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Episode Summary
You’re sitting in the chair your dad built. The lease on your building comes up in three years, and if you re-sign for five, you’ve just committed yourself to another decade. You’re 48. You can feel the itch to do something else, but you can’t say it out loud yet, not even to your peer group. Tim Kieran ran Western Graphics for 23 years, took it over from his dad at 27, bought it in 2001, scaled it from $3M to $11M, and won “best workplace in America” six times. In this conversation we get into how the lease renewal became the hard deadline that finally moved him, what he learned the first time he went to market (too small for a standalone buyer, too customer-concentrated for a clean EBITDA multiple), and how he flipped the second round by going out with six non-negotiable requirements for the buyer. A 50/50 deal where half was financial and half was employee careers. Take the majority of the people. Be close enough nobody loses their commute. He got all six. 40 of 44 employees took offers. Fifteen months after close, none had been let go.
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## Top 10 Takeaways- The forcing function isn’t your readiness. It’s a hard deadline like a lease renewal that won’t wait for your emotions.
- Going to market the first time is a market test, not the deal. Listen to what buyers tell you you’re worth.
- If one customer is 40% of your revenue, you’re not a multiple. You’re an earn-out.
- Define your non-negotiable requirements for a buyer before you start meeting them, not after the LOI lands.
- A 50/50 deal can mean half cash and half employee careers. Decide what the other half is for you.
- Customer dependency, facility lock-in, and industry decline turn a strategic sale into a tuck-in.
- Selling the real estate before you sell the business removes the biggest constraint in your exit timeline.
- Saying “I think I’m going to sell” out loud is the hardest part. Once it’s said, the year of work starts.
- A restless owner is dangerous to employees. Your team deserves a leader who’s all in or out.
- The journey doesn’t end when you become successful. It ends when you leave the business successfully.
Sound Bites
“The journey ends not when you become successful. The journey ends when you leave the business successfully. You can’t put a business on autopilot forever. It’ll run out of fuel and it’ll crater.” (@TBD) — Tim Kieran
“I’m now restless, and that means I’m a little bit dangerous because I’m not all in. I’ve got one foot out.” (@TBD) — Tim Kieran
“Luck is defined when opportunity meets preparedness.” (@TBD) — Tim Kieran
“We went out the second time really with a better plan, which is we are going to be the best tuck-in that ever lived. We’re going to pick the right culture and the right competitor that we want.” (@TBD) — Tim Kieran
“When I said 50/50, I didn’t mean it to be a financial payout. I meant it to be a career payout. I want to put them in another great situation for their careers.” (@TBD) — Tim Kieran
About This Episode
Tim Kieran is the former owner of Western Graphics, a Twin Cities printing company he ran for 23 years before selling in 2016. He took the business over from his father at 27, grew it from $3M to $11M with up to 80 employees, and won “best workplace in America” six times along the way. After the sale, he founded Altus, where he works with owners as a consultant and peer group facilitator. This conversation sits in the early Life After Business library, where Ryan was learning directly from operators who had actually executed an exit and were willing to walk through the real mechanics.
Resources Mentioned
- Altus Business Advisors — Tim’s consulting and peer group practice. — altusba.com
- The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack — Referenced for Open Book Management and sharing top-line and bottom-line numbers with the entire team
- EOS / Traction by Gino Wickman — Referenced for the operating system Tim brought into Western
- The E-Myth by Michael Gerber — Referenced for the technician/manager/entrepreneur framing
- Good to Great by Jim Collins — Referenced as part of Tim’s continuous learning
- Rockefeller Habits — Referenced for operating discipline at Western
- Jon Stewart’s Daily Show exit speech — Referenced for the “restless host” insight
Connections
Phase + Module:
- Module 6 — Transferable Margins — Customer concentration at 40% killed the multiple and forced the tuck-in path
- Module 9 — Operator Transition — Landing the plane as a planned, dated event
Milestones:
- Milestone 5 — Market Value — The first market test that told Tim what the business actually was to outside buyers
- Milestone 6 — Transaction Value — Earn-out structure when concentration and industry decline take the multiple off the table
- Milestone 25 — Operator Transition Plan — Six-week transition after close, because the team was ready
Concepts referenced:
- The Owner-Operator Trap™ — The restless owner who isn’t all in, dangerous to the team and the business
- Value Gap — The space between what an owner thinks the business is worth and what the market will actually pay
- Independence by Design™ — The intentional design of an exit instead of an autopilot crater