HFM Investment Advisors

10/08/2026

🎙️ New episode of The Entrepreneur's Journey: How Business Owners Can Maximize Value Before an Exit

You sell your company once — so how do you make sure you get it right? Jason Gabrieli sits down with Anthony Hauser of Guaranteed Exit Partners to talk about what buyers actually look for, why competition among buyers drives real value, and the moves owners can make 12–24 months before a sale to boost their exit multiple.

Whether you're thinking about selling soon or just want to build a stronger, less owner-dependent business, this one's worth a listen.

🎧 Listen here: https://hfmadvisors.link/e1i

10/06/2026

Do you know what your business design says about you?

For the full episode with Dan, checkout our website or anywhere you get your podcasts!

https://hfmadvisors.link/v5e

10/06/2026

Protecting your goals from your opportunities

When you get that big check from selling your business, you suddenly get flooded with “opportunities.”

Like businesses to invest in, or family and friends who have big ideas you can help them with. Or maybe you even start to think about buying another business and running it yourself.

So one of the things we help you do is protect your goals from all those opportunities.

Because, well before you ever get that check, we’re going to ask you what you really want to do after you’re out of your business.
How do you want to spend your time?
How much money do you want to take “off the table” and out of other investments?
Who do you want to support and spend your time with?
Having a partner like us to bounce your ideas and goals off of, and help you stick to them, can be a really useful tool in your tool belt so you don’t get distracted or pulled in a bunch of different directions.

Like we often say, making money and keeping money are two different skill sets, and it’s our job to focus on the keeping money part.

And to help our clients get better at that part, too.

You know how it happens: You get some big windfall and suddenly people come out of the woodwork to present different opportunities to you, and you’re going to have a really hard time saying no.

That’s how success works, right? The more successful you become, the more opportunities you get, and some of them are going to look good. And all of them probably have some merit.

So which ones will you say yes to, and which ones are you going to have to get good at saying no to?

Having a clear plan, well ahead of time, gives you something to benchmark those opportunities against. And you can ask yourself, “Is this really worth changing the plan for?”

Without a plan, though, it’s just you and your ability to say no to things that sound good, look good, and come from people who want to help.

Without a plan, your opportunities may take you farther and farther away from your goals.
So let’s talk about those goals soon, so that when you get those opportunities, you know which ones are worth it.

And which ones to protect your goals from.

09/30/2026

What to know before thinking about an exit

Last week, a business owner asked me, “What do you wish your clients knew before you started working with them?”

So I said, “What does it cost to live your lifestyle?”

You might be surprised that that’s step one, but it is.

A lot of people just don’t know what their lifestyle costs to live. Right now, everything‘s getting done and paid for, so it’s easy to not think about.

But if you don’t know what your lifestyle costs now, how will you know how much the business needs to sell for to maintain or grow that lifestyle?

Which gets to the second thing I wish they knew (or thought about), which is, “What do you want to do with your future?”

To improve the likelihood of hitting the number you need for your exit, you’ll want to have thought about how you want to spend your time afterwards.

What will you do with the money?

Will it be enough to live off of and support your family, your goals, your legacy?

And what are the experiences you’ve been dreaming of that you’ll want to achieve once you have more freedom in your finances and your schedule?

I feel like business owners can get so wrapped up in doing what they do for their teams, their employees, their families, that they often have no clue what they’d do with themselves once they don’t run a business anymore.

I think if you polled every business owner who’d ever thought about an exit, I suspect you’d find that the majority are people who are not feeling great about the business, currently.

Maybe they had a rough year, or maybe they’re just burned out after 20 or 30 years in the business. Which can make exiting more difficult, because the business might not be in the best state for a buyer.

But if you start the process early, and start thinking about what your lifestyle costs and what you want to do after you exit from your business, you’ll be in a better position to make it happen.

Because it might take a few years to make the changes that will benefit you and your business, so you’ll want to have some gas left in the tank to get there.

