Pelican Parts Forums - any thoughts on the year 2022 yet?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seahawk (Post 11605664)

I edited for brevity.

We have been approached three times by "Bigs" in our industry. The first time it was worth going through the process even though we had no intent, at that time, to sell any portion of the company. The last two we politely declined.

I would take at least one meeting to hear what your friends Boss/Bosses have to say. You don't need someone skilled in these areas for that.

After running my own business for over ten years, there is no way I could go work for a large deference contractor...they are slow to react, not creative and management is usually made up of Puppy Stranglers.

In a weird twist, we severed a relationshiip/teaming agreement with a very large defense contractor: They were on their fourth re-org in five years and it was an absurd waste of our time.

Any way, best of luck.

Running your own show is very rewarding not only financially also from the accomplishment aspect.

I do not think I can work for a large company and deal with the politics that typically come with it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeke (Post 11605837)

There are options to that. Think about the ways you can make this better for you rather than worse, as you currently see it.

Sorry for the long post, I guess I had a lot on my mind and it is actually therapeutic to see it all typed out to red back to myself.

After meeting 3X with them I think the most frustrating part was they really do not know what they want and neither do I. We keep dancing around each other with neither of us really putting in to words how this would work and how to make it happen.

I met with the #2 man in the company (beer buddy) he assists the licensed Surveyor. The licensed surveyor is a partner in the company. They both need my help and they want to expand into more residential work, that is where I come in. They also want my license to qualify the company just in case something was to happen to the licensed partner. Right now they only have 1 license qualifying a 60+ person company.

One cool take away, I met the partner last week, we met for lunch, walking out he was heading to his 2 year old Mustang Shelby GT350. Talking some more he owns 7 Mustangs going back to a 1973 and then all other generations in between. Total petrol head, he takes his 350 to track days a Palm Beach Raceway. I have a new friend now. LOL!

I really do not want to sell my company and talking to the partner did nothing to change my mind.

I make extremely good money running my own show, more then I ever dreamed I would make in my life. Talking to the partner, keeping my financial cards close to my chest, he thought his salary was good. It is 1/3 of mine. What he makes is what I make in a bad year. He takes a yearly dividend based on his divisions profits, which he did not disclose. That could put him up over me concerning the gross yearly salary. I take a dividend too, 2021 was the biggest I ever took. Enough the pay off all the debt I have in the world, sink a bunch of money into home improvements, put a bunch in the bank and buy a bunch of PM.

He may have taken more, I would guess he did based on the fact that he runs 4 full time crews and I run 2 part time crews (me being one) except his overhead is insane and mine is lean and mean.

All I know is, at this point I want to keep my deal the same as it has been, if 2022 is like 2021 it will usher in my retirement much sooner than I was expecting. Everything I make is mine.

Even if the economy tanks, I have things set up so I can run max profits with very little work coming in, I can actually take a lot of time off and live my life and the place will be fine.

I cannot for the life of me see myself jumping in there. I politely told the partner no last week only to have his number 2 guy blow up my phone. When I spoke with #2 he was not taking no for an answer, he said I would be an amazing fit there and make a perfect addition to their team.

I have a lot of self confidence issues and to be honest struggling to understand why he thinks I would be a good fit there, on paper I am not that impressive. Yeah I work hard and use a lot of common sense. That only goes so far in a cooperate setting. The libertarian in me does not like rules and structure.

That just made me think of something funny. I came up through the ranks as a desk jockey not a field guy. Most all these licensed cats are field grown. When I told both the partner and #2 that I worked the office and my first day in the field was when I started my own company they were both shocked and amazed I knew what to do.

I explained I spent my career looking at the field notes, checking those notes and turning them into maps. I understood the methods that needed to be taken in order to gather that data, I understood the philosophy behind it and to be honest I found actually doing it in the field to be easy and quite satisfying.

As a matter of fact, working in the field each morning is the best part of my work days, I dread coming back to the office and driving a desk for the rest of the day. Even in the dead of summer when the heat index is triple digits. I prefer to be in the field.

I do not think I am selling, I do not think they could come up with enough to make me even consider it.

I do not think I can work for a boss again.

I do not think they could pay me enough to make it worth my while.

Here is to a solid 2022, although I really doubt it... so here is to me having a life again in the near future. Salute! wait! St. Patricks day is upon us. Sláinte!!