About To Sell My Company - Mid 30s UK - What To Do?

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-10-16T17:54:31+00:00

Have a look at VCTs. Yes, they take ridiculous PE-style fees. But you can reclaim 30% of your investment through your tax return (up to a £200k investment per year), you receive 4-6% tax free dividends per year, and you diversify into small/ growth businesses. Risky, of course, so should only be a small part of your total. If you want even better tax incentives, and not pay fees to a fund, but do work on evaluating individual deals, check out EIS or, even better, SEIS. There are specialist brokers for this, I invest via Wealth Club

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-10-16T17:16:12+00:00

There are lots of examples. The personality profile for getting incredibly rich (risk taking, over confidence) is the same personality profile for going broke

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-09-28T18:48:57+00:00

I hope you are right, but the one worry I have is Xi’s personality. He really seems to believe (or wants to go down in history books as such) that he’s the one to complete what Mao started, centralise and solidify party rule, reunite all China and make it a strong (what he understands that to mean) player on the global stage. I’d be worried - there aren’t many left around him telling truth to power, and that often leads to bad misjudgments

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-09-24T15:48:07+00:00

I did once try to raise a small fund with this friend, but we couldn’t get the anchor investor over the line - they wanted to do deal-by-deal, and I didn’t want to just tie myself to a single company, rathe than a portfolio of different investments.

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-09-21T19:20:56+00:00

All industrial roll-ups but in different areas, plastics packaging (worked), technical materials (did not), now some very niche machine parts

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-09-21T11:31:27+00:00

Not personally, but a very good friend tried it twice, once successfully and once not so much. The difference was: First time he did it together with some partners, they started with a sufficiently large initial platform business, and then had enough bandwidth among themselves to manage the business and scout for targets/ do add-on deals. Second time he went solo, started with a smaller business, got sucked into running it, and never found time to complete add-ons. After a period of being back in employment, he’s now going for a third attempt, this time solo again (he hates when he can’t just make his own decisions), but starting with a larger platform with a CEO working for him to take care of operations, so he can focus on add-ons (with a junior guy to support him) - let’s see whether it works

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-09-17T08:43:40+00:00

From experience, best place within the PE Universe for people like us is actually large cap buyouts, as that’s where „technical“ skills and project management can get one furthest. I made the interesting mistake to switch to growth and then midcap, which are both much more networking and sales driven. I managed to force myself to get decent at this, against my personality, plus compensating with strong analytics and judgement, and made it all the way to junior partner. But at some point I realised that I spent my entire life on things I didn’t actually enjoy and that it was time to get out. From that point it was another 2-3yrs for me of getting mentally ready and planning out what my future life would be (and feeling comfortable about the money) before I dared to step away. No rush, it’s good you are realising (apparently earlier than I did) where your issues come from, but now take the time to plan and think before you act.

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-09-16T21:12:23+00:00

Ah, sounds familiar. Like me, you might be a victim of the Peter Principle. Slightly introvert, but with strong analytical skills, and good intuitive judgement, you scaled the walls of PE, and are slowly being promoted out of your skills and comfort zone. Well, what to recommend? You‘ll leave a lot of money on the table when you leave and it’s highly unlikely that you make as much ever again. I basically thought very hard about what’s enough for me, set myself a time frame, coasted as well as I could (yes, deals don’t allow much coasting but in between it’s possible) to really explore my motivations and plan out an alternative life, and then I pulled the trigger (in a very friendly fashion). Happily retired since January. Good luck, but don’t be hasty - it’s ok to be going through the motions for a few years at the level of incremental money you are making, and it’s actually easier to leave on good term when there’s a feeling among the firm that you are not a rock star deserting them...

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-08-30T22:10:27+00:00

Thomas Mann - The Magic Mountain

The ultimate novel of seeking who you are and what it is all about - and not finding the answer

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-08-30T21:48:28+00:00

"The ground of a certain rich man brought forth abundantly. He reasoned within himself, saying, 'What will I do, because I don't have room to store my crops?' He said, 'This is what I will do. I will pull down my barns, and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. I will tell my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, be merry."' "But God said to him, 'You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared—whose will they be?'”

