Dear BTF Community,
In this interview, Karen Jordan, based in San Diego, California, and Founder & CEO of Hibernia Executive Partners, discusses:
- The need for fractional C Suite services;
- What her company does; and
- Why the San Diego Business Transitions Forum is important.
Enjoy,
Pete
Karen Jordan, based in San Diego, California, launched a unique business last year to fill a growing need in the marketplace.
She founded Hibernia Executive Partners to provide access to on demand C Suite executives.
“We provide fractional C Suite services. So I’m the one-stop shop for any executive level support that the company might need,” said Jordan, who is the company’s CEO.”
“If you need executive level help on a part-time, interim or project basis you come to me . . .
Come to me and I’ll help you find that person.”
“It’s usually companies that are about $5-10 million up to about $50 million in revenue on the fractional side. It’s any size company on a project basis or the interim side. So they lose their CFO or Chief HR Officer or their Chief Marketing Officer. They’re recruiting but they want to keep the bus moving. We will come in and help keep things going while they find their permanent person.”
Jordan is also a highly experienced CFO available on an interim, project and fractional basis.
Jordan said the demand is there because companies are getting more sophisticated and realize they need more higher level support.
“People have been using lawyers on a fractional basis for years and now it’s bleeding over into the other functions of the C Suite where companies can survive and can thrive with a part-time Chief of whatever function. As long as they have a good solid employee in that function getting the day to day going, they don’t need to pay a full-time high level executive salary. They can do it on a part-time basis. So it’s a win win and more companies are learning that they can survive on a part-time CFO, CMO often COO. It keeps their costs way down. It’s a lot more cost-efficient.
“One thing we can provide is if you are a small to medium size business, looking to sell or looking to have a transaction or even looking to grow in the next few years, we can help you position yourself to get the best price. We can clean up your financials, we can make sure there’s no HR compliance issues. We can make sure that there’s no risks from a buyer perspective or we can clean up those risks beforehand. We can get your exit strategy in place and if there is runway of say three years we can actually help your business grow in those three years by putting in a sales and marketing strategy for easy wins on the sales side, we can help you decrease costs by consolidating a lot of expenses and getting better prices, negotiating better deals. We can add value to your business that way.
“And we can help you get ready and introduce you to the other players. Good lawyers, good investment bankers, whatever you need from that respect. We help companies get ready.”
Jordan is on the steering committee for the Business Transitions Forum in San Diego is September 24.
“There’s a lot of people, Generation X, who are looking at retiring at some point. There’s a huge number of entrepreneurs, business owners that do need to be looking at their next step and rather than just close down the business and walk away if they can get some money out of it that’s even better. (The Forum) is an education to them to show them what are their options and how they would go about it,” she said.
Since 2015, the Business Transitions Forum has been helping entrepreneurs learn about ownership transitions and opportunities for M&A (mergers and acquisitions). The concept is expanding from Canada into the US market, starting in San Diego.
The Business Transitions Forum is evolving to reveal comprehensive strategies to grow businesses of all kinds, while still educating entrepreneurs on the role M&A can play in increasing shareholder value on both the sell side and buy side.
People can connect with serial entrepreneurs and leading mergers and acquisitions practitioners from both Canada and the USA to learn how to:
- Increase market share and shareholder value
- Identify ways to grow and/or scale your business
- Learn about being acquired or acquiring businesses
- Discover how M&A can offer your business a path to growth
- Understand how M&A can create opportunities for personal wealth creation through an eventual transition
Mario Toneguzzi is a veteran of the media industry for more than 40 years and named in 2021 a Top Ten Business Journalist in the world and only Canadian. He also made the RETHINK’s global list as a Top Retail Expert 2024.