QUEST ADVISINGText Max (210) 880-5690Who do I check a big decision with when nobody around me has run a company?
For the owner of a $5M to $15M company with a big call to make.
The decision is on your desk: a second location, a key hire, the manager who is not working out. At 3 o'clock this morning you ran it again, and you still do not know who to run it past. One owner put it plainly: "I don't have anyone experienced enough around me to sanity-check my decisions."
Our judgment: you probably already ask people, and each is a good check on one part. Keep using each for their part. Then add one person outside the payroll and the family who has run a company, to hear the whole thing and tell you what they think. The decision stays yours.
Below is what each can check and what they cannot, without joining a group and without handing the call away.
If there is a decision on your desk now, start a conversation with Max Kozlovsky, the advisor behind Quest, who started Quantum Golf, and Pakta, a pricing company whose technology sold to Compaq. Fifteen minutes, nothing to prepare, and he asks the questions.
It is hard to tell the boss he is wrong when you both live with the call.
Each checks the piece that is their job, and does not look at the rest.
They want you safe and home, which is a different question from whether the call is right.
What it costs to decide alone
You are not unusual. An NFIB Research Foundation study of 750 small business owners found: "47% of small employers did not seek out anyone to discuss the year's most significant business decision with."
"The most frequent reason (56%) offered for pursuing this closely held course of action is that they knew what they needed to do as soon as they recognized the matter. The second most frequently cited reason was privacy (22%)."
Those two reasons are where it goes wrong. The decisions most worth checking are the ones you feel surest about, and the ones you cannot say out loud at work. So they get made at night, alone.
Who you probably ask now
The same NFIB study found: "Engaging different people for different situations appears to be the most productive consulting style in terms of profitability and employment increase/loss of the three styles examined."
Your CPA or bookkeeper. Checks the cash and the tax well, but not your people or your market.
Your banker or lawyer. Checks the downside of the loan or the contract, not the upside.
Your spouse. Knows you best and shares the risk, but has not run this company.
Your number two or your team. Knows the business, but reports to you and will live with the call.
A friend who owns a business. Has run a company, just not yours, and hears ten minutes of it over a beer.
A peer group, if you have one. Real owners, who hear a summary at the next meeting.
AI. Awake at 3 in the morning, answers what you ask, and does not know your people.
For paid help, Who to hire between $5M and $50M lays out the options.
Owners, in their own words
If one decision keeps coming back, say it to Max in your own words.
What a real check needs
Hears the whole decision, not the summary
A real check hears all of it in one place, including the part you have not said out loud yet. That part is the one nobody checked.
Has run a company, and has nothing riding on it
Advice about making payroll means more from an owner who has had to make it. One owner's test: "You don't want advice from someone that's never started a company." And it has to come from outside the payroll and the family, so nobody is protecting a job, a loan or a marriage when they answer.
Says it to your face, and then you still decide
A check that only agrees with you is not a check. Max, in one owner's meeting: "I'll tell you what I heard: it's gonna take a lot to make that work, and it's gonna take time. And we don't have time." Then the call goes back to the owner.
What the decision needs checked, and who checks it
| What the decision needs checked | Who usually checks it |
|---|---|
| The cash and the tax | Your CPA or bookkeeper |
| The risk to the loan or the contract | Your banker or lawyer |
| What it does to you and the family | Your spouse |
| How the team will take it | Your number two |
| The whole decision, by somebody who has run a company and has nothing riding on it | Usually nobody |
One decision, walked past the people around one owner
Made up. This owner, company and decision are not a client, and none of it is Max's words. The question: a second location 90 miles away.
- The CPA: "The cash works if the first year goes to plan."Not checked: Who would run the new location, and who would run the first one.
- The banker: "We can do the loan at those terms."Not checked: Whether this is the right year to take on a loan at all.
- The spouse: "Is this going to mean more nights away?"Not checked: The market 90 miles away, and the real numbers.
- The number two: "Sounds great, boss."Not checked: He was the obvious pick to run it, and he did not want to move.
- A friend who owns a business, over a beer: "Go for it, you'll figure it out."Not checked: Anything past the ten minutes he heard.
It starts with fifteen minutes. At the end you both know if it is worth sitting down for longer.
Before you decide
With or without help.
Who has heard the whole thing? If everyone got the short version, nobody has checked the decision, only pieces of it.
Who has nothing riding on it? Take out anyone whose job, loan or home changes with your answer, and see who is left.
Has anyone who has run a company heard it? Not about companies in general. About this decision.
What would you not say out loud at work? That part needs to be heard by somebody, and it probably cannot be your team.
If you are sure, who has tried to talk you out of it? If nobody has tried, nobody has checked it.
Where an advisor fits, and the limit
Max started Quantum Golf, and Pakta, a machine-learning pricing company whose technology sold to Compaq. He hears the whole decision, says back what he heard, plainer than you said it, and says what he thinks. He does not decide for you, and he does not replace your CPA, your lawyer or your spouse. The call stays yours.
The short version
- Each person around you is a good check on one part.
- Use each for their part. None of them is meant to check all of it.
- Add one outsider who has run a company to hear the whole thing.
- The decision stays yours.
This page is useful even if you never talk to Max. If you want to, start a conversation, or text him.
Questions owners ask
My wife knows me better than anyone. Isn't she enough?
She is the best check on you and on what the family can take, and she shares the risk. Keep asking her, and add somebody for the part of the business she has not run.
I usually know what I want to do. Why check at all?
That is the most common reason owners in the NFIB study gave for checking with nobody. The calls you feel surest about are the ones nobody has tried to talk you out of.
Will Max tell me what to do?
No. He says back what he heard and says what he thinks, and the decision stays yours.
What if it's confidential, a partner or a key person?
Those need an outside check the most, because you cannot say them out loud at work. Max does not report to you, and you say only what you are comfortable saying.
Do I need to bring numbers or a plan?
No. Nothing to prepare, and he asks the questions.
A big decision on your desk? Say what it is.
Start a conversation or text Max, and say the decision in your own words. It starts with fifteen minutes. At the end you both know if it is worth sitting down for longer.
If it is not a fit, he says so and that is the end of it, no follow-up.
You hear back typically the same day, or early the next. Nothing to prepare.