Building Transferable Businesses: Greg DeSimone's Client-First Approach to Business Exits

Anthony Codispoti (00:00)

Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories Podcast, where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome adversity. As you listen today, let one idea shape what you do next. My name is Anthony Cotuspodi, and today's guest once generated a million dollars in unbudgeted revenue by convincing customers to keep paying for a product his company had already stopped selling.

In a separate role, he cut a company's financial close from 20 days to eight. He spent his first 15 years in corporate finance, moving from Deloitte into controller roles through the early e-commerce days of Staples and later Princeton Review. He left the controllers chair to found Catapult Advisory Group, an MA and Exit Advisory Firm.

Launching it during the two thousand eight financial crisis. He stepped away to run another advisory practice for seven years, then returned to lead Catapult in two thousand twenty three. Greg D. Simone is the founder and president of Catapult Advisory Group, a Mansfield, Massachusetts firm, serving family owned companies with ten to seventy five million dollars in revenue. He is a CPA, a certified merger and acquisition advisor, and a certified master coach with more than thirty-five years and

finance and deal making. He also directs the finance division at Focal Point Coaching, supporting more than one hundred and fifty business coaches.

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All right, back to our guest today, president of Catapult, Greg Di Simone, thanks for making the time to share your story today.

Greg DeSimone (02:42)

My pleasure. Happy to be here.

Anthony Codispoti (02:44)

And so Greg, before I forget, let's give a little shout out to your podcast. What's the name? What kind of content's on there? What can folks get from?

Greg DeSimone (02:51)

Sure, my podcast is De Simon on Deals, the Exit Strategy Podcast. It's basically a it's an educational podcast where I like to educate business owners and their advisors in how to help prepare those businesses for a successful transition, whether it's to the next generation, to sell off to the management team or management buyout or to a third party. my message is you got you got one chance to get this right.

And let's make sure that you maximize the outcomes and the transition. And and and so I I bring in a lot of guests who are experts on different aspects of planning for that and helped help sell the idea that you need to build a team or have a village help you get there. And is and if I can help one company do a better job and and and maximize their outcome, then I'm really happy with the the the results of the podcast.

Anthony Codispoti (03:42)

You know, and we'll get into more about what you do.

I I wanna do a little background, but you said something to me before we started that I think bears re repeating here. You're like, hey, if somebody doesn't hire Greg D. Simone, that's okay. But what's the second part of that?

Greg DeSimone (03:59)

Hire someone, do not go unrepresented. the companies that you're gonna deal with that are gonna look to acquire you, they're gonna spend about 30 percent 0.3 or 30 percent of their EBITDA, of your EBITDA on professional services to make sure they get it right. And if you don't hire your counterparts to theirs, you're at a significant disadvantage. And the the other issue is they know the market, they know what the valuations are.

All you know is your company. So you have an advantage of running your company. They have the advantage of everything else. The way to level that playing field is hire the right advisors. And I said, I would prefer you not to get hired if you hire someone else. because I I just think it's it's just leaving too much money on the table. There's too much risk involved to to not be represented through this process and have someone that help coordinate all of the professional advisors on your team to make sure you get the best outcome.

Anthony Codispoti (04:52)

You know, for most folks, exiting a business, they're gonna do it probably once in their entire life, right? They get they get one crack at the bat.

Greg DeSimone (05:00)

Correct.

Anthony Codispoti (05:01)

And and for the people on the other side of the table, they're usually private equity, they're institutional investors. This is what they do all day, every day.

Greg DeSimone (05:09)

Yeah, it's it's their job and like it it's not and it's that's the other part you have to realize you need someone else take the emotion out. When you sell your business, you're emotionally attached to it and you remember how hard it was to get where you were and there's a lot of pride in it. on the other side, they're looking at this as an investment in it's either by this company or by the next company, or put the money somewhere else and wait until the opportunities are the markets change. To them, it is it is just a numerical exercise, it's an operational exercise.

It is not emotional whatsoever. But when they're that analytical, it can come across really cold, which really hurts a lot of people's feelings. You need to have that buffer to figure out how to get through all that and and make sure that you don't turn away from a good outc a good opportunity because your feelings get hurt because someone's just looking at this as an investment in a return.

Anthony Codispoti (05:57)

Okay, so let's go through some of your experience and then we'll come back to what you're doing present day at Catapult. So

Greg DeSimone (06:02)

Mm-hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (06:03)

you spent four years at Deloitte. You're auditing retail, distribution, healthcare, manufacturing companies all across Boston.

Greg DeSimone (06:10)

Mm-hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (06:11)

and then you leave to become the assistant controller at Domain Home, which was a $42 million furniture chain in Norwood. And I want to see if I've got my facts correct here. You cut clothes, the

closing of the book cycle from was it fifteen days or was it twenty five days to eight?

Greg DeSimone (06:30)

That place it was it's been a while. It was that was from like I think fifteen to six.

Anthony Codispoti (06:37)

Okay.

Greg DeSimone (06:37)

my the next client I went to was a so a software company. We went from twenty five days to to to eight.

Anthony Codispoti (06:44)

And what are you doing? Like how are you compressing that timeline?

Greg DeSimone (06:50)

back then the way I looked at it is people looked at the closing of your books as a single-dollar event and they waited to the end of the month to do it. So they'd start the work on the third the on so August 31st, they'd start the close on September first. And I went and looked at it with my team and said, you know, there's a lot of stuff that we're doing in the l after the month ends that we can do during the month.

And so what we looked for is what are the stuff that does not have to wait to the end of the month to figure out and turn it into dailies and weekly activities. So then when we got to the month and close, we were only really updating one week and then doing the stuff that could only be updated once a month, where you were analyzing missing accruals, you're analyzing contracts that might have different elements that need to be adjusted based on outside assumptions and factors. So what we try to do is make sure that all the perfunctory stuff that didn't need to wake in the month got done early.

like payroll, posting cash in stores, posting the revenue from the contracts on a on a weekly basis. and then only doing the stuff that need to be done that last week, in that week.

Anthony Codispoti (07:59)

So in terms of total time invested, maybe roughly the same, but the advantage is that you get to close the books several days earlier.

Greg DeSimone (08:08)

Yeah, I would say the the time was probably slightly s shorter, but not much, because there was not as much intense pressure and there was not a lot of rework because when you're under pressure and you miss it and you find a mistake, then you're you're having to correct it. And I don't know if I I have a this I don't know what the name of this theory should be, but whenever you make a mistake on a customer or an issue and you go to fix it, it seems like you keep ex exasperating the problem.

