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Suggest questionThis week, in episode 215, Mel Gravely, Jennifer Kehrin, and Liz Picarazzi start out talking about the pain of being fired by a long-time client. “It still stings,” says Jennifer, who nonetheless surprised her team by writing a note of congratulations to the CEO of the company that took the business. The conversation moves on to the tradeoff that comes with deciding between promoting managers from within or hiring them from outside the organization: What if your people aren’t ready? What if the outsiders have more experience but aren’t as good a fit? And that leads to a discussion of how to decide when to press on with a venture that’s struggling—and when to give up on it. Not surprisingly, all three owners have some experience in this area. Of course, they also have experience with deciding when to start a business, but they have very different attitudes about risk. While Mel says he’s pretty much always ready to go, Jennifer tells us she’s been noodling on an idea she really wants to pursue for about five years.
About 21 Hats
The proponents of employee stock ownership plans can make them sound like the greatest thing ever. A business owner can take a big chunk of money off the table—or even all of it—while still getting to run the business. And there are some pretty great tax breaks. Oh, and it will also solve income inequality in America. On the other hand, if ESOPs are so smart, why are there so few of them?
Jim Kalb of Triad Components Group in San Diego and Jeff Taylor of Crafts Technology in Chicago have both implemented ESOPs. Jay Goltz of the Goltz Group in Chicago has reached his 60s without a succession plan, and he’s considering his options. In this 21 Hats Conversation, you get to listen in on a street-smart discussion of the pluses and minuses of ESOPs from the business owner’s point of view.