you. But you're doing this to support growth, which is, which is something that's lacking. So a lot of accounting firms can just, you know, meet the deadlines. That's all that, you know, get it right. But you go beyond that and I get asked the question a lot. What can businesses do to improve the value at the exit? One thing is to watch work with a professional accounting firm if your books are clean, if they're, if you have monthly reporting, quarterly reporting that gives so much more confidence to any investor. And not just that you're going to operate your business better because you have numbers to rely on and to make decisions. Right. So, so what you're doing is phenomenal. And, but you're taking it further. And that's what we're looking forward to with Gervaux is, is how to take companies even to the next level. And. Yeah, so, and, and great work. I know you did so much work to support businesses during COVID which is phenomenal. And, and, and someone who followed your podcast actually introduced that. So, so it's just.

Which is great. You know what, it's interesting too, that that whole run during COVID which was, you know, that fearful time of where everybody thought they were losing everything, including me, I'm sure you as well. And that was really where I learned to have a conversation with a camera screen with a lens, and that's really transformed who I am in my role in my business. It's. And I'm somewhat grateful for it. You know, like, our ability to impact people has been transformed because of that sort of event now. Wish that never happened, but it was a means to, I think some. Some great opportunities, and I think those people who are open to opportunities at that point and, and transitioning and digitizing and everything, it, it definitely worked well. But thank you for that. It's, you know, we definitely have a commitment level to our clients and to the entrepreneurial community. And I always say this. I think we're just getting started. And you know, again, great partnerships can help go a really long way. So, Ara, thank you so much for joining today. I know this won't be the last time we'll hear from you, but how could anybody get a hold of you or learn more about Pegate?

So our website is pegate.com or pe-gate.com but you could email me. It's very simple. It's Ara. Arae-gate.com would love to hear from you. And whether you're an entrepreneur and you're not even thinking of exiting, but you should be thinking of succession or an investor wanting to have access. We'd love to have a chat with you for sure.

And we'll make sure we put those notes and contact information also for anybody. If you would love to get in touch with Ara, feel free to reach out to me or our team. Happy to get you connected as well. Guys, this has been the Wealthy entrepreneur podcast. Always exciting to. To showcase the experience and the journey of really successful people and people who are doing cool things. And Ara and Pegate, I'm really excited to see what the future holds for them, but know that we will definitely be involved with them moving forward and building something great. For those of you who have learned something here, today or there's been a component of what we've chatted about that you know could help benefit somebody. Maybe you know, a business owner who's looking to exit but doesn't know how to start that process. Make sure you share this with them. We're here to empower business owners with the financial confidence and the resources they need to be successful in their life and in their business. So share this out. Make sure you give us a follow. We have an episode that comes out every single week so we'd be excited to have you here again next week. And if you have any questions or comments, drop them in here. We'll make sure that we get back to you with any of the information resources. We're just excited to be along for this journey with you once again. Guys, thank you for joining the Wealthy Entrepreneur podcast today. I'm your host Bob Govreau. It's been a pleasure and look forward to seeing you next time.