Episode 011 - Ellen McIllhenny, Author and Partner, B2B CEO

On Episode 011, Ellen McIllhenny joins us for a wide-ranging discussion from being 6-sport athlete in high school to her current role as a Partner at B2B CEO.  Ellen has twenty years of experience as a chief financial officer and controller with mid-sized and large privately held companies. Prior to that she held financial management positions for eight years at a large publicly held company.  She has worked in several different industries such as chemicals, plastics, newspaper, broadcast, wholesale distribution, technology and IT services.  Ellen has served on several non-profit boards of directors, where she has held both chairman and treasurer leadership positions. She was nominated for Virginia Business Magazine's "CFO of the Year Award" in both 2010 and 2016. In May of 2018, Ellen's book, The Big Turnaround, was released and was a finalist for the 2018 Author Academy Award in the Business & Investing category.  You can reach Ellen at [email protected]. Her company website is https://www.b2bcfo.com/partner/ellenmcilhenny/.   *** In our discussion, Ellen offers some good advice about exit strategies for business owners and some things to consider early in the life of the business. She gives some ideas on how to make sure you are on the right trajectory from the strat. She tells us about what it's like coming from a corporate background to running her own company - and some of the things she finds tough. You'll also want to hear Ellen share about some of challenges and joys of raising her oldest son Ben. It was inspiring to hear her talk about what a special kid he is and how he has impacted the entire family in a positive way.  Ellen mentions a couple of books she recommends to others to help with the strategy side of running a company. They are Good to Great, Traction, and The Automatic Customer.   *** To contact the host of the show, Robin Green, you can email him at [email protected]. For listener's of the podcast, he is offering a free white paper this week on "Six Ways to be a More Effective Manager." Click the link to get access.