Building a Company That’s Ready for Whatever Comes Next

Join us for a practical Member Masterclass designed to help business owners rethink their company’s long-term value.

Learn how reducing owner dependence, building a more transferable business, and understanding what your company is really worth can create greater profitability, resilience, and freedom—whether you’re planning for an eventual transition or simply want more options for the future.

You’ll walk away with a clearer understanding of what makes a business valuable and practical ways to start strengthening yours now.

What You’ll Learn

• What makes a business valuable and transferable, and why many of the same factors can also improve profitability, scalability, and quality of life today.
• How owner dependence affects your business’s value and resilience, and how to begin identifying areas where your business relies too heavily on you.
• Why understanding the value of your business matters, especially when your company may represent one of your largest personal financial assets.
• How preparing before you need to creates more options when unexpected opportunities, transitions, or life events arise.
• Practical ways to start strengthening your business now, even if selling or stepping away isn’t currently part of your plan.

This Workshop Is for Anyone Who…

• Owns a business and wants to better understand what it’s really worth.
• Feels like their business depends too heavily on them to keep things moving.
• Wants to build a company that can grow and operate more independently.
• Is thinking about succession, selling, or stepping back someday—even if that day is years away.
• Wants greater flexibility and more options for whatever comes next.

Lunch & Learn Format

We’re meeting over the lunch hour, so feel free to bring your own lunch! We’ll provide cookies and refreshments to enjoy during the session.

Featured Speakers

Shanika McCloud is a Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA®), a designation that equips her to help business owners align their personal, financial, and business goals long before a transition or exit event occurs. As a CEPA®, she works with owners to identify opportunities to increase enterprise value, reduce owner dependence, improve business transferability, and create greater financial independence.

Shanika brings more than two decades of diverse experience spanning real estate, banking, mortgage lending, and financial planning. As an Edward Jones financial advisor, she partners closely with individuals, families, executives, and business owners to develop customized strategies designed to help them build wealth, prepare for retirement, fund education, preserve assets, and create lasting legacies.

Erika Baez-Grimes, CM&AP, is an award-winning M&A advisor, founder, and dealmaker with more than 15 years of experience leading complex transactions across a range of industries. Her portfolio of companies delivers certified business valuations, transaction strategy, and ownership transition services, guiding founders through critical inflection points in their businesses.

Her firms have earned a national reputation for achieving premium outcomes for founder-led and family-owned businesses, operating at the intersection of capital, optimization, scale, and exit. Collectively, the companies she’s founded, led, advises or holds ownership interests in have generated more than $350 million in business scale and exit activity. Beyond advisory, Erika holds active LP ownership stakes across multiple industries, giving her a firsthand understanding of what founders stand to gain and lose in any transaction.