ACT Capital Advisors Opens Pittsburgh Office and Selects John D. Laslavic, LPBC as Managing Director

Pennsylvania Business Coach to Lead Firm’s Area M&A Practice

April 24, 2017           

ACT Capital Advisors announced today that John D. Laslavic has joined the firm as a Managing Director. Mr. Laslavic will focus on helping business owners in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia achieve an optimal outcome when they decide to sell their company. The new Pittsburgh location opened this month.

“Our plan is to have highly skilled M&A advisors in every major market of the United States. John will play an important role in this strategy.”

— Bob Hild, ACT Capital Advisors Chairman and Managing Director

Laslavic is a well-known business coach throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. For the past 30 years he has dedicated his professional career to mentoring and leading business owners to success. Mr. Laslavic is the President of ThistleSea Business Development, LLC. The firm is a coaching, strategy development, training and business services company.

“I am excited to build ACT’s M&A practice in this area,” said Laslavic. “I often help my clients position themselves for an exit. Now, as part of ACT, I can guide them through the entire M&A process. ACT has an excellent team of financial professionals that will support me from their headquarters in Seattle. I can now offer full-service investment banking to my clients.”

Bob Hild, ACT Capital Advisors Chairman and Managing Director said, “We are delighted to have John Laslavic on our team. He’s already a trusted coach to thousands of business owners. Our plan is to have highly skilled M&A advisors in every major market of the United States. John will play an important role in this strategy. We are confident he will do an excellent job of helping business owners achieve the best possible outcomes when they decide to sell.” 

John Laslavic can be reached at jlaslavic(at)actcapitaladvisors.com.

ACT Capital Advisors, LLC is a leading Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) and Corporate Finance firm that represents lower-middle-market companies ($5 million to $50 million in annual revenues) across a variety of sectors and industries, including industrial manufacturing, information technology, construction, healthcare, aerospace, consumer staple/discretionary, oil and energy, as well as outsourced services. The firm provides strategic financial advice to closely held, family-owned, as well as private equity sponsored organizations and corporate shareholders that wish to sell their company, raise growth capital, or secure commercial financing. Leveraging ACT’s deep industry-wide knowledge and strategic auction process, clients appreciate ACT’s approach, pairing the professional expertise of a national investment banking firm with the senior level attention and entrepreneurial creativity of a smaller enterprise.

If you’d like more information or to schedule an interview, please call Terri Hammond at 724-935-1930 or email terri.hammond(at)thistlesea.com.

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Is it time to re-evaluate?

A note from John

Can you remember back to January? You most likely had a vision of success for your business in 2016. Whether formal or informal, you were putting plans, strategies and tactics into action to result in a profitable 2016 for your business and family.

Now that we have just passed the halfway point of 2016, it’s time to evaluate where we are, compared to our plans. Are we on track? Here are 5 questions you should ask:

1. Is our leadership and our vision of success communicated well and motivating to others?
2. Are the people that we work with helping us move toward achieving our vision?
3. Are we focused on improving the systems that would support our vision?
4. Are our financial goals and budget forecast realistic and on track?
5. Are our actions coordinated and resulting in profitable outcomes?

In preparing for the next half of 2016, the answers to these questions will help you to re-evaluate your action plans in order to achieve the success you desire.

If you have any difficulty answering these questions, ThistleSea’s staff can help you understand and evaluate the current situation and shed light on those areas to help you achieve success.

Contact us. Our team at ThistleSea just might be a good for for you and your team to identify and implement a best practices action plan for improved organizational performance,

26 Reasons Business Owners Seek Help

shoulder-pain

When Might You Want To Recommend Or Seek Assistance from A Licensed Professional Business Coach?

Many life events occur that impact business owners, business partners, business investors and business executives.  When should you seek help from an experienced business coach or mentor?  And why would you look for one?

ThistleSea Business Developments’ clients come from many different skills, educational backgrounds, careers, geographic locations and types of businesses.  But are there some things they have in common?  Yes, a few include:

• A strong desire to succeed!
• Knowledge that they might not know everything!
• Some degree of lacking a completely clear vision of the future!
• Experiencing some type of frustration, failure and/or pain!
• A gradual or a sudden change of circumstances in their business or personal life!
• An unending need or desire to learn more and get it right!

So what are some of the types of circumstances you might recognize in others or in your own business that could encourage you to recommend a business coach to another or seek assistance yourself?

Below are some reasons that we see at ThistleSea Business Development that might help you:

1. Business is growing too fast for the owner to keep up with the changes needed.
2. Owner losing control.
3. Lack of business sales growth.
4. Desire to sell and/or realizing the business has little value.
5. Disputes within the business.
6. Son(s) or daughter(s) taking over the reins of the business.
7. Family issues in the business.
8. Junior partner takes over the business,
9. Business begins to fail after 16, 32 or more years of a successful business.
10. Owner ends up in the emergency room because of the business pressures.
11. Not enough income to earn a profit.
12. Bank loan requirements that suggest a higher success rate when owners hire a licensed professional business coach.
13. Owner cannot find employees who care.
14. Owner 2 years in business and the business not working.
15. A monumental mistake that puts their business at extreme risk.
16. Owner failed in one business and not wanting to fail again.
17. Looking for a new location to establish or re-establish the business.
18. Retirement of a senior owner or partner.
19. Co-owner not fulfilling their responsibilities.
20. Theft of business assets by a co-owner or employee.
21. Owner continues to self-sabotage.
22. Competition from other businesses or individuals.
23. Franchise model broken because of owner’s success.
24. Added additional locations and owner(s) are out of control.
25. Death of the owner or key employee.
26. Loss of key customer(s) severely impacting revenue / cash flow.

If you are experiencing any of these situations in your business or others, be encouraged that there is help and these situations have answers and can be resolved for business improvement.

Our staff and allies at ThistleSea Business Development can help you identify the best way to start, resolve these issues and help you gain clarity and take action.  We encourage contacting us at 724.935.1930 for a free initial consultation.

By John D. Laslavic, LPBC, President

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