Seeing the forest through the trees
Occupational transition.
It happens. It’s been happening a lot lately in this economy. Typically it is not a chosen state of being, but good people are finding themselves out of a “JOB” and are trying to write their next chapter of their career.
I get calls from these folks when they think the answer to their job security is to become their own boss.
When it happened more recently to a friend of mine, I met with him over coffee to find out what serendipitous move he was about to make. . He wasn’t looking to purchase a company – quite the opposite. He was evaluating a number of potential opportunities. He was one of the lucky ones.
What struck me in this conversation was he had done quite a bit of self-evaluation and networking. He had a scattershot of great opportunities in the pipeline - all based on his skill set. Since he had a non-compete clause, he felt he was going to have to make a complete industry change, but his passion lay deep in the field of health care. After working as a regional sales consultant for an HR outsourcing firm for two years ad a PEO sales manager for six years, his client resources ran deep and his knowledge immense. It seemed a shame to walk away from that entirely as it would never be a valuable as it is right at this moment.
After talking for an hour, together we formulated the beginnings of his own consulting practice which was a natural compliment to his expertise. He previously was selling human resource outsourcing, now he would help companies evaluate their current health benefits analysis as an independent third party to review and provide insight as to the best options to take.
It probably skirts on the fringes of his non-compete and he’s doing a bit of attorney review, but what struck me is the similarities to many of the buyers that I encounter.
Buyers see business listings like a kid in a candy store. Wouldn’t it be fun to… I’ve always wanted to run a …… My uncle had a ……….. All well and good, except it ignores the forest for the trees.
As an entrepreneur, you have to be cognizant of your skills, but to ignore your background and experience is a sure-fire way to eliminate yourself from the running for bank financing and at the same time, to turn-off a seller. We’ve had office discussions about a buyer-seller meeting gone bad recently where the buyer met seller for the first time and repeatedly said, “I don’t know anything about your business.” That type of talk doesn’t exactly build confidence in the eyes of the seller. And when Seller’s acting as the bank by offering up seller financing, you can bet that freshman Buyer’s offer is not going to be accepted enthusiastically.
I agree, it’s tough when you’re trying to reinvent yourself and break the mold to simply walk away from who you were. But as a wise man said to me just yesterday, “I love the quote from Harvey MacKay, ‘No matter where you go, there you are.’.” I believe it’s a mistake to walk away from your warm network. And to think of it, I think I may need to pass out a few copies of Harvey’s book “Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty…”
PS – If you have an HR outsourcing project that you’d like a consultant’s opinion on and would like contact information for my friend, please leave me comments below on how to reach you and I’ll make that connection for you.
