On January 14, 2010, I officially opened my consulting practice. Today, January 14, 2020, marks ten years of working for myself. After ten years, this is longer than any W-2 job I ever had! At this point, I probably couldn’t work for anyone else!
While it is challenging to have a successful practice, it is also extremely rewarding. I love helping my clients be successful. When I get long-term clients, together we are able to achieve amazing things. I really consider myself in the Dream Business—helping my clients achieve their dreams. This usually involves creating a successful business with enough enterprise value to fund the client’s financial goals.
Since I’m easily bored, this is the perfect business for me. I work with a lot of different businesses, I am constantly challenged intellectually, and I am always learning. When I quit learning, I will die. Seriously. I consider learning to be something that is fundamentally human. I’m a lifelong learner and my favorite clients are as well.
The diversity amongst my clients can be measured many ways. Clients represent many various industries. I don’t work in all industries but I do work in a lot of industries. My clients are male and female, black, white, Asian and mixed-race. I have clients in their 20s, in their 70s and every age in between. Religious backgrounds include Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Jainism, Hinduism, agnostic, atheist and many where I don’t know because the topic has never come up.
Surprising to me, has been the international aspect. Surprising, because my clients are all under $50 million in revenue. Despite that, I’ve dealt with owners or branch operations from Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia, South America, Africa and India. Every continent except Antarctica.
Over the course of ten years, I’ve had over one hundred clients. Currently, I’m working with about 20 clients and spend time on about fifteen clients each month.
Another aspect of my practice that I particularly enjoy is working with other advisors. No one knows it all and it is great to know and work with other specialists. Some of these advisors have become close friends over time.
Besides always learning, I continually strive to find new ways to add value to my clients. The biggest change for 2020 will be the addition of EOS, the Entrepreneurial Operating System. This is the system created by Gino Wickman and the subject of a series of books, the best-known being Traction. More about this in the coming months.
In the meantime, Happy New Year (and Decade) to all of you. Let’s hope 2020 is peaceful and prosperous.
No comments yet.