Jessica Fialkovich - Exit Factor

Just like a boat owner, of of the best day's of an entrepreneurs journey is when they sell their business.

But how do you prepare to sell, where do you go to sell and what steps do you need to take to actually sell?

Listen as Jessica Fialkovich of Exit Factor explains the details of preparing to sell your business so you can get out and enjoy some time knowing what you built will go on without you, so you can enjoy some time.  Maybe even on a boat.

Enjoy!

Visit Jessica at: https://www.exitfactor.com/

[00:00:00.090] - Speaker 1

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the Business program that brings you the struggles, stories, and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur, author, speaker, and helpful coach to small business owners across the country. Today we are welcoming/preparing to learn from Jessica Fialkovich, cofounder and president of Exit Factor. I'm excited to talk with Jessica because I've been talking to other business owners that are actually considering exiting and a few that are actually interested in purchasing, which it's a lot easier to exit if you have a buyer. So this is actually a very timely interview. So, Jessica, how is it going today?

[00:00:39.600] - Speaker 2

It's going great. I'm having a great day. I'm really excited to be here, James.

[00:00:43.400] - Speaker 1

Nice. So I'll let you start with just telling us what is the basis? What does exit factor do?

[00:00:48.500] - Speaker 2

Yeah, so great question. Exit Factor is an education and consulting company that helps business owners prepare their companies for sale so they can get more money in their exit and ultimately have a better deal.

[00:01:01.560] - Speaker 1

Nice. That sounds awesome. Everybody likes that.

[00:01:03.970] - Speaker 2

Yeah.

[00:01:04.480] - Speaker 1

And how long has Exit Factor been around?

[00:01:06.980] - Speaker 2

So Exit Factor has been around for three years, but I've actually been in the M and a space for small business for over a decade. So I also run a business brokerage firm and a mergers and acquisitions firm, which is what Exit Factor was born out of. Was that experience got you?

[00:01:24.080] - Speaker 1

So you were if I understand correctly, you were working for other people and decided to go off on your own. Is that the idea?

[00:01:30.700] - Speaker 2

No, actually, I've been I've been an entrepreneur since I was 24 years old.

[00:01:34.260] - Speaker 1

Oh, wow.

[00:01:35.010] - Speaker 3

Yeah.

[00:01:35.310] - Speaker 2

So I started and founded my own business brokerage firm as well. Built and grew that with my husband over the last ten years. And about three years ago, exit Factor started off as a division of our business brokerage company. And then as it started growing earlier this year, we peeled it off, made it its own company. We took on a new partner.

[00:01:55.730] - Speaker 1

Wow. All right. And what was the trigger to start Exit Factor?

[00:02:01.680] - Speaker 2

So on our business brokerage site, we do lots of deals, do hundreds of deals a year, and we deal with a lot of small business owners, small to mid sized business owners. And what I was starting to get frustrated with was that I saw a lot of clients that would come to us and we wouldn't be able to get them the full value of the company.

[00:02:19.150] - Speaker 3

Right.

[00:02:19.790] - Speaker 2