I Built a Million Dollar Business I No Longer Wanted to Own

Five years ago, my dad was in the ICU. During that time, a client “fired” me, having absolutely no idea what I was going through. An employee negotiated her 401k benefits package, also completely in the dark about my dad. Then my dad died, and somewhere in the grief of it all, I realized that I wasn’t running my business the way I wanted to anymore.

We had grown to more than 40 staff, and somewhere along the way, the company had taken on a “corporate feel”. People weren’t doing anything wrong. The client didn’t know my dad was dying, and my employee had every right to advocate for her benefits. But not doing anything wrong is not the same as doing things with heart and compassion and empathy. I had become disconnected enough that the people I spent my days working alongside didn’t really know what was happening in my life. I knew what was happening in theirs though. And that made me feel even lonelier and that I was truly just a vendor and an employer. I was not an actual human or friend to them. And I could not do business that way.

So, I sold that business. And it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I had spent years believing that success meant more employees, more clients, more revenue, and a bigger operation, but losing my dad??? Losing my dad changed what success looked like to me. I didn’t want to have a company where no one knew (or cared) what I was going through. I wanted to build a company filled with people I genuinely liked, respected, trusted, and cared about. Which meant a much smaller operation.

Today, My CFO is four years old. We have gone through some hurdles, and I have learned that not everyone who says they want what I am offering, truly wants it. And that is okay. My team is extremely selective about the clients we onboard and the relationships we retain because the culture isn’t only created by your employees. Clients are part of the environment your team works in every day too, and I want ours filled with big, kind hearts, authentic people who want mutual respect and true connection.

It is so different from T&T, where our staff and clients were disjointed from one another and from me. I’m much happier now, and I genuinely love the people I get to work with, both on our team and within our client community. That doesn’t mean there aren’t hard conversations, boundaries, expectations, or frustrating days, because there absolutely are.

But it does mean I’ve become much more intentional about who I choose to experience those hard days with. Running a business is hard enough without spending your life surrounded by people you don’t enjoy, respect, or truly know. I used to think building a successful company meant seeing how big I could make it. Now I think success is being able to look around at the people you built it with and be grateful they’re there.

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