Remember, we’re always open to conversations about exiting your business and what you want to do in your future, even if you’re not quite ready to take the leap yet.

And don’t need to have all of the answers before we talk, but please spend a minute or two thinking about these questions first:

What does your current lifestyle cost to maintain?
How do you want to spend your time after you exit your business?
Get in touch, and let’s talk about the life you want to lead after your exit.

-Jason

Last week, a business owner asked me, “What do you wish your clients knew before you started working with them?” So I said, “What does it cost to live your lifestyle?” You might be surprised that that’s step one, but it is.  A lot of people just don’t know what their lifestyle costs to ...

09/29/2026

A great snippet from Michael Pallozzi's most recent podcast with Dan Antonelli. If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.

Tune into the full episode everywhere you get your podcasts🎧

https://hfmadvisors.com/becoming-five-mile-famous-how-better-branding-drives-growth/

09/24/2026

New episode of The Entrepreneur's Journey is out now, and it's a good one.

Michael is joined by Dan Antonelli, founder and CEO of Kick Charge Creative, who started out pinstriping trucks at 15 years old and went on to build the gold standard in branding for the trades.

They talk about what it means to become "Five-Mile Famous," why your truck wrap might be more valuable than your logo, and how a strong rebrand took one roofing company from $1.2M to $22M in just 24 months.

If you're a contractor or business owner, this episode is packed with takeaways you can put to work.

Listen everywhere you get your podcasts or on our website: https://hfmadvisors.com/becoming-five-mile-famous-how-better-branding-drives-growth/

Welcome back to The Entrepreneur’s Journey. In this episode, Michael Pallozzi is joined by Dan Antonelli, founder and CEO of KickCharge Creative, to discuss how strong branding can help home service and trades businesses grow. Dan shares how his career began with pinstriping and hand lettering as ...

09/22/2026

“I wasn’t sophisticated enough to make that deal on my own.”

That’s what one business owner said after selling their business. Because they ended up losing $3 million on an earn out because they didn’t have the right representation.

Or even a full understanding of what they were getting themselves into.

Buyers are shrewd and they often have teams of people working on an acquisition. They’ll probably know more about buying and selling businesses than the business owner.

Which means, if you don’t have the right information and advisors on your side, you might get taken for a ride.

See, what can happen is a shrewd buyer might require the business owner to stay on for an “earn out,” a period during which they’ll need to hit specific financial goals to get their full purchase price.

But what if the buyer controls the financials? Can you be sure you’re getting a square deal?

This is one of the reasons why it’s so important to have the right advisory team behind you, who have been here before.

What we can do is give you an education on how businesses are valued, how Search Funds work, how Private Equity works, and what’s within your control and what isn’t.

So that when that check arrives, or you get that Letter of Intent, you know what you’re getting and what it’s really worth.

At the end of the day, we have three goals:

1) We want you to know what your business is truly worth

2) We want you to know how much it would take to fund your lifestyle

3) And we want you to be able to say, “I got what I needed.”

If you’re exploring a sale, or it’s even on the radar, it’s not too soon to talk to us.

We can help you make sure you know what to expect, and what you need to get for all of this to be worth it.

Selling your business can be a long journey, so you’ll want someone on your team (and coordinating your team of advisors) that’s been through this before and knows what to look for.

So you’re able to say, “I got what I needed,” instead of, “I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.”

-Jason

09/21/2026

Friday we got the chance to step away from the day-to-day, spend some time together, have a little fun, and make room for some fresh thinking.

Because building something that lasts is about more than the work. It’s about the people you’re building it with, the culture you create along the way, and making sure you enjoy the climb.

09/20/2026

Wishing Alexa a very happy birthday and a wonderful year ahead! 🎉💙🎂

09/18/2026

Built by hand. Built with pride. 🔧

Today we celebrate the tradesmen who keep our homes, businesses, and communities moving.

Happy National Tradesmen Day!