What Transfers - TMG's Pod

The McFarland Group
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  • Entrepreneurship

Every owner eventually hands the business to someone else. Some of what they built transfers. Much of it does not. What Transfers is a conversation between the principals of The McFarland Group and the people they work alongside: owners who have been through a sale, advisors who see the same patterns across dozens of deals, and operators still building. Each episode looks at one part of a business and asks a plain question. If you stepped away tomorrow, would this still be here? New episodes on a regular schedule.

Episodes

  1. 2d ago

    Two Companies, Same Timeframe. One Sold at 12x.

    Two companies engaged The McFarland Group around the same time. One has just closed a third party sale at roughly twelve times earnings, on terms it named itself. The other is still trying to agree on what it is worth. Byron and John spend this episode on the work that separates those two outcomes, told through clients they have known for as long as twenty years. It opens with a phone call. Joe McGill Sr. read the first edition of the TMG newsletter and rang Byron out of the blue. What he wanted to thank him for was keeping him and his son friendly through the handoff. Both strong willed, both aware it could have gone another way. John tells the one about calling a client's CPA every Friday at nine in the morning for six months during an audit. That habit turned into an introduction, which turned into a valuation, which turned into an eleven year relationship with a business now worth more than fifty million dollars and a private foundation the owner intends to run in perpetuity. Then the counterweight. A general contractor growing thirty to fifty percent a year for five years, with the right people finally in the right seats, stuck because its owners cannot agree on how to value the business or reward themselves. Everyone below them waits. Byron also explains the power sweep, a term he coined about fifteen years ago and still uses. What happens to the business, its liabilities and its key people if an owner dies or becomes disabled. The whole point is settling it early, while nothing is close to triggering it. CHAPTERS 00:00 A call after the first newsletter went out 00:23 Thank you for keeping Joey and I friendly 04:18 What changes between a father and son after a handoff 07:13 Scott Heine, and a twenty year relationship 11:29 Calling the CPA every Friday for six months 13:15 The introduction that became a fifty million dollar client 15:19 Byron at the whiteboard, and John waving him off 17:40 A private foundation meant to run in perpetuity 19:13 A dinner conversation, and a referral 24:45 The daughter, the finance tutor and the color coded book 26:56 Where John starts on transferable value 29:21 The company that cannot agree on what it is worth 33:13 The power sweep 35:05 Twelve times earnings, and naming your terms THE TRANSFERABLE VALUE INDEX Twelve questions, about four minutes. It shows you where your business sits today, and what would have to change before it could transfer to someone else. Take the assessment: https://transferablevalueindex.com/ THE MCFARLAND GROUP We help closely held business owners think clearly about ownership transitions. Selling to management, selling to an outside buyer, and designing equity plans that keep key leaders in place. https://themcfarlandgroup.com Go Boldly. Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: GVE2DRUBVIICGJQX

  2. Aug 21

    Price or Fit? How Owners Decide Who Buys the Business

    John asks every owner the same question early on. Is this about price, is it about fit, or is it about both? The answer changes the work. If it is only price, the buyer pool opens wider. If fit matters, the pool narrows and the underwriting changes with it. This episode covers how that question gets answered in practice. John walks through why the firm moved into M&A advisory after years of doing the preparation work and watching someone else close the transaction. Connor explains what goes into an underwrite, and why the team behind it needs valuation, legal and tax perspectives in the same room. There is a deal from earlier this year that started at 50/50 on price and fit and ended closer to 70/30 once a bidding war started. Fit is not a fixed position. It moves. The episode ends with the Omaha Chamber of Commerce, and the question a community asks when its employers start changing hands. CHAPTERS 00:00 Why we moved into M&A advisory 01:45 Doing the work, then watching someone else close 03:21 Getting independent, and getting paid for value created 05:34 What separates an advisor from a broker 06:41 The qualitative side, and the business owner whisperer 08:18 What underwriting actually involves 12:42 Price, fit, or both 15:58 Why we work with owners who value their people 17:35 A bidding war that moved the ratio 18:40 A business is not a piece of real estate 20:17 Keeping businesses, and jobs, in Omaha THE TRANSFERABLE VALUE INDEX Twelve questions, about four minutes. It shows you where your business sits today, and what would have to change before it could transfer to someone else. Take the assessment: transferablevalueindex.com THE MCFARLAND GROUP We help closely held business owners think clearly about ownership transitions. Selling to management, selling to an outside buyer, and designing equity plans that keep key leaders in place. themcfarlandgroup.com Go Boldly. Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: GVE2DRUBVIICGJQX

