It's Time to Think About Finishing Well and an Exciting New Future
Carter Schelling and Dave Pearce talk about preparing for the emotional side of selling your life's work, defining your role after the transaction, and what it means to finish well.
Full transcript
Generated from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability.
Good afternoon. I'm Carter Schelling, director of business development for Martin Healthcare Advisors. I also have my own consulting firm, 3655 Incorporated. And for the last 43 years, I've been helping my business owner clients build extraordinary companies in ordinary industries. We're right in the middle of a series on how to create the most valuable business plan you've ever created. The plan that prepares your company to get the best possible deal when you sell it. And this week between Christmas and New Year's, I decided to do a show even though maybe not many people are in the office because this is my most favorite time of year.
This is a time of year that reindeer can fly. And when you get a unique perspective on last year and next year, pretend that life is like a giant ferris wheel. It's one of like that big giant ferris wheel that's in London or something. And as the months go around, you go around the wheel. And then in the week between Christmas and New Year's, you're at the top and you can see back over the last year, a whole year. You see forward over the next year and beyond.
It's a unique perspective at a time when most of our lives slow down a little bit. We have a moment to think. And what I ask you to think about is how can you prepare for perhaps the most important financial transaction of your life? How can you prepare for the emotional impact of selling your life's work? Because that's what selling your company is. I've been through many transactions with my clients and every single one of them was surprised by how profoundly it affected them personally and surprised by how hard it was to find someone to share that with.
To discuss this, I've asked Dave Pearce to join us again. Dave spends all of his time preparing owners for the best possible deal of their lives. And he like other PTs genuinely cares about the journey they're on and what they face in that journey. I think you'll enjoy this interview. It's special and it's special for this time of year. Let's cut to the interview. So, I invited Dave Pearce back to join us in this episode about preparing for the change in your life that occurs when you sell your life's work.
You know it this is something that's very intense for the people who experience it. Very few people know about it and nobody talks about it. Okay. So there isn't a lot written really about what it's like to go through this. I invited Dave because Dave knows and so I'm gonna set him up by saying give us a little introduction to your background but also why do I have her here today? Why are you the best person for us to talk to about this? Yeah, thanks Carter.
Yeah, so you know, as a as a PT and former private practice owner who went through this type of merger acquisition sales event, you know, over the past, you know, I guess 12, 13 years, and then my final exit was about six years ago. One of the things that nobody and nothing can greatly prepare you for all of the emotional tugof-war that happens through this process. If you're like most practice owners, you want first and foremost what's best for your practice, for your community, for your employees, for all those people who have helped drive the success of your practice.
And our job, one of my main jobs is to come alongside you from the start and be that, you know, emotional shoulder for you. I was fortunate to have it with Martin Healthcare with Tom Carden when I went through my process. And to be honest, it's one of the bigger components, bigger roles that I play through the process for the seller. For the seller, it can be a very lonely time because as you're going through this process, typically you're keeping it completely confidential from your staff, your peers, even some of your family.
Sometimes you're leading a secret life. You are. You are. And and oftentimes I become that person that you can turn to say, "Hey, I'm dealing with this or dealing with that or how do we get through this and that?" What I promise you is there is an answer to all of those questions. And and I view honestly one of my primary roles is to help navigate that emotional roller coaster and be with that client every step of the way to get to that outcome. What I can promise you is the buyers want that same outcome also.
Their number one focus is maintaining that goodwill that you've created. And so they want all of those, you know, positive opportunities for your staff, for those people that helped you get there. So you're in alignment with the buyers. The challenge is just that it's such an isolated event and you have very few people to turn to. So we become that you know emotional support alongside you to help kind of answer those questions and get you through the process. Super. So let me run something by I've been through some company sales before and my advice to owners is it's going to be bigger than you expect and once it starts you can't stop it and go this is how I should have done it.
Okay. Yeah. So that it's extremely important to prepare for a life-changing event. And to me that starts with what do you feel you have to get done to be able to say you finished well and to walk out feeling well did that good because I know even if you stay and run the business for the acquirer it'll be the end of one era. The era of you as the only leader that's done. So you want to make sure just like I used to live in San Francisco and I found I never took a cable car until two weeks before I left because didn't have to.
You know there are certain there's like a punch list of things I had to do to say okay been to San Francisco. Think about what that is for you and your business. Step one. Step two is some owners are reluctant to think about the future because they think it'll distract them from the work that has to be done. I think it's very important to think about the future and the opportunity it represents for you to grow and do exciting things you couldn't do before and you want to focus on that so that you step into it rather than it landing on you or you backing into it or all of a sudden you feeling mostly loss and not gain.
Does that track with your experience? It it is a big part of any owner seller who's going through this process is trying to work with us through the process of defining what's the best fit for their role post transaction and sellers are obviously very keen on that topic as well. And so we are always very encouraging from the start of pressing owners not only to think about that think about what role makes most sense to you. You know do you want to be focused on clinical work?
Do you want to be focused on growth and development? Some owners are looking to exit completely after a short stint and that's another option for some buyers as well. And so we have to navigate through that process of what role makes sense for you moving forward after this transaction. And how do we find the right buyer to match up what you're looking for? To your point, Carter, it's a foreign concept to most private practice owners because growth has always been in most of their experience so limited by finances.
You're in that kind of cycle of all right the only way I can grow and think about adding clinics is if I go leverage everything I own or everything I have and that starts to get kind of risky after a while and so this process with these buyers opens up a whole new road to say hey what if funds are unlimited you know what if you've got the cash where can we go what can we do here and that's the kind of drive that they're looking for out of out of sellers owners to drive the best possible deal for those sellers.
Is how ready is this company to go to the next level? And does it have the people? Does it have the operations and the resources to go to the next level? If you can answer yes to all those, you're at the top of the list from an acquirer's perspective. Great. That's just terrific. You know, this is such a narrow slice of life, but having been through it, it's so incredibly intense for owners and even when people know, they feel they just can't share it. You mean no one else will understand.
You know, no one else has ever been in this position. So, this ability to connect with someone who gets it is special. You know, I really appreciate what you do. Anything else you'd like to say be to say before we wrap up? No, just that, you know, it's a it's a wonderful profession. You know, I like I said, I didn't know that my path would ever take me into this consulting work, but my drive each day now is just helping private practice owners realize those goals.
I'm a firm believer that every private practice owner should have a successful exit and that the key is you know finding the right people to come alongside you to define that and to help walk you through what that looks like. And so that's you know we're here to help define that and then be right by your side as you walk through the process. Terrific. I want you to stay here for a minute while I do an infomercial on Dave. You know, people don't sell their companies very often.
So, they have this idea about what M&A guys are like Wall Street Sharks, you know, it's all about the money to money. I want a lot of money, too. You know, so you have a conception that it's a cold financial transaction and the money rules. But we're a caring industry. You know, our job is to deliver care. The owners I've met aren't sharks. They're people who care. And to find in Dave the combination of real business savvy and a person who actually genuinely cares naturally about the fact that success is actually is actually more than money.
It's having a great life to live after you sell your life's work. Have someone who really appreciates that and knows how to deliver that. It's extraordinary. We're so lucky to be able to work with you Dave. Thank you. Thanks for today. Thank you. See you. All right. So, if you would like to learn more about how we can join you, Dave used the phrase come alongside you and help you navigate this tremendous change in your life with great success. Put your name in down below. Let's talk. Let's start a conversation about your future. Thanks for your time today and I'll see you next week.
Want to talk about your own business?
Marlton, NJ 08053