Ian Smith | The Portfolio Partnership

Why Budgets Are Not Forecasts

by Ian Smith | Oct 10, 2023 | budgets

Most public company executives and private company owners arrive at the annual budget season with the wrong mindset. They believe a budget is some type of forecast and that sinking feeling comes over them. Why bother? The good news here is that it is not a forecast....

Why Companies Are Not Ready for Sale

by Ian Smith | Oct 3, 2023 | Execution Tips, Exiting your business, Saleability Test

As you build your business each year with higher revenue and hopefully profitably, it may seem a reasonable assumption that the value is constantly increasing and that you could sell it one day. You would be mistaken. Approximately 90% of private companies coming to...

Why Budgets/AOPs Fail

by Ian Smith | Sep 20, 2023 | budgets

As we rush towards fall and Q4, every business enters budget season. Large and small businesses alike, we dive deep into the annual ritual of agreeing an operating budget. You’ll see a million blog posts on how to create them. So instead I thought I’d...

The Secret of Serial Successful Acquirers

by Ian Smith | Sep 13, 2023 | Acquisitions, post-acquisition integration

Most PE backed portfolio company CEOs need to execute successful acquisition programs. Every VP of Corporate Development is trying to design a process that delivers value. Family offices are investing in a wide range of diversified assets including scaling by...

Debunking Overnight Success

by Ian Smith | Sep 6, 2023 | Acquisitions, podcast, Scaling

This week I’d like to share an interview I did with Todd Westra from the Growth and Scaling Podcast. It was a great discussion on the some of the myths of entrepreneurship. We discussed a few huge challenges in the market – firstly over 90% of companies...