  3. Aug 21

    What We Learned Applying the TVI to Our Own Business

    We took our own assessment and found the firm was too concentrated in how new business arrives. This episode is what happened next. Byron, John and Connor talk through six months of building the awareness side of the business, and the uncomfortable part nobody warns you about: work at the top of the funnel is a long investment, and for a while it shows up on the P&L without showing up in revenue. Byron's realization is the most useful thing here, and it cost nothing. The highest-impact, lowest-cost move available was calling people who already know you and have not heard from you in a while. He made two calls that morning. Both turned into conversations. Later, a prospect who did not want to take the TVI, took it anyway, and scored within three points of their partner. The two of them are twelve years apart in age, which means two different exit timelines, which was a conversation they had never had. Byron also explains why he became an AI convert, having never kept a clean operating system in his life. CHAPTERS 00:00 A task assigned without touching a keyboard 01:41 Design Your Exit at the SIMA leadership forum 03:17 Three funnels, and six months of building one 04:24 Why awareness work feels unsatisfying at first 07:47 The cheapest high-impact move in the business 10:36 Going from a two to a three, not straight to a five 13:25 Onboarding clients the way you onboard employees 15:39 Pairing the value report with equity compensation design 17:51 The prospect who did not want to take the TVI 18:59 Twelve years apart, and a conversation they never had 22:58 What a weekly leadership meeting is for 25:50 We fall to our habits 26:58 Byron on becoming an AI evangelist THE TRANSFERABLE VALUE INDEX Twelve questions, about four minutes. It shows you where your business sits today, and what would have to change before it could transfer to someone else. Take the assessment: transferablevalueindex.com THE MCFARLAND GROUP We help closely held business owners think clearly about ownership transitions. Selling to management, selling to an outside buyer, and designing equity plans that keep key leaders in place. themcfarlandgroup.com Go Boldly. Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: GVE2DRUBVIICGJQX

  4. Aug 21

    Two Partners, One Business, Two Different Transferable Value Scores

    Two partners run the same consulting firm. One scored it 50 out of 100 on the Transferable Value Index. The other never took the assessment. That gap is the subject of this episode. Byron, John and Connor work through what it means when the people who own a business together do not see it the same way, and why you cannot read one owner's score in isolation. Byron opens with what he brought back from the Wilson 360 leadership summit, where landscape firms moving from project work to maintenance work watched their valuations climb. The case study that stayed with him is about the operations leader who would not make the change, left, and took ten technicians with him. Two of the firm's own transactions come up later. A 90/10 split where each owner would have answered the same questions differently. And a father and son who both believed the business depended on the son. The episode closes streamside, on the Snake River, with what fly fishing teaches about reading water you cannot see into. CHAPTERS 00:00 Welcome to the first episode 00:40 What Byron brought back from the Wilson 360 summit 01:45 Change nobody buys into 04:32 Our own move from project work to maintenance 05:37 The hundred dollar deposit 07:18 A real TVI result, read out loud 08:25 Why two partners score the same business differently 12:23 What the gap between scores reveals 16:49 A 90/10 split, and two different chairs 18:27 When ownership is retention rather than succession 22:52 The pessimist, the optimist, and the same set of facts 23:57 Streamside: reading water you cannot see into 27:14 Teamwork and intent THE TRANSFERABLE VALUE INDEX Twelve questions, about four minutes. It shows you where your business sits today, and what would have to change before it could transfer to someone else. Take the assessment: transferablevalueindex dot com THE MCFARLAND GROUP We help closely held business owners think clearly about ownership transitions. Selling to management, selling to an outside buyer, and designing equity plans that keep key leaders in place. Go Boldly. Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: GVE2DRUBVIICGJQX

  • 4 Episodes

About

Every owner eventually hands the business to someone else. Some of what they built transfers. Much of it does not. What Transfers is a conversation between the principals of The McFarland Group and the people they work alongside: owners who have been through a sale, advisors who see the same patterns across dozens of deals, and operators still building. Each episode looks at one part of a business and asks a plain question. If you stepped away tomorrow, would this still be here? New episodes on a regular schedule.

Information

  • Creator
    The McFarland Group
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    4
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The McFarland Group
  • Show Website
    What Transfers - TMG's Pod