Everything that you did right the first time just goes smoothly. But once you make a mistake and you try to fix it and you try to do it quickly and try to do it under pressure, you seem to make multiple mistakes on the same topic.

the other thing I did I I I want to point out, it wasn't just me. I I learned early on that I was working too hard because I thought I was the smartest guy on the team. and then I w and I also thought like I came from public accounting and everyone wanted to be a CFO or a partner. And everyone I was working with in these these

in in pub and private industry, they just want to do a good job, but they wanted to go home with their to see their family. They weren't looking to be the next executive or the next partner. They just wanted to to be recognized, do a good work, but go home. and they worked to support their family, not to get ahead necessarily. But they had pride. And so what I did, I started putting it out to them. It's like, hey, this is the problem we need to solve. We're closing too slow. Can you do this? Or what options do you have? How do we close this time and how we do this faster? What I found is

When they came up with the idea themselves, they worked much harder to implement it. And I also realized that I wasn't the smartest person. They were sometimes much more had much more expertise in their specific domain, in their specific task than I did, like payroll. Like if someone left and I would payroll, no one's gonna get paid. I couldn't process payroll. I had to oversee it and make sure it was correct, but I couldn't actually process it. so I I learned that by getting a hundred percent of someone's eighty percent idea was better than

Me getting a hundred percent of all my ideas done at fifty percent effort or half assed effort, as I used to call it. And but what my my my assumption that it was an eighty percent idea wasn't correct. After letting them come up with their ideas, their ideas were sometimes a hundred and ten percent compared to mine. Yes.

Anthony Codispoti (10:18)

Way better than what you would have come up with.

Yeah. And so then from a practical standpoint for the company, what's the advantage of being able to close the books faster?

Greg DeSimone (10:26)

You're getting information into the decision makers' hands that's updated in real time and correct. in fact, we used to also instead of just waiting for the month end closed to get the financials, we would look at what are the key metrics that are driving the financial results. We try to report those on a daily or weekly basis depending on the type of metric. But we wanted the decision makers and I looked at it as when you're in finance, you're you're a service center. You're trying to get provide information you you're obviously trying to get the

the accounts right and you want the reporting right, but you're also providing a service to the decision makers. Are they getting the information at the right time to make good decisions? and if you have to wait till the month end and then you wait 30 days to give them that you're like 60 days behind of something that happened. You give them the the results 60 days later. That's not good enough to make decisions if you want to be nimble and you want to and stay ahead of the market. So we really worked at getting the clothes done quickly and also finding those

daily and weekly metrics that we could report on to give insight along the way so that the key decision makers had the right information to make decisions as they came up.

Anthony Codispoti (11:31)

Mm-hmm.

So from Domain Home, you moved to Staples. Everybody knows Staples,

Greg DeSimone (11:35)

Mm-hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (11:37)

world's largest office supply chain. This is at the same time that Staples.com is being built. And your job was accounting manager for a billion dollar division, two catalogs, seven contract stationers. During that stretch, you migrated five acquisitions off their old systems and onto Oracle Financials. When you do one company financial

Migration, it's hairy, it's messy, it's like things break. When you do five, like the potential for things to go sideways is much greater. What was something that broke for you in that process and how'd you fix it?

Greg DeSimone (12:17)

really what it was is we didn't do five all at once. There was serial, sequential, but we did learn from each and every one, like, okay, this is this this integration strategy or these tack this this checklist needs to be modified. and we kept learning from it. We had a great team. We had a we had an Oracle specialist, we had the finance team, we had the operators, we all worked together. but the biggest issue was

Breaking down past practices and mapping them to our practices. It wasn't just saying hit this account maps to this account. The way the the companies we acquired gathered information was different than the way we would gather it. And then trying to and you had to rely on the team in the field to gather the information and retrain them how to do it the way we wanted. So that was the top the probably the most difficult part. The mechanics of just

mapping the accounts and where we wanted to roll up, that's just that's a mathematical exercise. Getting them to understand why we were changing the processes, why they were we w wanted them to gather information and and process information differently so that it would s may be more seamless and fit into our schedule was really important. That was that was there's a lot of psychology involved in that like in and because people when they learn a a a certain way to do it they they they gravitate toward they feel comfortable and

It's really hard to change. It's like I use the example. You're doing the same thing, but it's like you had a stroke and so you know what you're doing, but you're relearning it and it's hard and you just want to go back to the easy way, the way you knew, and it's frustrating to like train yourself to do it a different way. so that was the probably the hardest part in every single one and and you had to basically deal with it every single time because the pe people had their egos and they had their their mindset and they just wanted like I said, they wanted to work hard, but they wanted

To be able to go home and not be hassled.

Anthony Codispoti (14:09)

You know, and it's not every time that a finance guy has got the people side skills to try to like you said, there's a big psychological component to getting people to row the boat in the same direction, to, you know, be capturing that information the same way that you want them to. But you already pointed out, you know, when you were at Domain, you had the recognition that, hey, if we get somebody else to come up with the idea on how to shorten that close time.

Like they're gonna be way more bought in. The ideas are gonna be better. And so were you somebody who just early on had this natural blend of the financial part, the psychological, the human side of it? Or was this something that you know, you're shaving, you're laughing. So how how did you pick this up? You had a mentor, painful lessons that kind of got you there?

Greg DeSimone (14:59)

I did have a mentor, the CEO of the CFO and the CEO of Domain. I was a young admin I was twenty-six, I was probably the youngest person in the management team there. and I got promoted quickly to controller, probably with three to four months within my my stay there. But they they mentored me and and gave me a different perspective. I also it took me a little bit to figure out what

what doing a good job meant to different people. Like for me, I wanted to be the CFO and I would do everything I could to learn those skills to see to say, hey, I want to replace you someday. Or if I if I reach a reach a plateau where you're here and I have nowhere else to go, I want to be able to do that. realizing that not everyone had those same ambitions below me, when I was in pub when I was public, everyone did. Like you said, hey you gotta stay late to finish this. Here's our deadline. They go, Yep, I want to get ahead I'm gonna hit the deadline. There was different

We had single moms, we had people that had f home responsibilities, even and they just they wanted like I said, they they wanted to do a good job, they wanna be recognized, but learning that was was hard. Once I figured that out it worked. The the other thing that did happen is I had a call to the copper come to Jesus meeting with everybody. They they went to the CFO and to the president and said, We gotta get rid of this guy.

Anthony Codispoti (16:21)

Meeting you.

Greg DeSimone (16:21)

Yes meaning me.

my whole staff basically. I shouldn't say my whole staff, probably nine of thirteen. And there was a parade where everyone got to sit with the C the CEO and the CFO and me, and they got to unload what they were complaining about. what was interesting is the CFO and CEO pointed out the flaws in everyone's argument, but at the same time, that helped me crystallize these people really cared in some of the some of the things I was doing.

inadvertently was turning them off, demotivating them. So

Anthony Codispoti (16:57)

Give us an example.

Greg DeSimone (17:01)

well one's a weird one. No matter how crazy it was getting I'd come out and say, hey guys, what's going on? And be like like just talk to them quick see if I could help, had a smile on my face. And whatever reason that was annoying. Like we're too busy right now. Why are you stopping to talk to us to see how we're doing? Just let us do our job. And I'm like, okay.

