Lesson 50: Midpoint

I have made plenty of mistakes. One time, my manager asked me to plan a day trip from Georgia to Alabama for our team and some prospective clients. The day of the trip, we filed into a charter bus and I checked to make sure everyone was accounted for. We left Georgia and arrived in Alabama on time. Once we finished our business, everyone filed back onto the bus and we pulled out onto the highway. When my phone began to ring in my pocket, I knew something was wrong.

The bus had left without the CFO on board.

At the midpoint of our journey, I had made the mistake of not double-checking who was on the bus before leaving. Both milestones and mistakes teach lessons on how to move forward. This week, I paused to reflect on the milestones and mistakes of my ETA journey.

Acquiring a business requires robust deal flow, so I started looking for businesses I might like to acquire. Across education, business services, and manufacturing, I found 25 businesses, about 1 every other week, located across Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi. I reached out to 12 of them via handwritten letter, but received no responses (YET).

The main industries that interest Nuance Partners are Education, Skilled Services, and Manufacturing.

Over these 50 weeks, I collected 99 different ETA and business articles and resources. I also had the privilege of networking with different search investors from across the U.S. They offered advice, introductions, and support as I began this journey. Together, I spoke to 6 firms:

Select Search Fund Investors; these firms have not committed capital to Nuance Partners LLC.

At this midpoint, I look behind and see some moments like presenting at the ETA conference as an enormous milestone. Other moments feel like the time I forgot the CFO, like when I sent out my resume with the wrong email address. Learning to handle the highs and lows of this process directs my next steps. The next 50 weeks will begin the standard search cycle timeline: Raise a search fund (2 - 4 months), Search for an enduringly profitable business (6 - 24 months), Acquire the business (2 - 4 months), and Grow and unlock value in the business before selling (5 - 7 years):

Standard search cycle timeline

We are far from both the beginning and the end. We are halfway to owning a business. Mistakes will come along the road, but we are not the sum of our mistakes nor our milestones. We walk somewhere in the middle, striving toward our values. My values are to act with love, humility, and wisdom.

P.S. On that business trip, we turned the bus around to pick up the CFO and I got to keep my job : )

This is Lesson 50: Midpoint. Next week is Lesson 51: Alignment.