Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mitchell Bolnick. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Mitchell, appreciate you joining us today. One of our favorite things to brainstorm about with friends who’ve built something entrepreneurial is what they would do differently if they were to start over today. Surely, there are things you’ve learned that would allow you to do it over faster, more efficiently. We’d love to hear how you would go about setting things up if you were starting over today, knowing everything that you already know.
I often get asked the question “what is the one thing you wish you knew or had when you first started your business?”. After many years of consulting I am convinced the best answer is…me. I don’t mean that in an arrogant way, but rather as a means to teach the questioner a good lesson. You see, throughout my entire career two things have been consistent: I made mistakes, sometimes costly ones, sometimes ones that could not be corrected and; I learned from those mistakes and never repeated them again. I took to heart those lessons and implemented changes, within myself, within my job, within my life, accordingly. That cumulative knowledge makes me who and what I am today, and that would have been invaluable to me when I was first starting out.
So, are you doomed to be me? Are you going to have to make mistakes to take yourself, your job, and/or your life to the next level? No, and that is really the point I want to make. The truth is, the current version of me, the one that has been providing consulting to others for almost 10 years now, existed back then. His name was not Mitch Bolnick, heck he may not have even been a male. But he was a business consultant. In addition, there were books I read later in life that could have provided me with great insight. But you see, I did not have the time and did not think the expense was worthwhile. When it comes down to it, that was my biggest mistake.
As I look back on my business life, the younger I was the more confident I was that I knew what to do and could figure anything out. As reality caught up with me I realized more and more that others could fill my gaps in a very cost effective manner, as long as I utilized the resources appropriately and efficiently. As for not having time, I now realize that was an excuse, just like not having time to exercise until I weighed 210 pounds (at 5’10”, it wasn’t a good look). Once I took the time to focus on learning what the right things to do were from experts who knew, I dropped 45 pounds and have kept it off for years. Of course, my weight is not the point, the process of internalizing a need for help and then acting by reaching out for that help is the point.
So where can you find help? Well, people like me are in most entrepreneurial ecosystems and the number and quality of business consultants here in Arizona is increasing. Reading a short book on business planning or business development can be a great source of information to inspire you to greater things. So if you want to short cut some of the more common mistakes, be prepared to handle those that are unforeseen, and to be what I like to call “shark proof”, reach out to someone for help. Be prepared to spend some time and some money, and be open to hearing that you may be doing things in a optimal way. I like to tell people “best of planning” because I don’t believe in business luck. Business success is about planning, process, data and leadership. Be prepared!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Mitch was born and raised in Skokie, Illinois, a Northern suburb of Chicago. Upon graduating with an MBA in 1985, Mitch was hired by GTE Network Systems in Chicago, Illinois as a financial analyst supporting their Information Technology department. Mitch worked for several successor companies over a period just short of 20 years, the final of which was Lucent Technologies. During that period he reached the level of Director of Business Operations reporting to the General Manager of a business group that he helped grow from a cost center to $100m+ profit center with 800+ employees. Responsibilities included financial management and reporting, strategic planning, information management, regulatory (OSHA) and industry (ISO 9001) compliance, contract/legal management and operations administration.
In 2004 Mitch parted ways with Lucent Technologies and embarked on an analysis of business opportunities, developing several business plans in the process. The effort eventually led to the purchase of BCD Low Voltage Systems. Along with his partner (his former General Manager boss), Mitch ran BCD until 2013 when it was decided to sell the business. After several months of transition Mitch parted the combined company on August 1, 2013. The business unit still is in operation today.
After leaving, Mitch started The Excel Consulting Group to help other entrepreneurs succeed for the long term. From 2012-2017 Mitch helped several businesses in the development of their business planning, process and in obtaining funding. Starting in 2018 Mitch joined Greener Pacific, an Oregon LLC, as CEO/member and FocalPoint Security, an Arizona LLC, as an advisor/member.
Mitch also spends about 1/3 of his time volunteering in mentor/advisory positions for several organizations, including the State of Arizona’s Venture Ready (Arizona Innovative Challenge) program. Mitch’s passion is to help other businesses excel. Mitch has found many rabbit holes to fall into during his diverse career and has learned many lessons the hard way as a result. Mitch’s goal is to help other entrepreneurs and leaders avoid mistakes. True strength and leadership does not come from making mistakes and dealing with them in an effective manner. Instead it comes from building leadership and structure to avoid making mistakes and succeeding for the long therm.
Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?
I am proud to say that through 3 businesses that I have owned over 15 years (2 of which I am still involved in) we have never missed a payroll. But please let me clarify why I chose to answer a question about missed payrolls. We never have missed the employee payroll, but there have been times where our cash was so lean we did not pay ourselves (the owners). For the first couple of years of any new business that is not uncommon, but that does not make the stress level any lower. For any business, but especially start-up/small businesses, cash is king. Without it, you are dead. If you are lucky enough to find a bank to give you a loan, cash becomes even more of a stress. Starting the first month you have principal and interest payments to make every month and on time…or else.
We owned our first small business when the “Great Recession” happened. While we survived, there were times our cash on hand got extremely low. I attribute our ability to survive to two main things: honesty and good communication. I believe both, along with process, planning and data are the pillars of business success. Let me explain.