Let me see how I can check in without feeling like you're being interrupted. Or they would also feel when I would check in I was questioning what they were doing it right. So I had to figure out a different way to to do that. the other thing that I did is I just took care of things and fixed things and didn't send it back to them. And sometimes that would annoy them. some but some people appreciate. But one of the things I w I realized is because I was fixing these things and I was like coming in at like six thirty, seven o'clock in the morning and leaving at seven o'clock and

working probably every other Saturday to get stuff done. No one everyone who was complaining didn't realize how much extra effort I was putting in to make sure everything was getting done and taking stuff off of their plate. and I think afterwards there was a great appreciation for it. In fact one of the the one woman who actually was the ringleader of getting this whole parade of people to k speak about me in front of the executives, when she

She resigned like three or four years later and she had a better opportunity closer to home was easier to t for her kids. It was a great it was a good opportunity for her. she came back to me and and just said, I apologize for being so hard on you. I was so unfair. and said, Now that after working for you, I realized what you were trying to do and I I should have I shouldn't have been so difficult. I should have tried to work with you earlier. And I said, You know what? You you got there and we had you do you were a great employee and you help and we did great things. I said

Whatever he whatever it was in the past, don't worry about it. We got where we need to be. And and for me, those those that helped me more than anything is figuring out the different personality styles and and trial and error of like, okay, that when it's saying this doesn't work or doing this doesn't work. and I learned to be able to not not not get stuck on my own ideas and my thoughts. It's like recognizing I'm trying to accomplish something if what I'm doing is not working.

let's change it and do it differently until we get to the right the right result. so I learned to give up on on my ideas if they weren't working quickly and say not not trying to force it because I it was my idea.

Anthony Codispoti (19:29)

I'm sure that that was embarrassing, it was humbling, it was not fun to go through, but what a gift that you got to go through that at such an early point in your career so that you had that foundation to build on going forward.

Greg DeSimone (19:41)

It it was humbling

but it was also motivating because I the the executives noticed what I was doing and they were ha they had my back. But they didn't just tell these they didn't tell everyone, okay, you had to s side your piece, go. it was really collaborative. W when we got through it all, there was stuff I said, I can do this differently. And they all the everyone who left, because they saw how I was backed by the executives, they they weren't gonna run me out either. So they

It got to the point where like, okay, guys, we're we're here together. We're gonna have to figure this stuff out together. I had a better understanding of what they were trying to do. They understood the effort I was actually putting in and that I was actually trying to make it better for for everybody. and we started to have a a much better relationship. And like it wasn't every some people moved faster than others, some people warmed up faster than others. and we had to definitely let go one person go, which I in hindsight we should have let go earlier. That person was kinda the

the silent cancer like the we weren't we weren't catching them on the initial sc screens and scans. But when we got rid of that person because she wouldn't she wouldn't change her her processes. She was obstinate about it. As soon as she she left, it was it was a really big switch, a really big jump. and I think which that we didn't realize this one person was kind of holding us back behind the scenes. again, I wasn't smart enough to think that I had to do that. I just knew that

she wasn't gonna ever gonna get to where we need to be and we had to make a change and it just so happened to have a much bigger impact than I thought. I thought we were just replacing someone who's gonna do it the way we want versus not. But it actually changed the whole morale of the whole department.

Anthony Codispoti (21:17)

Yeah. Addition by subtraction sometimes is the way to go.

So from Staples, you moved to Workscape, which is an HR benefits and compensation software company. You

Greg DeSimone (21:28)

Mm-hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (21:28)

stayed nearly eight years as controller and chief accounting officer. And

Greg DeSimone (21:32)

Mm-hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (21:33)

this was the story that we referenced in the intro. At one point you brought in a million dollars of revenue nobody had budgeted for by renewing licenses on a product the company had already discontinued.

Greg DeSimone (21:46)

Mm-hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (21:47)

Do

I have that right? Walk me through

Greg DeSimone (21:49)

Close enough, yeah. So we Workscape was a a predecessor to the SAS model. We were a hosted software service. We s in we we had some premise-based soft we acquired a company that had premise-based software, which means you take the disk and you put it into the server and you load it on on the on site on premise. and as we and we served s basically fortune one thousand customers, with huge

integration issues related to payroll and benefits and and compensation planning and making sure that all the interfaces with the insurance companies and all the internal records were there. as we started getting more and more traction on the hosted model in our data centers, we're saying, hey, we have some really big customers on this premise space that we're they're paying us a decent amount of maintenance, but we can't keep maintaining this software because we're top we can't

get we're not we're gonna f put any time into doing updates and we don't have staff that is actually that have all migrated to the new platform or had left because they could see that the new platform is not what their skill set was. So we had less and less resources to support the premise space. So there were two really large companies, one of which you'd you buy stuff to fix your home up and another one that you probably read on the their their news on Sunday mornings if not at all throughout the week.

And they had this premise based software and we were trying to I was we were trying to get the account managers to go and see if they could have them buy out their license and and the underlying code so that they can just maintain their own software without any support. And none of them wanted to do it 'cause they didn't really think there was that much of a of a benefit to them. And they were really trying to get hit their target, the bonus targets for the new software.

So I went, I said, I'll do it. And I went and called them and said, Hey, we're we're sunsetting this, and this is what we're willing to do. I said, we're not gonna support anymore, so we can just stop. We'll support you through the end of this term, or you can pay, buy out the license, we'll give you all the underlying code, we'll give you a year's worth of support, but after that, the product sunset and you're on your own. And we were able to get like between the two of them, about a million million.

two of of of revenue to buy out the software and and convert from a term premise based to a perpetual license and to give them one year of of maintenance. and it's funny I got sent I was at the the sales award I was the only non-sales person getting an award that year for for sales and I remember the all the account managers came up to me and said how did you get that and I said I just called them and asked them and told them what we were doing what our path was

And they said, Did you get a commission for that? I'm like, No, I'm not on a commission plan. I got this trip. I said, But you guys gave up about a hundred thousand dollars worth of commission, so you could have had a hundred thousand of of pay. I I just got a a a heartfelt out of boy in a trip.

Anthony Codispoti (25:00)

my company got a million dollars, all I got was this mug. Yeah.

Greg DeSimone (25:02)

Yeah. Yeah.

But it was fun. Like to s to like it it it was it was I also saw what the salespeople had to do to go through that and it gave me a little bit more perspective as as a finance person. I'm like, just do what we need, follow the procedures, don't rewrite the contracts. But once I had to go through the process, it gave me a b a better perspective and how they thought through how they would think through the process and it it l gave it allowed me to serve them better. Doesn't mean that I let them get away with everything, but I

I had a better understanding of what they were trying to accomplish 'cause I I I felt some of the pain on trying to get through that that transaction. Yeah. Yeah, I made like I

Anthony Codispoti (25:37)

Yeah, you got to walk in their shoes for a quick minute.

Greg DeSimone (25:40)

s like I called and we did it in a day. It took us a coup a couple of months, but we eventually got.

Anthony Codispoti (25:45)

So I'm curious with those two clients, what happened at the end of that one year support cycle? Did they continue to support it themselves? Did they switch over to the SAS model?

Greg DeSimone (25:56)

We asked them one last time if they wanna switch over to SAS and they they they decided just to maintain their own. I after they declined to move over to the SAS, really lost track of it. I d I we I know that we've never I was there probably another four years after that. They never came back on as a host e again, so they either they bought a different model or they just kept maintaining what we gave them or sold to them.

