How a broker can help you buy or sell a business
Posted On June 19, 2023
Looking to buy or sell a business? A broker can help. Our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” was Trey Langus, a business advisor and broker with Transworld Business Advisors. He connects owners who are looking to sell their businesses with potential buyers. There are a lot of potential buyers looking for businesses, Langus says, and many of them are coming from out of state and across the country, attracted by the favorable business climate in the Southeast. What they’re looking for, typically, is a business with clear financials, upside and, ideally, scalability. But Langus… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, Podcast, Succession Planning, What's Working with Cam Marston
Introducing a new generation to cigars and cigar-making
Posted On April 21, 2023
Introducing the next generation to the family business can be a challenge, even if your family has been in the business for generations. For Ernesto Perez-Carrillo, patriarch of E.P. Carrillo Cigars, it was all about finding the best roles for his two children, Lissette Perez-Carrillo and Ernesto Perez-Carrillo III, who have degrees and experience in law and economics and both of whom grew up around the cigar business. As co-founders of E.P. Carrillo Cigars with their father, their expertise in these areas has helped grow the brand. “It’s a process,” said Perez-Carrillo, our guest in the latest episode of “What’s… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, Generations, Podcast, Recession Economy, Succession Planning, What's Working with Cam Marston
Another important thing to remember about retirement: Don’t wait too late
Posted On April 9, 2023
We’ve discussed the importance of succession planning many times in this space with a lot of people who are well versed in the art. One of them added an important caveat recently: Don’t wait too late. Scot Hunsaker sold his swimming pool company at 49 and now counsels other business owners thinking about their futures through the Ardent Group. He’s also delved into his passions, traveling with his wife up the Eastern seaboard and into Canada on their 66-foot boat, and then taking a trip to Australia and New Zealand. It was on these travels that Hunsaker came to a… Read More
Categories: Blog, Podcast, Succession Planning, What's Working with Cam Marston
Is virtual banking the wave of the future?
Posted On February 24, 2023
What is a virtual bank? And when might one be right for you? The short answer, Megan Owens says, is that it’s a bank that doesn’t have brick-and-mortar branches. And if you’re a small business owner looking for a loan, Owens has just the bank for you. “The way of branch banking is going by the wayside,” said Owens, who works in Mergers & Acquisitions for Live Oak Bank, a completely virtual bank that specializes in Small Business Administration loans. “We see internet banking, virtual banking, coming to our customers’ offices, as the wave of the future.” Owens, our guest… Read More
Categories: Blog, Financial Services, Podcast, Succession Planning, What's Working with Cam Marston
How a plumbing business became a multi-faceted construction and disaster recovery company
Posted On January 19, 2023
How does a small plumbing company become a massive construction and disaster recovery business with about 200 employees, offices in five states and work lined up throughout the Western Hemisphere? In the case of Persons Services Corp., it happened through a succession that was fueled by the new generation adding new expertise to chase new opportunities. Our guest in the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” Buddy Persons, is President and CEO of Mobile-based Persons Services Corp., and Managing Director of Persons Development Company. The company was founded in 1978 by Persons’ father, Paul E. Persons, Sr., as… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, Podcast, Succession Planning, What's Working with Cam Marston, Work
How Dr. David Bronner rebuilt Alabama’s retirement system, and its image
Posted On July 14, 2022
Dr. David Bronner wasn’t the first choice to lead the Retirement Systems of Alabama when the job was last open back in 1973. He wasn’t the second or third choice. He wasn’t even the 100th choice. But he was the right choice. Bronner, who grew up in Minnesota before coming to Alabama for law school, ended up running the state’s retirement system because neither of the two most powerful men in the state at that time – Gov. George Wallace and Paul Hubbert, then head of the Alabama Education Association – knew who he was. And therefore, after about 160… Read More
Categories: Advertising, Blog, Financial Services, Podcast, Real Estate, Succession Planning, What's Working with Cam Marston
Scott Hunsaker Leads Executives on their Business Exit Strategy
Posted On June 24, 2022
Successful succession planning isn’t just a plan. It’s a process. That’s what Scot Hunsaker has been preaching to his clients for nearly a decade as the Managing Partner of Ardent Group, an organization that mentors business leaders. And he hasn’t just preached it, he’s done it. In 1999, Hunsaker bought the firm his father built – Counsilman Hunsaker, an engineering firm that designs aquatics facilities. He grew the company from one office to five, from 10 employees to 50, and took the business global. Among its projects are recreation centers at the University of Alabama and UAB and Olympic facilities… Read More
Categories: Succession Planning, What's Working with Cam MarstonA Passion for People and Service, Cars are Just the Product
Posted On January 21, 2019
Third generation president of the Joe Bullard Automotive Group, Ty Bullard frankly tells us that he’s not a car guy. Torque ratios? No clue. Horsepower? Unknown. But he knows service, knows how to deliver it, and knows how to lead his team in delivering it. His customers come back because Ty and his team solve their problems, not just sell cars. And his passion for aggressively pushing his company forward is evident in the words he chooses and the energy behind those words. Take a ride with us as we meet Ty and learn what motivates him and what his… Read More
Categories: Automotive, Libsyn, Podcast, Succession Planning, What's Working with Cam Marston
Fewer Family Businesses to be Passed to Next Generation
Posted On January 31, 2017
I’ve written in this space before about the need for succession planning. The long-term viability of your business may depend on it – particularly for family-owned business that want to maintain family control. But PwC’s annual family business survey found a decreasing number of owners who planned to keep their businesses in the family. Of the survey respondents who foresaw a change in ownership within the next five years – admittedly a small number at 17 percent – only 52 percent were planning to pass their companies down to another family member. That’s the lowest number since 2010, according to… Read More
Categories: Baby Boomers, Entrepreneurship, Generation X, Succession Planning, Work
Succession Planning – The Time is Now
Posted On May 17, 2016
The Great Recession of the late 2000s wreaked havoc on most of our plans in some way. Plans to buy or sell a house, plans to fund a college education, plans to move up in our careers to a better job – all had to be postponed, downsized, or even abandoned until the economy started moving again. The downturn also affected succession planning for Baby Boomers, many of whom set aside long-term necessities while dealing with short-term realities. A recent story at campdenfb.com cited a 2016 Kreischer Miller report, which surveyed family businesses in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, and… Read More
Categories: Baby Boomers, Retirement, Succession Planning, Workplace