When I worked for an international corporation, helping lead a $100m business unit based here in Arizona, two of the positions I held were managing the Billing Department and the Accounts Receivable Department. I understood the needs and wants of the people who worked for me and who interacted with the customers. They all were very personable people who cared about family and friends. And they all were dedicated to their jobs and doing what was right for their company.
Flash forward to when we purchased our first business, with 3 employees. I had to wear many hats, including purchasing product, paying bills, invoicing customers and collecting payments. I quickly realized that these people could help me tremendously with my cash flow. Obviously if you can collect your revenues in a timely manner and use terms to pay vendors that is going to help you manage the flow of cash. But small businesses don’t have much clout with most other companies, especially the larger entities we were dealing with on the vendor side.
So early on I went on a charming mission. I contacted vendors and if I could went to meet the people in their accounts payable departments. I found out about children, where they were from, etc. I became their friend in addition to being their client. Once I had a good rapport I started asking how I could get credit lines, then larger credit lines, and finally terms! Net 30 day terms were wonderful, Net 45 amazing!
I went to the customer’s accounting people and did the same thing. I asked about their processes so I could make sure I did not cause problems with their processes, and ultimately how to get paid as quickly as possible. When ever someone had a question, perhaps I mis-applied a payment, or paid something short accidentally, I would always react quickly to attend to and correct the problem, or relate what I found if there was no problem. As a result, whenever I had a problem with the payments I could go directly to the source for help.
I also happen to be a very honest person, so when I saw cashflow problems cropping up I would contact the vendors as early as possible and tell them I was going to have a cash crunch and might be a little late in paying. Most importantly, I then had to meet what ever I had promised to gain their confidence. To do that, I had to make the time to communicate with our client’s accounting people to have a solid idea on when cash would actually arrive. With that knowledge I could prioritize payments to vendors and be honest in telling them when I thought they would get paid. When we met those promises, the vendors loosened up even more for us. None of that would have occurred if we had not fostered the rapport and relationships with the right people.
Over time cash flow problems would clear up, but that did not diminish my communication with vendors and clients. So when the really difficult times came, we had a “team” of people willing and able to help us through the tough times. I truly believe that it was my honesty and close communication that saved us.
One side story: One day we got the largest order we had ever received. It was four times larger than our prior biggest order. While we had built up good credit lines and terms with our key vendors, we did not have enough credit at any of them to be able to place purchase orders for all of the equipment. During the bidding process we realized that by splitting up the orders we were going to hurt ourselves from a price/competitive perspective. I believe it was because of our great relationships that we were able to get one of the vendors to agree to increase our credit line if we won the bid. That enabled us to get the best discount and match the pricing our competition was getting from their vendors. We won that bid and it was one of the reasons we survived the Great Recession.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
While pivoting is a part of life, there is one that hit me hard and that I am very proud of. When we sold our first business in 2013 it was not because we wanted to. During the “Great Recession” our bank went bankrupt and our bank loan got sold to a new bank from out of state. We met with the loan officers at the new bank and had a great rapport with them. I made sure that by the 2nd day of each month they had the reports they wanted and that our loan payments were always on time. While there is much more detail to this story, we went to meet with them about renewing the loan about two years after they purchased it. They informed us that due to restrictions put on the purchase of our loan by the FDIC it could not be renewed. Our option was to obtain a whole new loan based on their underwriting requirements, and that meant a more than doubling of the monthly payment. It was not something we could handle, and they knew the odds were we would have to look for an alternative.
The end result is we sold the business to payoff the loan. The new firm that bought us as a division of their larger company did not have a good role for me. After a difficult 5 months we mutually parted ways and I was left without a job and time to think about the rest of my life. I was 53 years old at the time and it was 2013 when employment was not exactly roaring back. I had no idea what I was going to do, felt very betrayed by our bank, had a bad taste in my mouth about my relationship with the people at the company who purchased us and, to be honest, was burned out after working 60-70 hours a week during the time we owned the company and finding/negotiating the sale.
After a few interviews where I was either the old guy option, the expensive option, or both, I had to do some serious reflection about what I was going to do. Throughout the 9 years I ran our first business I made many mistakes. While I had help run a $100m business for 10+ years prior to that, I really did not have much knowledge about running a small business. I had learned a lot in the years of self-employment and felt I wanted to give back by helping small business owners avoid many of the errors I made. That was the start of the Excel Consulting Group and, eventually, BusinessSuccessSecrets.com. I became a mentor in the Arizona State University Entrepreneur and Innovation program, and the State of Arizona’s ACA Venture Ready Program. I supported other incubators and several start-up businesses and then realized I was consulting.
As we met some great business owners, my wife and I decided to invest in some and hence our involvement in our two current businesses. Along the way I also have written two books: “Mitch’s Pocket Guide to a Great Business Plan”, and “Mitch’s Framework to Business Development” in response to my clients needs. Both books started as a series of blogs on my website that I was encouraged to publish as books. As a result, here I sit today, working for myself and enjoying my wife’s retirement with her as I ease into retirement myself. I call that a pivot to success!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://businesssuccesssecrets.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=business%20success%20secrets
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchell-bolnick-3b294511/
- Youtube: https://businesssuccesssecrets.com/video-what-makes-a-great-business-plan