Anthony Codispoti (26:20)

Okay.

So this was another place where you cut the close cycle by forty percent after implementing Oracle, and you reduced headcount by twenty-five percent at the same time. How

Greg DeSimone (26:32)

Mm-hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (26:33)

are you accomplishing both of these things simultaneously?

Greg DeSimone (26:38)

we had a couple some implementing Oracle allowed us to automate some stuff. Well we we were used to hand keying all the the time sheets and the expense reports. And Oracle allowed us to have do that all automated through online. So we we able to cut half a head in payroll, we were to cut two heads in AP. We were spending a lot of time hand keying stuff that we didn't have to hand key anymore.

we did have to add a headcount like on the on the revenue contractual side, just to support because we're getting more and more contracts and we had to maintain. So where we cut a lot of administrative headcount, we added a more higher powered revenue manager to help us deal with some of the more complicated issues that had to be managed.

Anthony Codispoti (27:26)

Not it.

Okay, so then Greg, in two thousand seven you became corporate controller at Princeton Review. This is a publicly traded test prep company with over 150 million in revenue.

Greg DeSimone (27:38)

Yes.

Anthony Codispoti (27:39)

When you walked in, the monthly close was taking 20 days, and the auditors had flagged four material weaknesses. Can you explain what a material weakness is and how you detected it and then how you fixed it?

Greg DeSimone (27:55)

I didn't detect it. They were they were identified and they were report they were when you file your financial statements, they get reported that you have material weakness, which is not what you want the market to know that you don't have con basically material weakness means there's a lack of control. And not only is it there a lack of control, it is material that they think it'll affect the results and you may not be able to rely on the results because of those weaknesses.

Anthony Codispoti (28:21)

Meaning that they suspect that fraud could slip in?

Greg DeSimone (28:23)

Not fraud

is it it be I guess there could be an opportunity fraud, but even let's assume there's no sinister process. It's that transactions that should be recorded aren't getting recorded. Transactions that shouldn't have been recorded are recorded. Transactions that are recorded in one period should be reported in a different period. the way you allocate value within a a contract, and then re record it over time could be misallocated. because of because of the lack of controls,

it was hard to determine were you really getting the true picture of what's going on. And this happens a lot on smaller companies, but when you're a public company, that's like a that that's just a death knell. You have to you people have to be able to rely on your financials if they're gonna make an investment in your business.

Anthony Codispoti (29:07)

Okay, so you didn't flag them. They were flagged for you, and then you fixed them by

Greg DeSimone (29:14)

It was just we brought in consultants. We re actually we re-implemented Oracle, because they when we we did or Oracle had been implemented, but they interestingly they did not consult the the finance team at Prince Review before I got there, didn't have any respect and they weren't they were really just hey process payroll, process AP, collect the bills. they they weren't looked at as a as a

service center for decision making and analytical center. the people who implemented Oracle wanted to track different things and get different data and they were all out in the field at the different locations. It was a basically a franchise model at the time where every test center was a fr basically a franchise throughout the country and they were trying to get information out to the franchises and get franchise collection data. So they actually accomplished that but it never tied back to the corporate reporting.

so we had to go back and re implement Oracle knowing what we were what the material weaknesses were, what we were trying to accomplish, and what a streamlined consolidated PL would look like and process would look like. So we had we brought in some consultants, we had shadow employees or consultants that would work with replace the work of some of our full time employees, but

So that our full time employees could work on the implementation to make sure it was right. So we we went through a lot of different machinations to to get that to work. and it was a good eighteen months.

Anthony Codispoti (30:52)

Hmm.

So you're at Princeton Review and at some point you decide to go out on your own. What was fueling that move?

Greg DeSimone (31:01)

we talked a little bit. I told you this has changed my life. I was this is I'm gonna get be really open here. And as I was working there, I was working 60 to 80 hours a week. I was being pushed by the CE COO saying, you gotta work your team harder. We gotta get more out of these people. And I'm like, I'm working 60 to 80. These guys are working 50 to 60 hours. And we're doing it not like

For a week or two weeks or three. We had been doing it for a solid year. And I just I said there's really nothing more to get from them. I I got to the point where I I was reprioritizing my to-do list or my task list every day. I'm like, here's what my top three priorities are. And then by 10 o'clock, I had five new top three priorities. and I I I literally and I had just trying to keep everyone calm and everyone was feeling, I think, the same way I was, but I couldn't let them know that. And

I j I developed general panic disorder. I was on medication. I was depressed. I was seeing a therapist. in fact, I remember there was one day I was sitting in New York City, we hadn't moved to Boston yet, and they they they let the IT person go and they said, Hey Greg, we're gonna name you the interim head of IT. I don't and I don't know anything about IT. And they did this, they made this announce without telling me, and while I was at lunch, and I came back.

And they told me as I walked in. So I sat at my desk and and when you're working in New York City, you have to share an office because it's so tight and it's so expensive. So I had another another director at an office across from me. And I c it looked like a ticker tape parade, my email. It was just like everyone who had not gotten any response from IT for like three months because this guy was not doing a great job, all of a sudden was now emailing me and I'm like, I don't know who's on my team, I don't know what systems we have.

All I know is I use my Oracle and I use Outlook and I use Excel. That's what I that's that was my technology basis. And I'm getting tick heat ticket after heat ticket after heat ticket forwarded to me, urgent, urgent, urgent. And I remember I just sat there and I was shivering cold, but there was sweat dripping onto my desk. Like there's a puddle on my desk, but I was shivering cold. I just got up and walked, and the guy across me goes, Are you all right? And I said, I don't think so. And I just went for a walk.

And we were on 84th in Broadway. And I remember just walking and walking and walking. And I came up to the Lincoln Center. I'm like, holy crap, I'm at 62nd Street. I

Anthony Codispoti (33:36)

You went for a long walk.

Greg DeSimone (33:37)

went for a long walk, I turned around. Halfway back, there was like three of the consultants working for me. And I'm like, what are you doing? They go, that place is nuts. And I'm like, yeah, I know. And same thing.

Anthony Codispoti (33:46)

You ran into three other folks that were working there who are out doing the same kind of sanity walk.

Greg DeSimone (33:51)

Yes. So I went back and I actually gave my notice within a short period after that.

They convinced me to stay, saying, Hey, we we're in the middle of all this stuff, we just gotta get it done if in we're we're halfway through it, we just work through it. And so I did. They convinced me to stay. I I was still fighting all those same issues. I was still having panic disorder a attacks and anxiety attacks. and we made a s a mistake trying to do a filing in October of twenty twenty two thousand eight, excuse me.

and it was it was not anything that affected the financial the results, but it affected a line item on the cash flow statement. So the total cash flow is the same, but what it should have been in investing instead it was in financing or vice versa. It was a mistake that one of my teammates made. I trusted the person and I was so busy, I said, I'm not I didn't review it. I said, they do such good work, I'm not gonna review it. and it turns out that it was wrong. I didn't really review it.

