Five Questions With: Laura Kevghas

Laura Kevghas is president of XPX New England, an organization of professionals with a mission to improve management succession and business exits. / COURTESY XPX NEW ENGLAND
Laura Kevghas is president of XPX New England, an organization of professionals with a mission to improve management succession and business exits. / COURTESY XPX NEW ENGLAND

Laura Kevghas is president of XPX New England, an organization of professionals with a mission to improve management succession and business exits. The company recently rebranded and announced an expansion strategy to include New Hampshire and Rhode Island.
Kevghas, who also owns her own mergers and acquisitions consulting firm, Seed to Harvest LLC, talks with Providence Business News about the organization, its expansion efforts and common traits found among business owners in search of an industry exit.

PBN: Tell our readers a little bit about why XPX Boston changed its name to XPX New England.
KEVGHAS:
As an organization with events in three states, we found that XPX Boston as a name was too limiting and no longer reflected our vision of providing educational content around business value growth, business transition, and owner life and legacy to both business owners and their professional advisors across the region.
PBN: What’s your expansion strategy into Rhode Island going to look like? How about the rest of New England?
KEVGHAS:
We piloted our first event in Rhode Island three years ago in collaboration with Bryant University. The event was so-well received that we’ve begun to hold two to three events a year at Bryant. We also hold events on a regular basis around greater Boston, often in collaboration with Babson College in Wellesley. And in November, a group of like-minded professionals is piloting an event in Manchester, New Hampshire, in collaboration with Southern New Hampshire University.
PBN: You say the Boston chapter has been expanding, does this mean there’s been more recent turnover in ownership/management of businesses in the area?
KEVGHAS:
When we talk about the Boston chapter expanding, we are talking about the demand for more regional programming. This chapter was founded in 2006 and for most of our existence, we’ve been focused on providing education and collaboration activities for professional advisors and business owners in greater Boston. However, as the demand for education around building business value and transitioning a business has grown, we’ve expanded our activities to reach business owners and advisors in a broader geographic area.
PBN: What makes you believe there’s a demand for this type of service in a widening geographic area?
KEVGHAS:
XPX New England’s mission is that every business owner has the opportunity to build a business with sustainable, transferable value. For a business owner to be successful at that requires advance planning and a strategy. Baby boomers are heading full speed ahead into retirement, and the result will be that there are more and more companies ready for transition – either a sale to a strategic buyer, turning the reins over to the kids, or a management buyout or ESOP. In an environment where only 25 percent of businesses are able to be sold, only the best prepared businesses are likely to provide a successful exit to their owner. Our goal is to educate as many business owners as possible so that they are able to have a successful transition.
PBN: What are some of the most common trends you see business owners – or managers – overlooking when it comes to succession planning and business exits?
KEVGHAS:
For family-owned businesses, the most common issue I see is that the parents assume that the kids will want to take over running the business. They don’t seem to understand that taking over a business from their dad when there are eight employees is a very different risk profile than being asked to take over a company with 50 employees depending on your efforts, expertise and judgment to continue the success of the company. The kids don’t always have the same entrepreneurial spirit as their parents did. For privately-held companies contemplating a sale, the most common thing the business owners overlook is planning for the exit. Too many times, they haven’t made a conscious decision to sell the company. Instead, someone approaches them offering to buy the business, leading to stars in their eyes. If they haven’t done any planning, they don’t know if the purchase price will be enough to fund their post-sale lifestyle. They don’t know if they could have made any changes to the business that could have significantly increased the value. They haven’t done any tax planning to reduce the tax bill on the sale proceeds. The biggest thing I see business owners overlook is – what’s next? When you’ve run a business for most of your adult life, and suddenly you retire, who are you? You need to have a plan in place for creating a life that engages you and excites you once you’re no longer worrying about your business 24/7. We at XPX New England are an organization that supports the business life cycle by creating educational programming around them with new ideas and solutions.

No posts to display