EP346 Profit Pays Your Bills, Value Gives You Options
The Cash Rich Exit Podcast
Episode Summary: What is the difference between a business that generates income and one that creates wealth? In this episode, host sits down with husband-and-wife team Krystyn and Matt Harrison of Horizon Advisors, who bring complementary perspectives from different sides of the deal table. Krystyn is a five-time founder who learned the hard way what happens when you run your own sale process, lose competitive tension, and have a seven-figure LOI collapse in eight weeks. Matt spent his M&A career watching owners come to market for the wrong reasons - cancer diagnoses, divorces, sudden...
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EP345 Exit Lessons from Across the Atlantic
The Cash Rich Exit Podcast
Episode Summary: Canada's Employee Ownership Trust legislation is relatively new. The UK's has been in place since 2014. In this episode, host crosses the Atlantic - virtually - to sit down with Christine Nicholson, a UK-based exit strategist who has spent her career founding, selling, and helping others exit businesses. Christine brings 12 years of firsthand perspective on what happens when EOTs work, when they fail spectacularly, and what separates the two. The conversation covers the three phases of exiting a business (the day-to-day, control, and ownership), why the EOT structure has been...
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EP344 Canada's Largest Employee Ownership Trust (Inside Taproot's Transition from ESOP to EOT)
The Cash Rich Exit Podcast
What happens when a company that is already employee-owned realizes its ownership model is not built for the next chapter? In this episode, host sits down with Michael (Mike) Fotheringham, CEO of Taproot, and Robert MacDougall, Board Trustee. Taproot is a 42-year-old national social enterprise with 775 employees and over $65 million in annual revenue. They unpack how and why the organization became Canada's largest Employee Ownership Trust (EOT). Taproot's journey runs from its founding by a laid-off public servant in British Columbia, through a management buyout that created an ESOP with...
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EP343 After the Exit - Identity, Reinvention, and the Next Chapter
The Cash Rich Exit Podcast
What happens after you sell the business that defined you? In this episode, host sits down with Candace Sutcliffe, who spent nearly 20 years building The Chef's Paradise (CA Paradis) - a 104-year-old Ottawa retail institution - from employee to president to co-owner, and then made the bold decision to sell to Quebec-based industry leader Doyon Després and step into a corporate executive role. This is a candid conversation about what it actually looks like to navigate a multi-generational business transition: the operational preparation, the culture clash considerations, the identity...
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EP342 How SheBoot is Solving the 2% Problem
The Cash Rich Exit Podcast
Host: Colleen O'Connell-Campbell, Wealth Advisor, RBC Dominion Securities Guests: Sonya Shorey (CEO, Invest Ottawa), Jennifer Francis (Chair, Capital Angel Network), and Julia Elvidge - Co-founders of She Boot Episode Summary: Only 2% of venture capital flows to women-founded companies - yet women start roughly 15% of all companies. In this episode, Colleen sits down with the three co-founders of SheBoot, a national nonprofit that is tackling this gap from both sides of the table - making women tech founders investment-ready and mobilizing women angel investors to fund them. What...
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EP341 Cash Confidence is the Missing Piece in your Exit Strategy
The Cash Rich Exit Podcast
Revenue is vanity. Profit is sanity. Cash flow is sovereignty. In this episode, host sits down with Melissa Houston - CPA, business finance coach, fractional CFO, and author of ‘Cash Confident’ - to explore why so many business owners are working hard but not building wealth. Melissa shares her mission to close the business financial literacy gap, particularly for women entrepreneurs, and explains how a few key changes in pricing, expense management, and cash flow can completely change a business's trajectory. The conversation covers the emotional side of money (including both Colleen's...
