The importance of balance
We recently had the opportunity to work with quite an impressive business. It was founded by two brothers. They have established their own manufacturing operation in china. Presently most of the sales are to Australia, but global sales are starting to take off.
What we learnt was inspirational, as these two guys in their early 30s had achieved something greater than business success. Balance!
Success in business, staff that are happy and well paid, plenty time spent with family, fun with their hobbies, travel and constant innovation in all areas of life. They have mastered business and life at a level few get to experience.
What was even more interesting was that these blokes knew when to sell equity in their business. This is something that we, as corporate advisors, don’t see often.
These men had an exceptional mentor in their father, but not as you might imagine. Dad is also an independent business operator. He works 24/7 in his business and has little time for anything else. The two brothers watched their dad and thought, before starting their first business at an exceptionally early age, they were going to do business differently. They set out to learn from top mentors how to manage a business, and how to work smarter rather than harder.
We asked, “Why do you want to sell down just when the business is poised for global expansion?” Their answer was, “We are not driven by the need to accumulate money at the cost of everything else. We are driven by innovation and building a great business and we want to partner with someone that can take the business to a level that we can’t. Also, we are family men, we have all the money we need, we have a life outside of our business, a balance that is uncommon to most entrepreneurs.”
Like poker, you’ve got to know, “when to hold ’em and when to fold ‘em”.
We will be interviewing these two great entrepreneurs in a video for our web site.
Many hard working Australians are so committed to their businesses that they can’t break free and experience a life outside business. Also when it comes to selling all or part of their equity, we often hear, “I’ll look at it next year after after….” Sadly, next year often doesn’t come until either owner or business are passed their used by date.