Six months in the making, the Business Value Forum has launched with the aim of helping Rhode Island business owners inject value into their companies now.
Adding value to an enterprise should be the goal of any business owner or manager, said Lawrence A. Girouard, vice president of BVF’s board of directors and CEO of 14-year-old, Newport-based business-consulting firm Business Avionix Co. And this new project is designed to do just that.
Based in Providence, BVF is a nonprofit with no employees and does not take members. It is managed by a 10-person board of directors and is sponsored by Bryant University, BNY Mellon Wealth Management and Rockland Trust Bank. The group was formed by local businesspeople, among them current and former members of Boston Exit Planning Exchange, or XPX, a group focused on transition-based business value.
Girouard said he and other former XPX members felt the group’s programming focused too much on adding value at the time of a sale and did not address the needs of owners who wanted to invest in their company yet had no intention of leaving the business.
He said being able to hold events in Rhode Island, rather than Boston, would also make it easier for local business owners to attend.
‘If you do a good job, when you go to sell your business, you’ll probably get the best price.’
Lawrence A. Girouard, Business Value Forum spokesman
Explaining that it is often more lucrative for a business to diversify its wealth at any point in time, not just prior to a sale, Girouard said: “By default, if you do a good job, when you go to sell your business, you’ll probably get the best price.”
Employee empowerment, efficiency training, improvement of internal processes, as well as differentiating and diversifying a company’s wealth are just some of the many ways value can be added, he said. Specifically, companies that empower their employees and in doing so increase efficiency, “seem to have a much better top line and bottom line,” said Girouard. “It’s a win-win.”
These value-diversification tactics, he said, reflect many of the subjects on which the BVF will host programs at Bryant starting Oct. 19. Business owners and consultants are invited to the two-hour session, running from 7:30-9:30 a.m., titled “Building Value in Your Business While Running It.” Tickets are $45 per person prior to the event, $55 the day of, with a second event in February, the subject of which has not yet been announced. Girouard said that events are expected to be quarterly.
While he explained the fundamental reasons for forming BVF were not political, Girouard said Rhode Island, as a state, “is not business friendly.”
The situation is compounded by a decreasing population and changing demographics, he added, “If you’re not growing your business community, it winds up being very stressful” for those operating within the state.
BVF events will be hosted at Bryant’s Bello Center. A university spokeswoman said Bryant’s role, “at least this year,” is to host BVF without monetary support. She said the university has no role in the programming.
Hosting events at Bryant, said Girouard, “punctuates the educational aspect” of the programming and will introduce a new cohort of people to the resources available at the school.