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EP340 The Pension Playbook
The Cash Rich Exit Podcast
Episode Summary: Forget everything you thought you knew about pension plans being just for government workers. In this episode, pension lawyer Jean-Pierre (JP) Laporte, Pension Lawyer and Founder, Integris Pension Management, joins host to share a series of powerful, real-life case studies showing how registered pension plans - including Individual Pension Plans (IPPs) and Personal Pension Plans - are quietly and dramatically transforming the wealth trajectories of incorporated business owners across Canada. From a 73-year-old founder who saved his family $4 million in a single phone call, to...
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EP339 The ABCs of IPPs and RCAs
The Cash Rich Exit Podcast
In this episode of The Cash Rich Exit Podcast, host sits down with Muneer Feeroze and Clark Steffy of Canadian Benefits Associates to unpack two powerful retirement tools for incorporated entrepreneurs: individual pension plans (IPPs) and retirement compensation arrangements (RCAs). Together, they walk through where these plans can outperform an RRSP, what “tax smart” really means in practice, and the operational realities founders need to understand before setting anything up. In this conversation, they cover: Who an IPP is for, and when it starts to beat an RRSP Muneer...
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EP338 IPPs 101 (Ontario Edition) - A Practical Guide for Ontario Business Owners
The Cash Rich Exit Podcast
Host breaks down the basics of individual pension plans (IPPs) for Ontario incorporated business owners and professionals. She explains what an IPP is, who it fits best, and why it can be a powerful tool for turning corporate success into predictable personal retirement income as part of a cash rich exit strategy. Episode overview If you are incorporated in Ontario, this is a practical primer on how an IPP works as a defined benefit pension plan set up by your corporation. Colleen covers why IPP contribution room can outpace RRSP room after age 40, how contributions are...
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EP337 Fun Frank Advice 2025 - The Annual Montage
The Cash Rich Exit Podcast
It’s time for an annual tradition on The Cash Rich Exit Podcast: the Fun Frank Advice montage. In this special episode, host curates a fast-moving mashup of “wisdom, wit and wonderfully unfiltered moments” from this year’s guests. It’s designed to be easy to consume when you’re driving, between meetings, or out for a walk. This montage is both a recap of the year and a highlight reel of the mindset shifts, practical realities, and straight talk leaders wish more founders heard earlier. Colleen also shares a key message that anchors the show: every business owner...
info_outlineIn this episode, I sit down with seasoned M&A expert Eric Cardinal - a true connector in Canada’s investment and business exit ecosystem. With decades of experience in investment banking, private equity, and corporate finance, Eric shares how relationships, preparation, and AI-driven intelligence are reshaping the exit journey for business owners.
We dig into the power of networks like the M&A Club, the practical benefits of using AI to prepare for due diligence, and the often-overlooked realities around professional fees, timing, and tax strategy.
Whether you’re two years away from an exit - or ten - this conversation is packed with value you can act on right now.
🔑 Key Highlights
00:03:30 - Eric’s global M&A background and the growing reach of the M&A Club
00:10:45 - Why relationships are everything in a successful deal
00:17:50 - How AI tools like Optionality are helping M&A advisors prep faster and smarter
00:28:10 - The importance of industry-agnostic experience in Canadian M&A advisory
00:36:15 - What a proper capital structure looks like in a growth-by-acquisition strategy
00:46:00 - The true cost of selling your business: professional fees and preparation timelines
00:52:40 - The critical tax move you MUST make at least two years before you sell
00:56:55 - Eric’s fun, frank advice: reward yourself and diversify your financial planning team post-exit
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📈 Thinking about your own business exit?
Book your complimentary 1:1 Wealth Gap Analysis with me, Colleen O'Connell-Campbell. We’ll map out a plan to secure your financial future and make your exit as intentional as your growth.
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The Cash Rich Exit Podcast is brought to you by O’Connell-Campbell Wealth Management at RBC Dominion Securities.
All opinions expressed by the host, Colleen O’Connell-Campbell, and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of RBC Dominion Securities.
This podcast is for informational purposes only before taking any action based on information in this podcast you should consult with a qualified professional.
Colleen O’Connell-Campbell is a Wealth Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities, a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.