RFN Academy Communities

RFN Cities is a scalable program to support business retention, preparedness and transition to next generation owners. The program helps educate and advise private business owners and entrepreneurs on business value acceleration and transition events (including third-party sales, partnership transfers, employee ownership, family transfers, management buyouts and recapitalizations) to advance inclusive, ongoing economic prosperity in the communities that we work in.

Value acceleration is the process of increasing the enterprise value of a business. The overall value of a business is much more than bricks and mortar. Value acceleration focuses on strategically building value in specific domains: - team collaboration - identifying, assessing and managing risk - operational excellence and future thinking - productivity - brand equity including sales, marketing - financial efficiencies - leadership

Transition planning is good business practice that improves a business owner’s ready for next options. Planning for your eventual exit from your business will allow for more options and offers a higher likelihood of successful outcomes. The intentional act of planning for your transition will help focus efforts, build a team of like-minded professionals, have an end in mind and document a formal plan.

Being transition ready is keeping your business in a state of operational excellence. This allows your business to operate with a high level of efficiency while building enterprise value. The most valuable businesses are transition ready. Statistically, more than half of business transitions are not voluntary – they fall into the five D’s: death, disability, divorce, distress and disagreement. It is therefore important to have your business transition ready so you are prepared for what ever the future holds.

There are seven traditional pathways to transition for privately held businesses: 1. Intergenerational (if the company is family-owned) 2. Transfer between partners 3. Sale to management 4. Sale to employees 5. Sale to a third-party 6. Partial sale or recapitalization 7. Orderly liquidation These transition options can also be combined into “hybrids.” Some options offer the ability to be creative by mentoring or transitioning to young, minority entrepreneurs or partnering with entrepreneurial, returning veterans. In all cases other than liquidation, continuity of operations is maintained and the owner’s wealth is increased or protected. This also results in maintenance of the workforce and employment for ongoing community economic health. The degree of difficulty is high for all options and requires careful preparation to succeed.