We had to file delay our filing from five o'clock on this Tuesday to the to ten o'clock on the following Wednesday. The next morning I got fired for that mistake. saying they'd lost confidence in me. And I remember they w they wanted me to stay for five months but not run the team. They weren't gonna give me my bonus, they weren't gonna give me my severance, but they said we'll let me stay and do special projects for five months. And I asked what is I my wife was screaming at.

at me saying, Go tell them the you know what, and get out of there. And so I I went up and I said, What's the package if I leave today? And they said, What do you mean? There there is no package if you leave today. And I said I said, Well, I quit six months ago because I didn't couldn't take this. I go, I don't know why it would be any better for me staying for five months. He goes, Well you don't want five months of pay? I'm like, No, I I I want my bonus and I want severance or if you can't give me that, I'll just leave anyways.

and it was fun interesting because then they said, What are you gonna tell everyone? I'm like, I'm gonna tell them that you fired me. And they weren't too happy about that. And they said, But and I if you don't want me to say that, give me give me my severance, give me my bonus, and I'll I'll say whatever you want. I said, I don't feel good about that either because everybody on that team I hired and I told them this is gonna be hell for 12 months to fit 18 months, but when we finish, we should have a really well oiled, finely tuned machine that's gonna work.

And I says, I can't just tell them that out of the blue I decided I'm looking for better opportunities and I'm gonna do something different. when I've put them all in this position where it's gonna be hard for them for the next six months. but you know what? That's what ended up happening. I walked out and

Anthony Codispoti (36:36)

So you walked out, no no bonus, no severance or you

Greg DeSimone (36:38)

No bonus, no

severance. I was the only person that didn't get a bonus or the the bonus paid or portion of the bonus or severance package for all the all the people that were riffed over the eight twelve to eighteen months I was there. But I tell ya it it's

The markets collapsed a month later, in two thousand eight, there was financial collapse. So everything I I I knew that I didn't want to go back into public companies. I didn't want to go into doing more system work. Like I I I I loved the strategy and I love dealing with people, but I got pigeonholed into system and compliance work because I I made sure it worked so that I could do the fun stuff. But a lot of my peers never took the time to do the compliance and system work.

So I kept getting pigeonholed and like, well, Greg can do it. So I kept getting that and not in the stuff that I wanted to do. And I'm like, okay, I'm not only am I not getting the stuff I want, I'm I'm providing opportunities for people that are taking the opportunities I want.

Anthony Codispoti (37:36)

What was the fun stuff you wanted to do?

Greg DeSimone (37:38)

I like working on the strategy and the planning and in what what the what if scenarios and how if we change this and to to to that, what what's gonna happen? I like dealing with the the people and how are we gonna allocate resources and people and and and that was fun.

Working on acquisitions, like how we're gonna integr I I integrate or how how do we value a company that we're looking to acquire? And those those are fun projects 'cause they're part of like how we grow this company, should we do it through acquisition? Should we do it through organic? How do we evaluate the between the two? That's the stuff I like doing.

Anthony Codispoti (38:12)

So when you made the decision to leave, did you have any idea in mind of what you were gonna do? Or was the

Greg DeSimone (38:17)

Yes.

Anthony Codispoti (38:18)

thought that you were gonna go look for another job?

Greg DeSimone (38:20)

I thought, well, my thought was I wanted and the other thing over the working for public companies and VC backed companies, everyone has a ninety-day focus. How do you get the results every 90 days so that you meet street expectations or the board expectations of your VC looking to go public? And I felt over the years there were a lot of dis not every decision, but there were a lot of enough decisions that were made on a short term basis to just

To meet the goal for the 90 days. But if it was your company and you were gonna own it and everything went into your pocket eventually, you just wouldn't do. Like I remember salespeople and the and the executives at the at the software company would make decisions to modify contracts because they would allow them to recognize revenue earlier based on accounting rules, but you actually gave up economic value over a five year period. So like let's just this is fake numbers, but

It's a five million dollar contract and you have it's for five years, you get to recognize a million a year. But if you change certain terms, you might be able to get two million or three million in the first year. But in order to do that and to get those concessions, you might have to give up half a million dollars on the contract. So now it's a four and a half million dollar contract that you can now front load. Well, that's great to hit your your target to report to the board you hit your target.

But as a business owner, you would

Anthony Codispoti (39:40)

Short sighted.

Greg DeSimone (39:40)

never give up half a million dollars over five years. I mean, that's money in your pocket. and so my thought was I would like to I wanted to I felt there's a lot of closely held family businesses and a lot of an affinity for family business because I grew up and my dad owned a a business and I could know how important it's to the families. And I also know there were my dad had a partner kids in it and they were doing certain jobs that they they really weren't skilled at, but that's the job that was open, so they were doing it.

I felt that there's probably a lot of opportunities where there was family businesses that they didn't have someone with their DNA that understood finance. And my thought process, hey, can I go in and work at a reasonably sized f reasonably sized family business that needs more support and finance and and helps them go away from this is how we've always done it to hey how what are some best practices that we can take the family business to the next level and help provide that? Which didn't pan out because the market had collapsed and there was no one hiring.

and that's how I kind of found founded Catapult Advisor Group. I I did it through a collaboration with with Focal Point Business Coaching. And what what I learned through that is I was able to work with family-owned businesses, not have to worry about the compliance, but really work on how do you help businesses figure out their strategy, how do they leverage their team and develop their team so that businesses aren't owner dependent.

And how do you leverage all that to create a growth plan that is sustainable and repeatable versus a a one time project? And I said this is

Anthony Codispoti (41:15)

So were you

serving like as a fractional CFO at this point?

Greg DeSimone (41:18)

No, I actually did not do fractional super. I was more strategic in team leadership, team development and in strategy. I I did not want to sell myself and I could do the fractional stuff. I didn't want to sell myself to that because I didn't want to get pigeonholed in doing that again. Like I was pigeonholed as the compliance guy. I mean, if they needed help, would I help them with it? Yeah. If would I work with their CPA to help them figure out some stuff? Yes. But I never positioned myself and I probably could have ramped up my business much quicker if I did.

But I wanted to focus on the stuff that really motivated me and I felt made a bigger difference. Not that fractional CFOs don't make a difference. They do. And I I would highly recommend all my clients. It it

Anthony Codispoti (41:57)

It just wasn't the fun stuff you were looking forward to doing.

Greg DeSimone (42:00)

wasn't it wasn't the fun stuff in it was still I was still traumatized from the the general panic disorder. I'm like, I just gotta stay away from the stuff and and live a that stuff and and live a life that's a little bit different.

Anthony Codispoti (42:14)

And so how did you ramp the company? How were you getting your first customers right out of the gate?

Greg DeSimone (42:19)

The first few customers I I remember I I I I didn't know how to sell. I never had to sell. I actually tried to had had to find ways to get work off my desk because I was too busy. But what I did is I I went through my LinkedIn list. I back then only had 190 people because LinkedIn was kind of new. And most of them were like past colleagues or like professionals I worked with, I either financial advisors, I mean accountants or attorneys.

