Leaving corporate to own a business

No. When somebody tells me they hate their job, I tell them that’s not a reason to buy a business. It might be a reason for us to have an initial conversation, so we can understand why you’d want to own one. There’s one thing I can’t do for anybody: I can’t make you want it.

People aren’t out there waving their hand saying they want to quit their job today. So when someone does come to me unhappy, I take a step back and ask them to tell me a little about themselves. If they want to jump straight to the financials, I call time out. We’ll get there, but first we need to understand why we’re here.

I can usually tell right away whether someone is sincere and wants it. Sometimes they do, but there’s a fear factor holding them back, and then it’s up to me to work with them there too. Starting with the business instead of the life is the biggest mistake I see people make. There has to be something you’re running toward.

No. My boss thought I was crazy when I made the move. On paper everything looked great, but I’d spent years taking jobs somebody else thought I should take, and I wanted to put that effort into something of my own. You’re not crazy to want something more, or something different. It’s your life.

I ran the Jenn-Air brand at Maytag, ran Toro’s international consumer business, and ran businesses for Electrolux. Those roles were good for my development. But it started to feel like rinse and repeat, and commuting from Colorado on Sundays and Fridays got to be a grind. I figured if I put this much effort into something of my own, I’d feel much more rewarded.

It was scary at first. When I talk with people now, their resumes and track records often look like everything’s going in a great direction, and I ask why we’re talking. That’s where I come from, and it’s why the first thing I ask anyone is what they want their life to look like.

The way you’ve handled hard days. If you’ve been successful through your career, you’ve already shown you can keep going when things get difficult, and you’ll need that, because when you’re in business for yourself, you’ve got plenty of challenges. Successful people can play on the rainy days just like the sunny days. Anybody can play on the sunny days.

There’s a fear factor when you think about leaving, a sense of what’s going to happen. What it takes is staying with it, and being persistent and patient at the same time.

The more comfortable you are with uncertainty, the better off you are. We know we’re going to make mistakes, so keep going forward. I talked more about fear and uncertainty on C-Suite Secrets.

It can give you more say over where your time goes, but it isn’t less work. I still work a lot. What changed for me is who decides. Companies want you singularly focused. In my own business, I decide what I put my time into, and I get to be there for the things that matter outside of work.

In the corporate world I was in and out of airports, and over time I started asking whether I was getting back what I put in. A lot of us come to that question eventually. I felt unbalanced when I made my move. Now I look at each area of my life and keep building on it a little at a time, because how you live your personal life is how you live your business life too.

I don’t have any status with the airlines anymore. If I want to sit in a nicer seat, I pay for it, and I’m fine with that. There’s a trade-off, no question.

Then it isn’t right yet, and that’s fine. Sometimes I tell people we aren’t at the right place at the right time right now. Some of the people who’ve bought businesses recently are people I first met three or four years earlier. They weren’t ready then, they came back when they were, and that happens.

Nobody wants to be sold on anything, and this isn’t about pushing somebody into something they’re not comfortable doing. I’ve been doing this for about fifteen years and I plan to keep doing it for quite a bit longer, so I don’t need to rush anybody.

What I’d watch for is getting stuck. If you’re still at the starting line with a great plan and you never take off, nothing’s going to happen. When you know where you’re going, a bump in the road moves your car around a little. If you have no idea where you’re going, you end up in the ditch.