6 Months: Pretty Sure That Makes Me An Expert
Once again, I’ve broken my own rule and been ridiculously absent from this blog for quite some time. “Transition” has been the word of the day for about 200 days in a row now, so I hope that buys me some slack.
We’re about 6 months in with ELL, and things have gone exactly as we expected. Everything we dreamed about is a reality, and my stress levels have plummeted. And I just lied to you…
Here’s the deal: I wouldn’t change a single decision I’ve made in the past year. But if you’re a dreamer like me, here’s a few realities to take special note of if you’re head is in the clouds and you can’t stop thinking about how you’re going to make all the decisions, they’re going to be perfect ones, you’re going to take calculated risks and take over the industry – “no one can stop us.” Nothing ground-breaking here – mostly things I heard from our advisors that I brushed off and accounted to them having done this 25 years ago.
If you’re partnering up, your team better be perfect.
This isn’t about having fun with your buddies – that’s just a bonus. Two realities I tell every one of my buddies before they get married: (1) sometimes you have to choose to love when you don’t feel it and (2) you gotta be willing to make personal changes so the pieces fit together. Same thing here. I’m thankful to have partners that share these philosophies, but you better be prepared to deal with each other’s quirks and red buttons and then make changes to respect them.
Protect your culture.
Chances are, you already have/had a culture in mind for your business. At ELL, it’s important to us that we maintain a comfortable, flexible, family-friendly atmosphere while never making compromises that affect our clients’ work quality or deadlines. In other words, we have to have people that we trust will always get the job done well without micro-management – otherwise that culture can’t survive.
Learn the finances.
If you’re in our industry, you probably hate this stuff, and more power to you if you started with the capital to support a CFO or at least someone that didn’t get a C in college Finance. It’s really easy to slide into a habit of chasing the work, building relationships and executing. These are all important things, but at year end, you better be able to understand, report on and talk about percentages, margins, cash flow, etc. It’s essential to giving you the information you didn’t even know you needed to tell you how to run the business and make far more educated decisions. And it’s also going to be a non-negotiable when you start those dreaded meetings with the bank. Sorry – can’t get around this one – I’ve tried.
Remember why you’re doing this.
Oh how quickly we forget. Generate a list of your personal objectives and make sure they line up with those of your partners. If these lists don’t line up, abandon ship. This is another tool that will always help guide your decisions. It’s easy to slide into a reactive mode of operation where you start making decisions in a vacuum. Use your objectives and use your financials: in most cases, your decision is already made.
These are just a few thoughts, but I’m so far from being an expert. I’ve learned more in the past year than I could have ever imagined, but the pace of learning isn’t slowing down any time soon.