And I just said, Hey, there's six of them that own businesses. So I just reached out to them. I said, Hey, I'm doing this coaching. Here's why I buy into it. It's I'm using the focal point content. And I said, I looked at this and I said, I was successful in my career. And a lot of the stuff that I see in this content is what I did. I said, Unfortunately, no one showed me how to do this proactively. I learned it because I did it, made a mistake, did it, made a mistake, did it, made a mistake, and got to where I am now. It would have been so much easier if someone said

Hey, let's start a process and look at it this way. I could probably cut 25, 50% of my learning curve by doing this. So I bought into it and I I told these the business business owners, like, I am I'm drinking the Kool-Aid. I want to know, does this make sense to you? Would you mind doing a s have me do a sales presentation? I don't want you to buy this. I just want you to tell me what makes sense and what doesn't make sense so I can refine my process before I go to people I don't know. And through that process of those six,

three of the six said, Hey, when they're done, are you selling this now? When are you gonna stop marketing? I'm like, I am marketing now and they they hired me on the spot

Anthony Codispoti (43:51)

Wow.

Greg DeSimone (43:51)

to do that. And then it took me another six months to realize, don't try to sell. Just I I didn't wasn't trying to sell those people. I was just talking about what I did and what they did and learned about their business and showed inter interest and curiosity and they did the same and I ended up getting a 50% close rate. Then I went back to using traditional sales like what do I have to say to make you do this? What do have to say to want you to buy this?

Which doesn't work. And when I got to the point where, hey, just talk to people about their business, show interest of what what they're concerned about, show interest in why they're successful and help them celebrate those successes and learn from their successes so you I could bring it forward. And when I did that, the sale process was so much easier. It wasn't even a sales process, it was just I was I was having conversations and a third of them turned into clients.

Anthony Codispoti (44:38)

So

your best sales strategy is not to sell.

Greg DeSimone (44:41)

No, it's to to understand. A couple people I've worked with that that were more sales savvy and centric and they were salespeople from start to finish. said if you talk and show interest, people will tell you a lot. And if you let them explain what they're doing, why they're doing, show pride in what they do, they'll start to open up and tell you what they're str frustrated with. And if you give them enough time, they'll tell you exactly what they need help with. And at the end of those conversations, it's pretty clear.

whether you can help them or not. And if you can, you say, here's what I think I can do to help you. And if I can't help you, I maybe I'll say, I know I can't help you, but I know three or four other people I think I can refer to you that can help you. Or I could say, you know what, I don't think you're ready for me. Or I don't think I can help. And I don't we we you should probably continue what you're doing and see we'll see what happens. but just having those conversations and letting them talk and just being interested opened up a lot a a lot of opportunities and people weren't guarded. They didn't feel like they're being sold to so they told you more.

And the fact is that a lot of times that I would get referred, they said he's not gonna try to convince you to buy. He's gonna tell you what what you think you you could do. he'll tell you if it's not him, he'll give you a referral to someone else, or he'll tell you he can't do anything. and so people were more open to have conversations with me because they knew that I wasn't gonna be the traditional sales guy that was just gonna try to convince them why they needed to buy my services. I I I try to help them make a decision and

And and I only wanted them to make decisions if they were comfortable with it.

Anthony Codispoti (46:10)

And that's that's the conversation that people want to be in. And that's the conversation that your friends want to refer their friends into, right? They they don't want to send them to somebody who's gonna really put the screws to them and you know, like yeah, you you make everybody feel good in that process. When when you make them feel heard and you and it's clear to them that you are on their side, you've

Greg DeSimone (46:32)

Mm-hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (46:32)

got their best interest.

Greg DeSimone (46:34)

Yeah, I I figured there's a lot of people that I I gravitate to that are like this, and but my whole philosophy is if you help enough people, eventually the work is going to come back to you. and I in fact I used to track my referrals out and in and I stopped during COVID. I probably should still do it. but I for every referral I gave out, I got 1.8 back.

Anthony Codispoti (46:58)

Wow.

Greg DeSimone (46:59)

And it and then when I say referral wasn't like, hey, I like to I like to network with CPAs, joining CPAs. That wasn't it. If you said, Hey, I can't figure out our logistics, we're we're leaking profit through our logistics system and we think we need to upgrade it. Do you know anyone who does that? Yeah, I do. Or our our accountant's not doing a great job. I think we're paying too much in tax doing our accountant that we take a look at our stuff and and reevaluate our our our our tax liabilities. I'm like, Yeah, I do. So if someone has specific

problem and I knew

Anthony Codispoti (47:27)

Very specific.

Greg DeSimone (47:28)

someone that could potentially solve it, that was a referral.

Anthony Codispoti (47:32)

So how did you eventually move into doing exit planning and MA work?

Greg DeSimone (47:38)

So early on when I was doing the c consulting and coaching, it was more generalist where I just helped I was working with smaller businesses that I didn't think had the professional expertise that needed to learn some of the the the business skills. A lot of them were like learned through the toolbox and not through business school. So I was like, okay, hell me they know how to serve their client. They know how to do their work, but they don't know how to run a business. but I I was getting frustrated because I was dealing with a lot of individual contributors, like say real estate agents and financial advisors that

It was really about how how do you manage your time? How do you delegate authority? How do you and it was more like individual accountability. And I like I talk about it, I love business strategy. How do you help help a business grow? And I love dealing with how do you get the people to help you implement that strategy. So it's all tied together. And then I loved really the family business aspect of it because that dynamic just created another wrinkle. And I know how important it is to to families to to separate family and business, but also that they're so entwined.

So as I got to the end of my first year, I said, you know what? I looked at my clients and I said, I just certain clients I just don't like working with. And so I changed my messaging from just being a business coach to I work with really successful family businesses that get stuck from time to time. And I thought stuck would be, hey, we've always been doing it this way. All our competitors are growing, but we're stuck at five million. What are we doing differently? What are they doing that we aren't? And can you help us figure that out? And I did some of that, but

Quickly and early on in most of those engagements, the owners would say, How do I get out of this? Like, I don't think my kids want to take this over and I don't know what to do, or or my kids want to take it over, but I don't think they're very like can and and I don't want to just give it to them and not and not have it work. and that just led to succession planning. And then as we started doing that, private equity started coming down market and were knocking on doors and strategic.

Buyers were coming and knocking on doors and my my clients was saying, Hey, I got this eight million dollar offer. Can you help me evaluate that versus our plan to have Johnny and Janie take over? And we would start doing that. And then eventually they it would became evolved into, you know what? I think it's easy to just give my kids a bag of money and spend it with them and help them invest it and and help them

while they need it now it at in their thirties versus giving it to them when they're in their sixties and I pass away or giving them an asset that they have to manage and hope to maintain it. and they said, can you help me sell this business? So I started to work with brokers to like say, hey, if you have businesses that aren't really s ready to be sold or the value isn't there, refer them to me, I'll work with them then hand them back to you. And they I was really disillusioned on on the quality there's some really, really good ones.

But there was a majority that I I I would not refer to. And I said I told my wife one day, I said, I know more about these transactions than a lot of these people do from my days in corporate. I gotta figure out how to market and sell market these companies to attract buyers. But I said the rest of it I actually understand. So I said I made it my mission to add it to my business plan in 2016. And literally, two weeks later, B Connecticut advisors came by and said, Hey, we're looking to grow. We need more advisors.

