Reynolds + Rowella

GET THE LATEST NEWS CLIENT ACCESSONLINE PAYMENT BLOGCOVID-19
  • About Us
  • Who We Are
    • Meet the Partners
    • Our Team
  • Consulting
  • Tax
  • Industries
  • Assurance
  • Culture
  • Careers
  • Contact

Reynolds + Rowella Golfing with Purpose

October 9, 2019 by Reynolds & Rowella Leave a Comment

Recently, Reynolds + Rowella proudly showed support to a number of local community organizations:

The Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce

The Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce is comprised of approximately 800 members, which encompass a workforce of well over 105,000 individuals. Membership is diverse with representation from manufacturing, hi-tech, retail, service, professional and corporate and ranging in size from sole proprietors to 2000+ employees. They all, however, share the common belief that commerce functions at its best when business relationships are forged and resources utilized to their fullest potential, creating a partnership for the betterment of the region.

Regional Hospice and Palliative Care

Regional Hospice is the premier non-profit organization providing in-patient and in-home hospice care. Our mission is to provide exceptional end-of-life care, comfort and compassion to infants, adults, and their families.

Ridgefield A Better Chance

RABC is a local chapter of the national, non-profit, A Better Chance (ABC), Inc.. Ridgefield ABC, one of 26 public school Community School Programs associated with A Better Chance, Inc., is a not-for-profit 501(3)(c) organization whose mission is to provide educational opportunities to gifted minority high school age women from educationally, disadvantaged communities. We focus on the total development of these young women scholars; college preparatory educational, social development and community involvement so that they are not only prepared for college, but can excel.

REYNOLDS & ROWELLA | ACCOUNTING AND CONSULTING FAIRFIELD COUNTY CT

Reynolds + Rowella is a regional accounting firm known for a team approach to financial problem solving. As Certified Public Accountants, our partners foster a personal touch with our clients. As members of DFK International/USA, an association of accountants and advisors, our professional network is international, yet many of our clients have known us for years through the local communities we serve.
Our mission is to operate as a financial services firm of outstanding quality. Our efforts are directed at serving our clients in the most efficient and responsive manner possible, delivering services that exceed the expectations of those we serve. The firm has offices at 90 Grove St., Ridgefield, Conn., and 51 Locust Ave., New Canaan, Conn. For more information, give us a call at 203.438.0161 or email us.


Filed Under: Charities Tagged With: Accounting Services Fairfield County CT, Best Accounting Firms Fairfield County CT, Cybersecurity Fairfield County CT, Exit Planning

Leading Your Business Transition/Exit

September 28, 2016 by Reynolds & Rowella Leave a Comment

Many owners of privately-held businesses are not pro-active in planning for their exit and the company’s transition. This is true mostly because the ‘exit planning industry’ is nascent and many owners are simply not aware that a service exists to help owners with this complex issue. This newsletter is written to advocate the position that owners should be pro-active and should actively lead their exit plans by involving those that help them manage the business. An owner’s successful exit is an entry point for another owner to take the company to the next level, creating potential opportunities for the leaders in your organization. However, without leading the process, it is not something that you can rely on without proper planning. You might get lucky, but luck is rarely a solid strategy.

Exit Planning & Mountain Climbing

Let’s first examine how leading an exit is different from growing a company. We will use a helpful analogy – mountain climbing.

Climbing up a mountain requires determination, focus, strength, and management of many obstacles. The ascent is often arduous, creating doubt in the mind of the climber as to whether they will reach the pinnacle. There is a summit that can be identified and a specific point at which one turns to begin the equally, if not more so, challenging act of descending down the mountain.

On the way down a mountain a different skill is required. One’s weight is now working against them. There is a different need for balance and coordination of activities. In fact, Sir Edmund Hillary is not so much known for his ability to be the first Westerner to scale Mount Everest. Rather, he is famous because he was the first to survive the descent. Will you, and your business, survive your exit? The answer to this question may depend upon the new leadership skills that you learn.

First Set the Path for Your Exit

Before the climb and descent begins, a plan is established to reach milestones as well as the ultimate goal – you don’t climb a mountain in one day. It takes months, if not years, of preparation and the climb and descent requires careful planning.

A strategic, long-term plan for the business – including alignment of key employee’s incentive compensation with that plan – is an excellent start to setting the right path. When you take the time to formulate a strategic plan as well as align key people, you put the Company on a path to [eventually] succeed without you. When you can define a vision both for the Company as well as for yourself, you can work faster towards being the leader that your organization needs you to be to more effectively handle your exit plan. Without direction, there is no catalyst for positive momentum forward.