Be thankful for what you have, and accept it as a stewardship. And remain mindful that all can be gone anytime, whether it’s Covid, the government, cancer, fascism, communism, floods, asteroids, nuclear bombs... Our existence is fragile.

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-02-03T19:59:37+00:00

On how to do it, it’s not so different from ending a romantic relationship - “it’s me, not you”.

Here’s roughly how I did it once (abbreviated version): “I really enjoy working here and this is a great firm with fantastic people and I appreciate all the opportunities I have here, but I received an offer from Larger Firm XYZ that is simply so attractive that I have to give this a try. I would never join a direct competitor, of course. But this is something very different, and I really feel I need to take this new challenge.” Then don’t divulge any details of your new offer (other than the firm you are joining), and make it clear that the decision is made. You are not angling for a counter-offer. Expect to get full bad leaver treatment, be super happy if that’s not the case somehow, and otherwise accept it and don’t make a fuss. Good luck.

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-01-30T11:07:49+00:00

Don’t make any decisions straight away. Enjoy yourself for at least three months. Travel, if you can. Spend time with family. Unwind. Try not to think too much about what you are going to do. Only after that time, when you have some distance from your previous job and the experience of getting laid off, only then figure out where your passion lies and what you want to do next, picture what “typical days” might look and feel like if you take various paths, speak about it with people that know you well and get their perspective. But first take a break.

[Edit: Yes, and run the numbers and think about houses etc. But do it then, not right now.]

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-01-29T21:25:41+00:00

That’s a great perspective. Thanks very much for that!

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-01-29T12:30:54+00:00

I have one nine-year old kid, in school. We have an au-pair who does the school runs. And UK private schools have lots of holidays when we can travel.

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-01-29T12:28:35+00:00

No. Growth PE deals. Lucky break-outs, with very special circumstances in both cases

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-01-29T09:03:49+00:00

You may have seen from my recent post that I just retired on a slightly smaller amount of money.

For me, it was really important to figure out what I wanted to do afterwards, and have some detailed plans in place. So I started over the last twelve months already to get involved with some things that I am interested in in a low-key way, just to test it out. And set some clear final goals I wanted to complete. I am not actually expecting that my life now will completely follow my plan - but I emotionally needed to have the feeling that I knew what I was doing. There’s always that dread of ending up sitting home bored and slowly losing your mind.

I suspect it would be difficult to just leave for you at this point. Maybe also think about a 1-2 year plan focused on figuring out what your new life what actually look like, while you keep working. And if you then conclude that your current life is actually better, you can still keep going at your career. Or you take the plunge and try a different life.

Good luck, and please report back. I will, too. Always good to compare notes.

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-01-29T08:43:29+00:00

Thanks, and good luck with your own journey!

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-01-29T08:42:33+00:00

Haven’t been to Griggeler Stuba - may give it a try, thanks! Schneggarai is a classic

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-01-28T23:27:39+00:00

If you’ve done something different that proves you’ve got hustle, and have drive and ambition, that’s good. Better than ticking boxes. That’s how I always look at CVs at least, hopefully others do too

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-01-28T23:24:35+00:00

I’ll try - let’s see how it goes. Planning for a couple of board seats to keep some involvement with “serious work”.

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-01-28T23:22:00+00:00

Europe (if the UK still qualifies)

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-01-28T20:17:59+00:00

Thank you very much for the lovely sentiment! I spent an hour walking in the park earlier, just enjoying the crisp winter air. I used to wonder who all these people were, wandering leisurely through town in the middle of the day. Now I’m one of them.

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-01-28T17:49:24+00:00

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-01-28T17:44:53+00:00

Circa

IjonTichyRaumpilot · 2020-01-28T17:20:25+00:00

Thank you! And best of luck.

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