You're doing stuff to help people improve the value. We see the importance of that. We don't do that. I think it would be a good partnership where you could do that and you could take on some advisory work, transactional work. And that was like literally two weeks after I decided I was going to do this. And I said, rather than try to build it from scratch, they had a great reputation. and it really helped me jumpstart that that transactional piece of the work. I still did the the succession work and I still did the the value acceleration work.

But I I then added the the

Anthony Codispoti (51:24)

So

you continue to have catapult going and then you join

Greg DeSimone (51:27)

Yeah, I I branded

myself under them just so there wouldn't be any confusion in the marketplace. but yes, I I was always doing the catapults. So I I just to make it easier. They had a better at the time they had a better brand name than I did in that space. I didn't have any brand name in that space. then I had been got pretty successful doing it. my average I was they were actually

Anthony Codispoti (51:49)

And you were able to learn from them, ostensibly.

Greg DeSimone (51:52)

they were great mentors, David Humphrey and Jeff Muir.

were there before me and I learned a lot from them. They have different styles than I did. So there's certain things I'm like, I don't know if I would do it that way, but I understood why they did it certain ways and and so I think they learned from me. I definitely learned a lot from them. But I got to the point where I was seeing there's more opportunity to do it on my own. And there was a little bit of s slight philosophical differences. Nothing like like it wasn't had to do with anything of ethics or integrity. It was just like

I want to do things differently. I I want to manage it this way. I want to spend money on marketing this way. and I got the entrepreneurial bug again. It's like, maybe maybe it's time for me. I'm young enough that I still have time to to do something with this. And I I made a proposal to sp split fees. wasn't it wasn't accepted. And I understood why it wasn't accepted. It didn't hurt my feelings whatsoever. but it would made it easy. I'm like, okay, I made a fair I think a fair proposal.

I understood why it wasn't accepted and I said, now I'm just gonna do it on my own and we were off and running. Well we we were off and running marketing. It took about nine to twelve months really to get the revenue streams coming back in, but it was probably

Anthony Codispoti (53:06)

Because all the

clients that you had you were bringing in under their umbrella, now you're coming back to your own thing and

Greg DeSimone (53:11)

Yeah, what when I actually

I made the jump at a perfect time like to make a jump where there wouldn't be any conflicts, I closed all my transactions. So I had nothing that I was working on. I had people that I would talk new that were my pipeline, but in my business the pipeline could be three to five years down the road. so I had no one that was eminently going to go to market when I made this decision. so I but so it took me li a good nine months to

Six months to get decline, nine months to start getting revenue and like twelve months before we had a close. but that was hard to to say, hey, I was had a great income stream. Now I gotta start it all over again. But now that we've done it and it it it's it's been great and we're now growing. We have more more advisors coming on so that

we can extend our services.

Anthony Codispoti (54:01)

I was gonna say you keep using the word

we, like how many folks are we talking about?

Greg DeSimone (54:05)

Yeah, I have like 10 to 12. We're on we're a virtual on-demand company, but I have like five advisors that are different skill sets. One of which is my my twin brother just joined, which was exciting because he's he's gonna help me a lot with the operations and the financial analysis and we really help us support more advisors. we have a ops manager, we have a marketing team down in Florida, we have a graphics team in North Carolina.

Guy. Guy. we have a

Anthony Codispoti (54:35)

A whole graphics team for what you do? Okay. How much graphics work

does a does an MA exit planning firm really need?

Greg DeSimone (54:46)

Well, for pitch books. So I c I I can put a pitch book together, I can put the storyboard together, but it looks like an eighth grader is passing their PowerPoints.

Anthony Codispoti (54:53)

Ha ha

Greg DeSimone (54:54)

so we have a guy that makes them look professional and we have there's different graphics that

Anthony Codispoti (54:58)

Okay. I get that.

Greg DeSimone (54:59)

we put out for marketing he helps with. And we have a we have a podcast manager in the Philippines that helps review our podcasts and edit them and and cut them into s to clips that we can use on social media.

Anthony Codispoti (55:10)

Yeah.

Okay, so get us to present day. What is Catapult Advisory Group doing? Who are the folks that should call you? What's what's a good fit for you?

Greg DeSimone (55:19)

Good fit for anyone who is considering selling their business in the next three to five years. I mean, if you want to sell it tomorrow, we'll help you too. But ideally, if you're thinking, like, I know we're gonna have to sell this thing, that's the only real option. we would love to have early conversations to say, okay, here's what your business is worth now. Let's plan on what you'd what you'd like it to be worth and give you enough time to actually implement changes if necessary. For me.

And that o' also help them to make the business more transferable, particularly if you have owner dependency. Like how do we have a legitimate time frame runway to to get work off of your plate and reliance on a y off of you onto your team? and if if you're three or five years out, it's it's a much easier process and it's a realistic time frame to do that. so that's who we like to talk to. but like that if someone says they want to sell tomorrow, like even if I don't think it's I think even if I think they have more opportunity, like I I use the phrase

I sell them where they're. I'm not gonna convince them what they have to do. I'll explain the pros and cons of the decision, but ultimately I said this is your business, it's your decision. I just want you to make the decision with all the information. You don't have to make the decision I would make, but I want you to have the inf the information so you that you can't have you won't have sellers remorse afterwards. Like I didn't know that, so I I shouldn't have done that.

Anthony Codispoti (56:35)

Are there certain industries, geographies, revenue size that you specialize in?

Greg DeSimone (56:42)

We specialize with ten million to seventy million of revenue and over a million of EBITDA, but I would say probably eighty percent of our work is companies that have two to four million of EBITDA and revenues between ten and thirty, thirty five million revenue. we do some that are bigger. We'll do a few that are smaller, as well, particularly if you're f that comes from a a good referral source or from a prior client that we really want to help their friend or family out. but we

kind of try to stick in our lane. We don't want to compete with the brokers and we don't want to compete with the investment bankers. We like to like say it's not blue ocean, but we can go a long way without seeing another boat, which is pretty good.

Anthony Codispoti (57:21)

Tell me about the work that you're doing with focal point coaching.

Greg DeSimone (57:24)

So I've been with Focal Point for 17 years. So I was affiliated with them from the day one when I when I started Catapult the f the first time. And I learned a lot on the on how to do the use their coaching. And when as I went with to Beacon, we developed a a exit planning program. because there's a lot of coaches saying, Hey, we we there's a lot of people that need this and we don't really have we talk about it, but we don't have a specific program. So we put together a program.

for that. and then over the years we've just we've built it to we've about 70 we have a monthly call and we have some content that we deliver and we have a mastermind group and so we mentor those 70 coaches and we probably have 30 coaches per month on on the calls and I get ri month a bunch of random calls in between to help support some of their clients or how to make a presentation a pitch.

Anthony Codispoti (58:18)

And are these folks co providing the same kind of coaching to their clients that you do?

