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The latest news and articles from Financial Poise, plus a new free webinar every week.
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How to Delegate Better
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Regular readers of Financial Poise Weekly may recall that we have a lot to say about these problems. For example, frequent contributor Lee Eisenstaedt explains the importance of good delegation (which is the opposite of micromanaging) in his article, Learn How to Delegate Using 2 Simple Questions. He notes a study showing companies led by good delegators generate 33% more revenue than their peers. Lee then provides an elegantly simple tool to help you (or your superior; just print the article and anonymously leave it on her chair) delegate better.
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Surviving the Second Generation
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Succession planning in the context of a privately and closely-held business is tricky. You may have heard an adage that goes something like this: “the first generation makes it, the second generation spends it, and the third generation blows it."
Financial Poise counts among its contributors more than one expert in the succession planning field, and each of them has confirmed to us that they have run right into this adage in real life many times. This doesn’t prove a rule, of course (and an interesting article by Matthew Yglesias (a Senior Correspondent and Co-Founder of Vox.com), Today's rich families in Florence, Italy, were rich 700 years ago, makes a clear counterpoint). Still, if you are part of a second-generation business, you may benefit from reading David Spitulnik’s Surviving the Second Generation: Discussions You Need to Have Before Family Business Transitions.
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Surviving Beyond the Third Generation
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A business, unless led by a genetic clone of Cleon I (we know, another dorky Foundation reference), is not necessarily home free forever just because it survives the second generation of ownership (aren't idioms weird?).
Take La Cosa Nostra (if it exists like the FBI insists it does), for example. It has been in the U.S. since the 1890s (that is, assuming it exists). That doesn’t make it immune to both external and internal pressures that could one day make it fail (if it ever even existed, that is). Good management, however, can help.
And good management includes good succession planning. Getting back to 87-year old Andrew Russo, he may benefit from reading As Leaders Age and the Unexpected Strikes by Michele Schechter, a director, and contributor with Financial Poise. Or, perhaps, a more gradual plan would be better for Mr. Russo, in which case he may prefer Financial Poise contributor Jeremy Waitzman’s exposition, Small Business Transitions: Semi-Retirement for Entrepreneurs.
In case we weren't clear, we're not saying La Cosa Nostra even exists.
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2. About Financial Poise |
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If you are new to Financial Poise Weekly, welcome. Take a moment to subscribe. But that’s not enough! Wake the kids, phone the neighbors (do you get that reference? If not, listen to this) and tell them to subscribe too. Don’t be selfish. Financial Poise exists to provide reliable plain English business, financial, and legal education to individual investors, entrepreneurs, business owners, and executives and to help trusted advisors do the same.
Subscribers get smarter about these things without having to wade through hidden agendas to sell them something. Financial Poise is a meritocracy. Our contributors never pay to write or speak for Financial Poise. They are hand-selected for their expertise, experience, and ability to communicate clearly.
Share this newsletter with a friend, son or daughter, cousin, niece or nephew, parent, or neighbor. Let them know you care! If someone else shares it with that person first then you will be less loved.
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What’s the Catch? |
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Financial Poise Weekly is free, but we make money two main ways: we sell advertising (but not to our contributors, not to the companies they work for, and not to the industries those companies are part of), and we sell webinars.
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Webinar, What’s a Webinar??? |
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That might have been a real question a decade ago or even a few days before COVID hit. But webinars are everywhere today.
Financial Poise has been in the webinar business (we call it “the Biz” while looking in the mirror to feel, you know, sexy) since 2014. If you’re looking for more detailed information about what our free (and most excellent) articles provide, you can buy a webinar from us.
Just go to our website and hover over the “WEBINARS” tab and learn more (notice us playing hard-to-get, by not providing a hyperlink? We learned this from Mike Damone).
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How do I know I know I will like your so-called “webinars?” |
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We started producing webinars in 2013 exclusively for attorneys and accountants who attended them to earn continuing education credits that they need to maintain their licenses.
We quickly grew into one of the largest producers in the world of such webinars. We then started to produce webinars for others, and today our customers include business owners, corporate directors, executives, private equity and venture capital professionals, entrepreneurs, angel investors, and everyday investors. We did this almost entirely by word of mouth.
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This Week’s Free Webinar for All: ESOPs – 101
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The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) regulates employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). This webinar gives an overview of ESOPs, including how owners can use them for corporate finance or an exit tool. The faculty is comprised of attorneys Christopher Cahill (Sugar Felsenthal) and Alan Kandel (Husch Blackwell), Chris Mellen (a Boston-based managing director with Valuation Research Corporation), and Lee Eisenstaedt, the founder of the Leading With Courage® Academy.
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Learning for Lawyers & Accountants
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Financial Poise Webinars for attorneys and accountants are distributed exclusively by West in partnership with West LegalEdcenter, part of Thomson Reuters, a leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals.
West LegalEdcenter subscribers have access to every program in its library (like the Netflix of legal and accounting continuing education). Financial Poise is one of West LegalEdcenter’s largest content producers. You can see our partner page, and a link to our approximately 290 webinars currently available on West LegalEdcenter here), all of which you may attend at no additional charge if you are a subscriber to West LegalEdcenter.
If you need a suggestion, we have two specials today.
Our Investing in Residential & Multi-Family Real Estate is lovely. It features Bill McGuinn, a partner with the Sugar Felsenthal law firm, Tammy Kelly of Redwood Capital, Tracy Treger of Syndicated Equities, and Scott A. Weinstein - Field and Goldberg, LLC. This panel discusses some of the pros and cons of being a landlord and provides an overview about finding and assessing opportunities, obtaining financing, negotiating a deal, and managing a multi-family investment.
Or you may prefer Representing Asset Purchasers in Bankruptcy. Buying a business (or select assets) from a trustee or debtor in bankruptcy presents unique benefits and challenges. From the benefits and drawbacks of serving as the “stalking horse,” to negotiating an asset purchase agreement and everything in between, the process is quite different than an out-of-court transaction.
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GET SMARTER ABOUT MONEY, ONE WEEK AT A TIME™ Read Financial Poise Weekly™ |
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