The exit planning profession is comprised of a variety of advisors, specialists, software providers, and educators who work to provide business owners with the best possible exit from their business. As the authority on exit planning, Exit Planning Institute works with many of these industry experts.
Today we share some insights from our Strategic Partner, FocusCFO that will help our advisor community strengthen their relationship with their owner clients.
What is a Strategic Partner?
Historically, Exit Planning Institute partnerships have been built around the Exit Planning Summit, offering a platform for partners to engage with hundreds of exit planning professionals once a year. While this event has blossomed into the largest in-person exit planning event in the United States, we have long felt there was an opportunity for more.
Using the Summit as the cornerstone, the Strategic Partnership Program offers a year-long engagement opportunity that provides a platform for partners to interact directly with the EPI community and supplements those engagements with a consistent, integrated content-sharing and branding strategy. Positioned as a preferred partner of EPI, CEPAs and non-CEPAs should feel confident leaning into these partners as complementary, value-added offerings to their practices and business owner clients.
Josh Koza, our Manager of Strategic Relationships, shares, “For me, the beauty of this program is the chance to build meaningful, significant relationships while fostering that same opportunity for the EPI community – partners and advisors alike. Exit planning is not a one-size-fits-all for every advisor, nor is the exit planning ecosystem and one-solution-fits-all marketplace. My hope is that this program provides advisors with a clearer understanding of the tools, resources, and education they can lean on to build a more successful, and significant, practice.”
Meet FocusCFO:
FocusCFO is a rapidly growing, national leader in Embedded Fractional CFO services. Founded in 2001, FocusCFO was an early industry pioneer. Their mission statement is: “Helping entrepreneurs build sustainable, transferrable business value.” They provide CFO services on a fractional basis, meaning clients get all the advantages of a full-time CFO on terms that are flexible and affordable, working under a recurring schedule that fits within their budget. With a CFO on the management team, the entrepreneur is free to focus on what they do best: building great products and services and growing revenue.
How Does FocusCFO Drive Value for a Business Owner?
FocusCFO shares, “Our services span the full Value Acceleration Methodology™, with particular focus on the Protect and Build stages of Value Maturity. Our model is to embed a CFO (fractionally) onto the client’s leadership team, who not only provides executive level financial guidance and strategy but is also accountable for execution.” The CFOs are on the field, side by side with FocusCFO’s clients, working collaboratively to move the ball down the field. They continue, “We are uniquely positioned, as an outside advisor on the inside, to keep focus on the necessary transformational initiatives that will result in greater business value.”
How would a Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) engage FocusCFO?
FocusCFO shares, “Value growth and exit planning have always been core to our work with clients, as well as building or working within a team of trusted advisors for the benefit of each client. Working with other CEPAs, as part of that advisor team, is both natural and value-added to our mutual clients as we all speak the same language, share a common methodology, and recognize the value of collaboration. As such, we seek to build greater breadth and depth in our relationships with all CEPA-credentialed advisors.”
Are you interested in becoming a Strategic Partner? Contact our Manager of Strategic Relationships, Josh Koza, for more information!
