Many consultants have never had to make payroll. Fewer still have had to decide between making payroll and paying the tax bill. Or the biggest vendor. Or themselves.
I'm not saying they're bad consultants. There's just a difference between someone who has learned from their education and from working with clients, and someone who has actually walked the path. No one who hasn't had the first-hand experience of running a business truly understands what it's like. No one.
I do.
I acquired OptiNet in 2016. Thirty-three people, four different business units, hundreds of customers. For nine years I led that company through massive change, good times and bad, hiring sprees and multiple layoffs, a global pandemic, and eventually restructuring it into two divisions, which I sold individually. I experienced the highs of record years and the lows of being two days from going under. I made a lot of good decisions in that time. I also made some expensive ones.
So when I work with an owner-led business, I'm not working from frameworks and case studies. I'm working with experience I gained from decisions I actually made, the consequences that came from them, and the lessons I took from all of it. That tends to change the conversation.
If you're a business owner in Metro Vancouver and you've wondered whether an outside perspective would help, get in touch. I'd love to talk.