You Need to be a Leader in Your Exit, Not Just a Manager of the Exit

Your exit will require a different skill set than growing your business, the same way going down a mountain requires different skills than going up. You need to adopt a leadership mindset towards your exit. In fact, it will mostly be your ability to let go of the responsibilities that you have grown so attached to that will define the success of your exit. In order to let go you need to build a team who can assume your responsibilities. And in order to build that team effectively, you need to become a leader.

Empowering Others – An Unselfish Act

As you set your company plans remember that you are leading, not managing these tasks. For example, management is more about getting a task done, often with the self-centered objective of successfully driving a result. Leadership, however, is about the empowerment of others.

When you move from management to leadership, you focus on the strength of your team and begin to more effectively work yourself out of your job. Your overall strategic plan should have you working hard to eliminate yourself from the day-to-day running of the business. This is not so much to put you out to pasture but more to increase the transferability of your Company to someone else in the future.

Your Team Will Help Your Future Owner Manage the Business

Your exit will depend on your team because that team will lead your company into the future. Think of the situation in these terms – no matter how you decide to exit, it is the company that will pay for the value. Simply put, if the ‘golden goose’ stops laying eggs then an exit cannot be financed.

It will be the team that you develop and lead to self-sufficiency that will run and grow that company into the future. This is true whether you exit via sale to an outsider, or whether you exit via internal transfer to managers, family or employees. Someone has to run the business and be empowered to do so. The team that you build and lead will be that catalyst for the future and will define your exit.

Are You Developing Your Talent on a Regular Basis?

A leader is able to see out over the horizon and prepare for changes within the marketplace and the business. The success of your exit will depend upon your ability to replace yourself in this regard.

Do you have a process for recruiting new talent and assessing existing talent within your organization? Are you able to let go of large responsibilities and trust that they will be handled well by those that you lead? These are critical questions to ask and answer in advance of your exit because turning over the reigns of a business is often an emotional event for an owner. Working through this emotion and putting the right people in place is an unselfish act that is done for the long-term growth and survival of the business.

Concluding Thoughts

You worked hard to establish your position in your company, industry, and community. Now you need to work just as hard to replace yourself in that role. This unselfish act (or more appropriately, series of acts) sets the stage for a successful exit because you are building your own replacement by leading the organization to a whole new level.

Contact Steve at stever@reynoldsrowella.com or 203.972.5191 for assistance navigating the complex matters related to exit planning.

Pinnacle Equity Solutions © 2016

Filed Under: Exit Planning Tagged With: Accounting Services Fairfield County CT, Best Accounting Firms Fairfield County CT, Exit Planning, Financial Planning Fairfield County CT

Exit Planning is a Path to Diversification of Wealth

June 8, 2016 by Reynolds & Rowella Leave a Comment


Most owners of privately-held businesses have the majority of their wealth trapped in their illiquid business. What this means is that without a path to turn the value in your business into cash, your overall wealth will continue to stay concentrated in your ownership of your business. So the fact that your business provides for a solid income and lifestyle is separate and distinct from considering how and when you will be able to turn that illiquid wealth into cash. This newsletter is written to help owners see that a business exit plan can be a vital first step towards diversifying your overall portfolio while also protecting the wealth that resides in your illiquid, privately-held business.

The Basics of Diversification

There is an old saying that applies to many business owners – that “in order to get rich, you need to own a lot of one thing, but in order to stay rich you need to own lots of different things.” Many business owners today ‘got rich’ through the ownership of their privately-held business. However, in order to stay rich, many owners will need to diversify their personal wealth through the transfer of ownership of their companies.
If you are like most business owners, your business comprises the majority of your wealth. Also, like most owners, your business is likely highly dependent upon you. Therefore, if you want to protect your overall wealth through the process of diversification, you can consider planning for the eventual transition of your business, whereby a point in time will come for you to turn your illiquid wealth into cash.

Why Plan to Sell Something So Valuable??

Many owners understand the logic of diversifying their wealth through an eventual exit but they do not take immediate actions because they have a very good thing going with the success of their company. For owners who agree with the logic of diversification but perhaps have not taken any action in this direction, we offer another question to ask yourself:

“If I sold my business today [for a reasonable price] would I turn around and invest all of those proceeds back into the same business or into a single stock that does not have an actively traded market?”

