My Business: The Big Announcement

Today’s entry is going to be a little different. This may be one of the most emotional pieces I’ve ever written. You see, since 2016, I’ve worked in and through the Financially Simple name to share all that I’ve learned with fellow business owners. If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that I am an avid learner. I love to read and apply all of my newfound knowledge to my business. I, then, pass that same knowledge on to you in the hopes that it can be of help to you and your business. This has been a journey and, at times, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it. But now, I’ve got an announcement to make.

Follow Along With The Financially Simple Podcast!

• Impacting people’s lives and why cemeteries are the saddest places for me
• The reason I wrote Your Baby’s Ugly and The Ultimate Sale
• Why only less than 20% of business owners sell their businesses
• Our fight with COVID-19 and how it impacted our outlook on life
• What it would take for me to quit and the value of hiring consultants for our businesses
• Determining our wealth gap to meet our financial goals
• How I decided to partner with a larger organization and sell my businesses
• Making the ultimate sale and getting the “best-in-class” valuation

The Ups and Downs of My Business Journey

You might have heard me say this before, but I think cemeteries are some of the saddest places in the world. Not because of the people who have died — although, that is sad and, I’m sure, left an empty space in the lives of those who were left behind — but because each of those people took some unshared wisdom and experience with them. The world will never benefit from what they learned because, in many cases, they took that knowledge with them. As a result, I’ve made it my business, my mission, to make an impact. It’s a large part of what drove me to begin the Financially Simple podcast and blog.

Ultimately, the desire to impact as many people’s lives as possible is what led me to write The Ultimate Sale and, later, Your Baby’s Ugly. The former received many accolades from Amazon and was even published internationally. The latter dealt with the 8 key areas of business and used principles I’ve learned as a Certified Value Growth Advisor and as a Certified Exit Planning Advisor. I’m proud to say that it also has been listed as a Top-100 title by USA Today and a #1 Bestseller by the Wall Street Journal. But Candidly, none of this can compare to the news I’m about to share with you.

The Path to Here

At the beginning of 2021, we had just wrapped up our strategic planning sessions. My wife and I were traveling across the state to pick up a new vehicle. We had just posted a banner year and we decided it was time I got a new truck for myself since mine had recently died. During this trip, we stopped at a gun show and just took some time to exhale and enjoy each other’s company. It was a much-needed excursion. However, about a week later, we found out we had Covid.

The virus hit me especially hard. I remember battling a 105° fever for much of the three weeks it took to get well. During that time, I took many ice-water baths to get my temperature down. Additionally, I lost a tremendous amount of weight and really struggled to breathe. You might recall the toll it took on my voice if you listened to the podcast in the weeks that followed. But I did eventually get better. However, none of that compares to what my sweet wife, Miss Emily, faced.

Covid only presented mild symptoms for her. In fact, we took a vacation, thinking everything was fine. But when we returned, we noticed she developed bruises all over her body. It was really strange and we couldn’t think of what may have caused them. To be safe, we scheduled a doctor’s appointment. Well, I had to go out of town on a business trip and received a call from my mom one morning, telling me she was taking Emily to the hospital and that she was critical.

A Change In Perspective

After receiving that call, I immediately began traveling home. As I was driving home, I received a call from the hospital informing me that they were going to admit my wife and “do all they can.” Let that sink in for a moment. They had no idea what was wrong with Emily. At first, they thought it might be leukemia. However, as we fast-forward a few months into the future, they finally came to realize that Covid had triggered an auto-immune response. Essentially, Emily’s immune system was “eating” her platelets. At any moment, she could have fallen or bumped into something and it would have caused internal bleeding.

We began a course of medications to treat the problem. The medications weren’t working. So, we were faced with surgery. Now, if you’ve never had to watch your wife say goodbye to her children, consider it a blessing. I watched this while listening to the doctor tell me that if I haven’t heard anything by a certain window of time, something has gone terribly wrong. That might have been the longest moment of my life. I sat in the waiting room for 45 minutes beyond that window. I praise God that the surgeon finally came out to inform me that everything was a success.

As I’ve said before, having an attitude of success matters. Throughout this ordeal, my wife and I drew even closer together. We had faith that God was doing something beyond our control. But during this event, we began to look at things from a new perspective. We found ourselves asking, “What does it matter?” What does it matter if I make another million dollars, or if the company ends up being #1 in the world, or if I pour my entire life into others? What does it matter?

Answering the Question

A dear friend of mine once asked me, “If time and resources were no issue, what would you do with your life?” Following Emily’s surgery, we began to answer that question. Ultimately, I kept coming back to this one answer; I would speak and pour into as many people’s lives as I could. I want you to understand that you don’t have to sacrifice your dreams. You don’t have to lose your family, hobbies, interests, or identity for the sake of accumulating wealth.

Friends, please don’t misunderstand me. I know that the pursuit of success isn’t the only thing that causes business owners to forsake these other areas of their lives. I’m not even saying that accumulating wealth is a negative thing. I’ve seen both sides of that coin. But as we went through this journey, it brought everything back into perspective.

