4 Reasons Why We’re Passionate About Serving Family Businesses
July 26, 2023 by Interchange Capital Partners
By Ahmie Baum
It can be hard enough to manage your finances when your circumstances are relatively simple, let alone when you have extra challenges due to being a business owner. When you need help, how do you know who to turn to? Who can you rely on to understand your life and guide you through complicated decisions and opportunities?
That’s why Interchange Capital Partners exists. We founded our firm to act as an advocate for your family business, with your interests in mind. Our meticulous attention to the details of your financial life and our well-coordinated approach allows you to experience confidence and security, no matter what your life looks like. Here’s why we believe family businesses need a specialized touch and tailored services for their unique situation.
1. You Juggle Multiple Constituents
Our firm is named Interchange Capital Partners because we serve you at the interchange between the known and the unknown around yourself, your family, your business, and your ownership. As the leader of your family, you aren’t just focused on your business’s success, but you also are interested in a bigger future for your family and other stakeholders in your enterprise
You may have even asked yourself, “Is the business here to serve the family, or is the family here to serve the business?” We help you have the challenging business, family, and personal conversations across multiple generations so you can clarify goals and values, identify obstacles and opportunities, and get consensus about what the family wants from the business, whether that’s growth, selling, or passing it on to the next generation. Our experience and knowledge can help you turn family values into shared family vision and promote meaningful intergenerational dialogue about what matters most.
2. You Face Financial Complexities
Running a business is not for the faint of heart. You need more than a budget or an investment plan. You need expertise and guidance in many areas including people, execution, strategies, and cash. You also need help having generational conversations regarding taxes, legal entities, insurance, investment management, and more. Coordinating and collaborating with multiple professionals can create headaches and be a detriment to your goals if they aren’t working together to get you to your ideal future. By offering a boutique, family-office approach, we help you make sure your bases are covered, minimizing risks and maximizing opportunities.
After doing this for 40 years, we know how to capture your strengths and how to take action in ways that benefit both the business and the family. We have the knowledge to see the full picture and know how to implement plans to make them work for you.
3. The Future Of Your Business Is The Future Of Your Family
As a business owner, you spend your days ensuring your business is successful so that it can provide for your family. But what about when it’s time to step back from the business? Do you have a plan for how that will happen and how it will impact your family, both emotionally and financially? You aren’t going to be working in your business forever. At some point, you will either sell or pass ownership on to someone else. We have walked many clients through the exit planning and succession planning process, and we can do the same for you.
4. We Are A Family Business Too
We don’t just have professional experience with family businesses, we have personal experience too. We are truly in your shoes and understand your concerns and challenges. My son, Brian, and I work together, but my other children do not, which gives us the ability to have true empathy for both generations as we simultaneously build our business while also preparing for the transition in the future. We’ve worked through the same questions we ask you, and we’ve dealt with similar situations and family dynamics, so we understand your struggles and the value of clarity, understanding, and action.
We Want To Help You
As the go to family business advisory firm, we are dedicated to helping you find clarity in the midst of very complex situations, offering experience and knowledge tailored to your circumstances, and recommending plans that create the outcomes you are looking for. If your family business needs the personalized touch of a dedicated firm, we would welcome the opportunity to show you how we can help. Email us at team@interchangecp.com or call our office at 412-307-4230 to schedule an introductory appointment.
About Ahmie
Ahmie E. Baum is the CEO and Founder of Interchange Capital Partners. Using a collaborative and comprehensive process developed over 43 years of working with wall street banks and financial services firms on behalf of families.
Interchange Capital Partners provides family office and transition strategy services for family businesses, helping families protect and grow their family capital with clarity, understanding, and action by being relevant and resourceful around their unique circumstances.
As a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, Ahmie began his career with EF Hutton in 1979 and transitioned to UBS in 1993. Ahmie is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®), received the Executive Certificate in Financial Planning from Duquesne University School of Leadership and Professional Advancement and has a Certificate in Family Business Advising (CFBA) from the Family Firm Institute. He also has Certificates from The Growth Institute around Growing and Scaling Business and Cash Management. For the past 20 years, he has been involved with Strategic Coach, an international entrepreneurial training program
When he’s not working, Ahmie enjoys spending time with his wife, Sara, their three children, and their granddaughters. He recognizes that health is wealth so he has committed to daily yoga, meditation, and plant-based eating. His other hobbies include woodturning, golf, reading, listening to music, and biking. He is active in his community and served as the Foundation Chair of the Jewish Federation Community Foundation of Greater Pittsburgh and supports the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBS). To learn more about Ahmie, connect with him on LinkedIn.
Interchange Capital Partners, LLC, (“INTERCHANGE CAPITAL PARTNERS”) is a registered investment adviser with the Securities and Exchange Commission providing investment advisory and financial planning services. Any reference to the terms “registered investment adviser” or “registered” does not imply that INTERCHANGE CAPITAL PARTNERS or any person associated with INTERCHANGE CAPITAL PARTNERS has achieved a certain level of skill or training. A copy of INTERCHANGE CAPITAL PARTNERS’s current written disclosure (ADV 2A Firm Brochure) discussing our advisory services and fees is available for your review upon request. INTERCHANGE CAPITAL PARTNERS, in addition to providing investment advisory and financial planning services, provides business consulting services. In connection with its business consulting services, INTERCHANGE CAPITAL PARTNERS does not provide tax or legal advice.
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