The answer for most owners to both questions is a resounding ‘no’. Not only would most owners not turn around and repurchase the business that they just sold but they would also not be looking to reinvest in a concentrated, single asset for the same sale proceeds. The obvious reason for not repurchasing your business or to re-concentrate your wealth is because the RISK of only owning one stock – after achieving liquidity – is too high. There is a single point of failure with that financial plan because the investment dollars are not DIVERSIFIED. This is the financial reality of many owners of privately-held businesses today.

Why Most Owners Do Not Begin the Process of Diversification with a Plan

An exit plan is a written document that assists an owner with consideration of different ways to diversify their wealth by eventually becoming liquid from a transfer of ownership. Given that the sale of a business is the largest and most emotional transaction for most owners, it makes sense that a plan would come before an action that is taken. However, we find that most owners do not take action to plan for their diversification for a variety of reasons. Many business owners offer a number of reasons, listed below, for their lack of planning, including:

1. “I don’t perceive my business to be a RISK” or

2. “I am not ready to SELL the business so I cannot DIVERSIFY, or

3. “I bought plenty of life insurance to take care of my family if something should happen to me (in other words, ‘my demise is the only RISK that I really perceive to exist regarding the future profitability of my business’) or

4. “I am DIVERSIFIED. My business sells many lines of products and/or services”
In each instance we see that the owner’s ‘plan’ is quite limited and does not actually diversify the owner’s family’s wealth. Perhaps somewhere in this list of common responses you see one that fits your reaction to this question of planning for diversification?

The Psychology of ‘Selling’

If there is so much logic behind diversifying wealth through an exit plan, then why don’t more owners do it? One answer lies in the psychology of an exit.
As an owner of your business you are the master of your own destiny. You have survived the odds against ‘making it’ in business and continue to fight them each and every day. For the most part, thinking about an exit strategy plan cuts against the grain of thoughts of business growth and expansion.
So, given this gap between logic and action, how do you begin to turn this bridge, this divide and start developing an exit strategy plan that protects all of the wealth that you have accumulated?

Seeking Help is the First Step in this Planning Process

The most successful owners know that they do not climb a mountain all by themselves. Rather they surround themselves with a team that knows more than they do about areas that they are venturing into.
The same process holds true for planning for a business exit. We advise that you seek out professionals with experience in this area to help you begin the planning process that ultimately leads to the protection of your illiquid wealth.

Concluding Thoughts

In closing, most business owners will make up their minds to do something when they are good and ready to do so. Therefore, we can only continue to impress upon the millions of business owners out there that diversification is a key component to securing the success that you have worked a lifetime to achieve. In this regard, one can say that it is never too soon to begin thinking about an exit plan, but without a plan, it could one day be too late. We hope that this newsletter has assisted you in thinking about your overall wealth and how an exit plan can begin the process of helping you protect it.

Contact Steve at stever@reynoldsrowella.com for assistance navigating the complex matters related to exit planning.

Pinnacle Equity Solutions © 2015

Filed Under: Exit Planning Tagged With: Accounting Services Fairfield County CT, Exit Planning, Financial Planning Fairfield County CT

Receive Our Blog Updates by Email

Recent Posts

  • Work or Pleasure: The Tax Rules for Hybrid Travel
  • Enhance Your Flexibility by Outsourcing
  • TO OUTSOURCE OR NOT TO OUTSOURCE…THAT IS THE QUESTION!
  • Outsourced Accounting Services: A Cost-Effective Solution
  • 9 Ideas to Potentially Lower Your Taxes for 2021

Contact Us

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
  • About Us
  • Meet the Partners
  • Our Team
  • Consulting
  • Tax
  • Industries
  • Assurance
  • Culture
  • Careers
  • Blog
  • Contact

where to find us and how to call us

90 Grove Street / Ridgefield, CT 06877 / Office: 203.438.0161 / Fax: 203.431.3570
51 Locust Avenue / New Canaan, CT 06840 / Office: 203.972.5191
© 2022 Reynolds + Rowella. LLP
follow us on twitter follow us on facebook follow us on linkedin
Website Design: Wieting Design
  • About Us
  • Who We Are
    ▼
    • Meet the Partners
    • Our Team
  • Consulting
  • Tax
  • Industries
  • Assurance
  • Culture
  • Careers
  • Contact