Meanwhile, Back on the Business Side of Things

While we were going through such a difficult season in our personal lives, the business was blowing up. All the things I teach (or preach, depending on who you’re asking) on the podcast were yielding incredible results as we applied them to our business. 2021 was another banner year in terms of revenue and profitability. Seeing this, I hired a consultant. After some research, a friend of mine suggested a gentleman named Patrick Brewer. My friend told me that Brewer had been where I’m heading and was heading where I wanted to go, in his own business.

After a couple of interviews, I told Patrick that I wanted to hire him to come alongside me as a coach and advisor. I wanted someone who could check and recheck my blindspots; someone who could point to areas of the business that weren’t quite where they should be. However, as we were going through these interviews, Patrick and I were discussing systems. He informed me that my business has better systems and processes than companies that are 20 to 30 times my size. They were trying to poke holes in the business but they couldn’t. Candidly, it felt good. However, something wasn’t quite right. If the business was truly that good, why did I still feel like something wasn’t hitting the mark?

In one of our calls, Patrick did to me what I have done to so many of my own clients. Basically, it’s a tactic I call, taking it back to the root. It’s just a means of finding out what matters to you. So, Patrick asked me, “Justin, what will it take for you to quit?” I’ve thought of this before, as I have asked hundreds of clients the same question. But I’ve never really pondered it with any real gravity behind it. At that moment, I was at a loss. All I could say was, “I don’t know.”

I’ve Faced this Question Before

There I was, dealing with the scary situation regarding my wife’s health and pondering a question I’ve heard before. You see, in the past, I’ve received offers from people who wanted to buy my business. I’d always laugh and say, “No.” Then, Emily, the kids, and I would go down to the beach. During these trips, she would say, “Justin, you can’t come home. Your boys need to see you work. They need to learn their work ethic from you. So, you can’t stop until it’s done.” We’d carry on with playful banter but, eventually, I’d come around to her way of thinking.

But this time, I’m watching my wife. I’m watching my business explode. So, I began writing down what I want my life to be. Now, many of you have probably had these thoughts. Typically, they revolve around providing for your family. But as I thought through this, I kept thinking, “What does it matter if I make another $1 million?” To answer the previous question of what I would do with unlimited time and resources, all I could think of was dedicating my life to pouring into others.

Folks, I’m not interested in fame. That’s not why I do what I do. That’s not the reason I enjoy being up on stage. Instead, I am passionate about this because I don’t have the same fear of public speaking that so many others struggle with, and I want to give people hope. So, helping others become the best versions of themselves is a passion of mine. But when Emily and I began going through this exercise together, we found ourselves writing things like, “Seeing the Northern Lights, Visiting Bora Bora, Lounging around on the Maldives, etc.” When I brought our list back to my consultants, they pointed out something very interesting. There wasn’t a single business aspiration on the list.

The Wealth Gap

Now, I didn’t have any hard numbers for my business on the list. That was a unique moment for me. I said things like, “I want to see my team reach their full potential,” but I didn’t have any real business goals like I usually would. That doesn’t mean there weren’t numbers on our list. We came up with a figure that would allow our family to meet our financial goals. I reverse-engineered the calculation. I wanted to know what would happen if inflation moved or if our tax-rate increased. In the end, I had a figure (basically, our wealth gap) and I took it to my consultants.

When I presented this number to them, they began laughing. They informed me that I didn’t understand the true value of the business. The reason they were laughing was that I had blown past my number a long time ago. They introduced me to a gentleman named Alan Darby. He specializes in helping business owners figure out the value of their company and pairing them with investors. When he told me the actual value of my business, I was floored. I said, “I grew up on a dirt road in Georgia and live on a gravel road in East Tennessee. There’s no way.”

So, get this picture. My wife is faced with a near-death experience. Our business is blowing up in a time when many businesses aren’t, and I am faced with the question of what it will take for me to quit. So, I met with my team. I told them what I was thinking, my concerns, questions, etc. We decided it was time to make a change. I’m not sure I fully grasp what that means, even now. Like you, I’ve poured my blood, sweat, and tears into my business. I’ve dealt with the fear of looking at an empty pantry and wondering how I’m going to feed my kids (I’m talking in the past 5 years). And here I am, having now closed my wealth gap. It’s surreal.

My Big Announcement

In Q4 of 2021, I made the decision to partner with a larger organization. It was time for me to sell my interest in my three companies. I have made the ultimate sale. The things I’ve talked about for so long, the 8 key areas, corporate value metrics, everything I’ve learned in the CVGA curriculum have led to a large corporation looking at my business and saying, “Wow! You’re best-in-class.” In December of last year, I signed definitive documents. The assets of my businesses have now been acquired.

Wrapping Up…

Friends, I want to leave you with this; you can reach your goals. If a country boy from South Georgia with a degree in grass and a degree in business can accomplish this, I know you can too. If you apply the principles that I’ve taught over the past 5 years, you could achieve every one of your business goals.

Look, I know life is hard. Sometimes, you get blindsided by health problems or the loss of a loved one. But life is still good. Preparing your business for the ultimate sale can be frustrating, but it doesn’t have to be. If you follow through with your strategic plans and work to improve each of the 8 key areas to best-in-class, you can at least make it financially simple. Hey, let’s go out and make it a great day!

Are you ready to begin working to improve the intrinsic value of your business so you too can make the ultimate sale? Reach out to our team. We help business owners do this every day.