Greg DeSimone (58:22)

They do. They d the they don't do the transaction work, but they do the the coaching. Some people and it's funny again, we they s they they tailor their practices for the the way they want. Some coaches they leave that I only want to work with exit and succession. Like if that that's that's what I lead with. That's my marketing message. There are other coaches that that work on say leadership skills or integrating generational like changes within the workforce from Gen work Gen Z working with Gen X.

but they know that they have the they have the exit and succession planning tools as a supplement to it. Well, where where I I always live with, and a lot of these coaches will lead with succession and exit, and then we'll bring in leadership and communication skills and sales skills as necessary to close gaps. There are some other coaches like I'm a sales expert, but I know eventually someone's gonna want to sell. So I want to have the exit planning as a tool that I bring in to support support them. So we teach them how to

craft their message and then how to l when the exit opportunities come up how to position it and how to create programs to get clients on board and to support

Anthony Codispoti (59:33)

So when you're talking about exit planning, you've got a client, they've got a little bit of time in order to make some changes before they actually take the company to market. What are some of the most common levers that you recommend people pull to maximize that value? You hit a big one already, which is make it less owner dependent. That takes out the risk, right? That's a plug-and-play company that private equity can buy and they've got you know, the operators in place. What are some other ones?

Greg DeSimone (1:00:02)

So that's number one. two is processes and operations that are documented and and transferable. you want to avoid having what I I call it Indian folklore where it's one per employee has to train the next employee. If someone leaves, they have to call their employee to come back and train them. Like you don't want to have all the the ideas and operations in someone's head so I can walk out the door. So we have that documented, so you that operational platform documented.

Which goes part and parcel with having reducing owner dependency, having the team and the processes come together. is working through growth solves a lot of value problems, but also learning that it's not just growth, it's how to grow profitably and how to grow in and then in a repeatable manner. Not to like, I'm gonna do a a door crasher like in the old retail days.

We're gonna run a big sale and get all these sales in, but like if you do a door crash, then you have to rely on door crashing. If you're gonna rely on being the lowest provider, you have to always be the lowest cost provider. and that's that's beatable. How do you we how do you we we wanna work with clients to say, okay, what is your value proposition? What do you do differently and better than others that people will call you because of the specific reason? Maybe you don't get every single opportunity, but the opportunities you get are dead-on hits that you can charge a premium and get a margin for. How do you instead of having a one and done type sale?

Can you get recurring revenue streams so that it's more reliable? How do you go from recurring to contractual where they they know the anyone who buys you knows that they they're they're under they're obligated to keep buying for you for a period of time after the transaction? Those help. we look at are your contracts transferable? do your is your IP protected? we look at all kinds of like some more esoteric stuff. Is your real estate a detriment or or benefit to your operations?

Does that enhance the value or do we find different ways to to cash out your real estate? We look at all all that stuff. but the the the things I said earlier, the the dependency processes, and then creating a sustainable, growable, repeatable revenue model that that has recurring revenues.

Anthony Codispoti (1:02:14)

You also serve as treasurer and board member for school on wheels of Massachusetts, which

Greg DeSimone (1:02:20)

I have. I I've rolled off for that, but yes, that was I I I've done that for a long time.

Anthony Codispoti (1:02:24)

And this is an organization that supports children experiencing homelessness. When you were doing that before, why was that a particular cause that was near and dear to your heart?

Greg DeSimone (1:02:37)

it actually came about 'cause I was talking to a woman networking and she was affiliated with the founder of it of this and she did some like support, supported the organization as an advisor. And she was telling me about it, and I'm like, this is pretty cool. My daughter was going into high school and she was needing to find some community service stuff to do, and they're talking about they had backpack drives and all this kind of stuff. And I said, That would be pretty cool for my daughter to do and she gets

give back and help some kids that are not as as fortunate as she was. And as I was doing that I learned more and more about the organization. In fact I I was part of a a a networking group that we pulled money together to donate to small we call it the Giving Circle. We donate money and pool it and then once a year we would give out twenty thousand and five thousand dollar grants to small underfunded organizations. I nominated School in Wales to w to win this award.

this grant and they did. They won a small award one year and then they won the big award the next year. And that led to me getting asked to be on the board and then I did some volunteer work mentoring kids going from college into from high school into college. so I just gr kept growing or I saw saw the need and felt like we were giving back to people who who like I've had a lot of mentors and a lot of these kids that were going through it don't. And school and wheels besides providing supplies and and helping them get ahead

provided a lot of mentorship through tutoring as at in the elementary level and the bridge program from high school into college. And I just saw that it was just a great way to give back. It made me feel good. and made f made me feel like I was making a difference.

Anthony Codispoti (1:04:17)

I love that.

Well, and I'm curious as you think about the work that you do now, what is it that you most want to be remembered?

Greg DeSimone (1:04:29)

it's a tough question. I wanna I want business owner it's primarily like business owners feel like that they

had a result that served them well, served their family well, and they can look back and say, I feel good about the decisions I made. I don't feel like I I left money on the table. I don't feel like I I didn't serve my family. I didn't feel like I didn't serve my employees. I I made a decision out of strength, not out of weakness. I also learned there's a lot of money tied up in these in a lot of s colluded sweat equity in these businesses and too many of them

The money just goes away and no one no one benefits from it all those years of work. and I wanted to do my part in helping more and more businesses tap into that. in fact that's one of the reasons I I I I I really don't want to grow a ton because that it's a lot of work to run a business. But I also feel like there's more and more companies that need support. And the only way to help more is to grow and ha and provide infrastructure for more advisors to help business owners using.

for lack of a better word, the catapult way. where it's market through education, educate, educate, educate. Make sure that when we make decisions, you make it out of out of understanding and knowledge and not out of fear.

Anthony Codispoti (1:05:51)

I love that.

Greg, before I ask my last question, I want to do three quick things for the audience. First of all, anybody who wants to get in touch with Greg De Simone, visit his website, catapultadvisoregroup.com. It'll be in the show notes, but you can remember this, catapultadvisoregroup.com. Excuse me. And if you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to subscribe wherever you're listening. See, it also sends a signal that helps others discover our podcast. So thank you for taking a quick moment to do that.

And as a reminder to all business advisors out there, your clients are bleeding money on health insurance. Do them a favor so big they'll tell their friends about it. Show them how to give their employees access to therapists, to doctors, and to prescription meds that counterintuitively increases it increases the company's net profits. These are real gains that can change how a business is valued. Learn more about how this product from Bain Capital Insurance can help your client at adbackbenefits.com.

So last question for you, Greg, a year from now, what is one very specific thing that you hope to be selling?

Greg DeSimone (1:07:00)

hoping to celebrate that all of the new advisors we brought on this year have all had at least one more close. that they've all been fully entrenched, they've seen some success, they see the benefit of how we can help others and they're motivated to keep growing so that we can then start backfilling more advisors behind them.

Anthony Codispoti (1:07:19)

Love it. Greg D. Simone from Catapult Advisory Group. I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. Thanks for being here.

Greg DeSimone (1:07:27)

my pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Anthony Codispoti (1:07:29)

Hey folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories Podcast. Thanks for learning with us. And if one thing stood out, put that into action today.

Connect with Greg DeSimone:

Website: catapultadvisorygroup.com