Exit Planning Essentials
Thursday, March 6th, 2025 | 8am - 12:15pm
Burnaby, BC
Register for Relay’s upcoming seminar in Burnaby: Exit Planning Essentials
Our speakers will provide an overview of the key areas you need to focus on when selling a business in order to avoid common pitfalls and ensure a successful outcome.
This seminar is most relevant for owners of profitable companies with revenues in the $5M to $50M range.
Meet our speakers
Katie Bennett | Master Certified Forum Chair, MacKay CEO Forums
Increasing the Effectiveness of your Executive Team, Strategy and Execution to increase the Value of Your Business
This presentation provides a deep dive into what it takes to become a highly effective leadership team aligned around a tight, focused strategy to deliver the kind of business results you are looking for. When your team is firing on all cylinders, and your business results follow, that’s when buyers come knocking. When your leaders deeply trust each other, develop the ability to passionately debate strategy and ideas, create a clear and simple strategy and meet regularly to review the plan and hold each other accountable – that’s when the business magic happens.
In the spirit of MacKay CEO Forums the discussion will include proven tools, real life stories and illustrate the value of having a strong peer network of other CEO’s around you as you navigate the world of being a successful entrepreneur.
Chris Dyck | Partner, Avisar CPAs
Tax Planning Best Practices
Tax planning is critical well in advance of a sale transaction if an owner is going to maximize their proceeds. Tax rules can be complex and are always evolving so specialized expertise is required to ensure an optimal outcome.
Chris will highlight the importance of early planning and discuss a variety of tax topics, including family trusts and lifetime capital gains exemptions, which can significantly reduce the tax burden on closing.
Yashar Farmarana | Partner, Relay Transition Partners
The Selling Process
Professionally selling a business to maximize buyer competition and create an optimal outcome for the seller requires a well-managed, disciplined process that typically takes 6 to 9 months.
In this segment Yashar will:
provide an update on current market valuations and activity levels;
explain how most businesses are valued;
highlight the key steps in a comprehensive go-to-market selling process;
discuss common transaction challenges and how to avoid them.
Taking a best-practices approach to selling your business will frequently result in a faster close, higher value and better terms and conditions.
Pratibha Sharma | Partner, Clark Wilson LLP
Selling a Business – Legal Traps to Avoid
Pratibha will discuss legal issues in selling a business, pointing out pitfalls business owners face in the sale process so you can avoid making the same costly mistakes. She will explain the difference between an asset purchase and a share purchase in the sale of a business and which is maybe best for you. You will learn about the importance of confidentiality agreements and standstill agreements when selling a business, and how to properly deal with non-competition agreements and other restrictive covenants. Finally, Pratibha will explain how representations, warranties, covenants and indemnities in the purchase agreement can cause the actual payment you receive for your business to be lower than the price you negotiated, and how you can prevent this from happening to you.
Paul Walchuk | Former Partner & CEO, Kova Engineering
An Entrepreneur's Experience
Paul Walchuk was the CEO of Kova Engineering. Kova has head offices in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario and for 35 years, their mission has been to provide world class engineering, inspection, certification and training services.
The company was recently sold to Industrial Inspection & Analysis (IIA) - a leading inspection provider for an array of industries across North America. Post sale, Paul’s role changed to VP Canadian Services. He will share his perspectives on the highs and lows of business transition based on his recent experience.