Krekel Advisory Services has introduced a business succession planning practice for owners of family and closely held companies who expect to step away in the next three to five years. The firm was founded by Tom Krekel, a former newspaper owner and executive who started, ran and sold his own company. It works with owners before a sale or a handoff to family or employees, while there is still time to change what a buyer or successor will find.
The practice is built around three questions owners face before they leave: what the business is worth today, what it needs to be worth for the owner and the owner's family, and who the owner will be once the business is no longer the center of the day. Krekel works through those questions with each owner over about ninety days and five focused meetings. The process ends in a written plan covering the owner's money, the business, its people and the owner's life after the transition.
"I've been where these owners are," said Tom Krekel. "I built a company and sold it, and then continued on as its leader for the new owners. Most owners don't take a hard look at their business until a buyer does, and by then there's no time left to change the answer."
Krekel founded This Week! Publications in Waukesha, Wisconsin, in 1983. The weekly advertising paper was delivered every Sunday to every household in a market of 40,000, and he sold it to Community Newspapers in 1990. He stayed on as general manager of the buyer's free paper division, which grew to 300,000 households a week, and became president of Community Newspapers in 1995. That company, which ran twenty-two paid weekly papers around Milwaukee, was sold with This Week! to the Milwaukee Journal Company in 1997.
From 2001 to 2007, Krekel was president of NJN Newspapers, a Newhouse company in central New Jersey with more than 175 full-time employees. Since 2007 he has coached owners of private companies in a wide range of industries, where he says the same issues come up again and again: people, sales, financial controls, and one person holding the whole operation together.
Krekel's business succession planning work looks at a company the way a buyer or successor would. It covers how well the business runs when the owner is away, how much of its revenue depends on the owner or on a single customer, whether the books would stand up to review by a buyer and a lender, and whether a management team is ready to make decisions. It also takes up the questions owners tend to leave until last, including how they will spend their time and what they want for the people they hired and developed.
"For an owner, this transition is about a lot more than the money," Krekel said. "Many feel a loss of identity and purpose after they leave, and plenty worry about the people they grew and developed. Those questions belong in the plan as much as the price does."
Krekel Advisory Services does not broker businesses and takes no share of any sale. Its fee is the same whether an owner sells to an outside buyer, hands the company to family or a management team, or keeps running it. Prior to any engagement, Tom's process begins with a conversation about the owner's business and goals, held in confidence.
About Krekel Advisory Services: Krekel Advisory Services is a succession advisory firm based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that works with owners of family and closely held businesses, preferably three to five years before they step away. Founder Tom Krekel helps owners learn what their business is worth, what is holding that value down, and what they want for themselves, their families and their employees after the transition. The firm's work ends with each owner's goals written down and a plan to reach them.
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For more information about Krekel Advisory Services, contact the company here:
Krekel Advisory Services
Tom Krekel
505-554-4385
Tom@KrekelAdvisoryServices.com
Albuquerque, NM
