In 2018, I transitioned from the Corporate American culture to the entrepreneurial lifestyle in running Ablesoft with my brother and Dad. As one could imagine, there came many drastic changes with the move. The loss of cushy benefits, expanding my responsibilities from one to multiple functions of the business, and of course, the horrific night terrors that attacked me in the most peaceful moments of sleep when the thought arose, ‘are we doing the right things?’.
My routine night terror once moving to the entrepreneurial lifestyle.
Fortunately, as time passed and stability with the business came, the middle of the night fear spasms calmed. The leadership team better fell into our roles and learned how to communicate with each other despite our differences. However, we still recognized the limits of our decisions. Just because we formed a solution did not necessarily mean it was the best one. What we needed was someone with an outside perspective that had been through a similar spot and had a vested interest in our success. But we were not in a spot financially to shell out big bucks for a consultant. For this, we turned to SCORE.
SCORE is a volunteer-based group of retired business leaders who provide coaching and advising at no cost. They have regional hubs across the country and are made up of a variety of advisors who are willing to invest time, broker resources, and provide training to the needs of your business.
In October of 2020, we were paired up with Bob Dolan who had led the sales and marketing strategy of a software supply chain company’s journey to going public. He had since retired and was interested in advising businesses as one of his many activities. Since our initial meeting, Bob has transformed into a trusted advisor of ours who is frequently brining us valuable perspective. In addition, two more SCORE members have offered us advising with our Finance and IT strategy with the joining of John Lafferty and Ripujit Singh.
After a little over a year in working with Bob, John, and Rip, here are some ways in which the ASI leadership team has benefited from our SCORE mentors. Some of which we did not foresee.
Direction on where to focus efforts
It is easy to get overwhelmed by the quantity of issues to resolve day to day in running a business. This amount only grows when trying to account for the consequences of these decisions in the long term. Do we need to focus on our marketing or operations? Should we invest our time in new technology or processes? To what extent do we focus on growth with our current customer compared to pursuing new ones?
Our SCORE advisors pointing where we should focus our efforts.
Having a person who is not bound by the same daily constraints, and that can guide you on which issues warrant the most attention can be a great time saver. Our conversations with Bob, John, and Rip have helped us better prioritize which issues should be focused on and solved before others. With this confidence, we can more tactically address problems knowing they are the right ones to focus on.
Accountability outside of the business
A demonstration of my cowering form to disarm Eric’s attacks
The leadership team meets annually, quarterly, and weekly to establish and review our responsibilities to ensure we are holding each other accountable. This process becomes more complicated when factoring in the past. Memories such as Dad changing Eric and my diapers, or my childhood abilities of cowering in room corners to avoid Eric’s torment (which I can still execute flawlessly) can add an extra layer of complication when holding each other accountable.
In working with Bob, John and Rip we have additional stakeholders to answer to that fall outside of the leadership team and our family. Having that additional group to review our results with has created an added layer of accountability in following through on our decisions.
Encouragement
One of many encouraging pep talks from our SCORE mentors.
Some days the long-term goals feel far out of reach. Receiving encouragement that we are on the right path and to celebrate the incremental gains helps instill our sense of vigor in the moments it is needed. Our SCORE mentors have done just that.
‘Sounding’ Board of Directors
As discussions with the different mentors have evolved over the year, we have decided to add an additional layer of formality to our engagement. After every three months we will present our ‘Quarterly Review’ to both our employees and the recently appointed ‘Sounding Board of Directors’ made up of Bob, John, and Rip. I cannot take credit for the term, but I will use it (thanks John).
Opening one’s business to an outsider can be a daunting task. But, if the right mentor can be established it will make all the difference in establishing more stability and higher confidence in running one’s business, and just may help reduce those night terrors. Thank you to Bob, John, Rip, and the other resources that SCORE has to offer in instilling more confidence in our business and helping us get closer to sleeping like babies.
Thanks for reading.