Todd Perry is an engineer who worked as an employee at McIntosh Hill, a growing engineering consulting firm in 1993. Later, he bought shares of the company and acted as the President of McIntosh Perry before he sold out the company to a bigger firm with bigger plans.

Todd's sense of responsibility, inclusiveness, decision-making, openness to ideas and agile business moves make him a successful entrepreneur and businessman.

And my favourite part: Todd's idea to pierce through uncomfortable discussions to find opportunities for something bigger.

The opportunity to do a little bit of everything

Todd began his journey as the first-ever engineering executive for McIntosh Hill. Different roles brought different experiences in his career that helped him contribute to sustainable business growth. It also tested Todd's abilities through some difficult phases.

His projects involved buildings, roads, bridges and more. Todd shares his experience of how an organization with not many overhead rules evolved from 7 employees to 300 employees and eventually merged with a bigger engineering enterprise. Todd recalls the senior partners offered to sell him 20% of the company shares. It was a career turning point.

Todd says, "So I ended up buying into the company. And I think at that point in time, my buy-in was something along the lines of $80,000, maybe $40,000 even. Not significant, but that bought me 20% of the company."

However, with every new role comes new responsibilities.

The importance of highlighting opportunities behind uncomfortable conversations

Todd says that business partnerships should not affect personal relationships. There will be uncomfortable conversations between business partners, for example if partners do not want to work together any longer. Engaging in the hardest business-related conversations is the smartest decision for a business person. It creates new opportunities and prospects for everyone. Todd also highlights the importance of partnership in business. There are different visionaries with the same vision who find innumerable ways to make a brand work, and that spirit of collaboration is worth exploring.

Todd remembers an incident with a client that taught him to share bad business news with others right away. He says, "you realize that the quicker you tell people the bad news, the less painful it is because, in the absence of information, people will make things up in their own mind. So we made a point of saying to people, if you have bad news, tell them right away. If you have good news, wait till you see them in person."

Give yourself grace to make mistakes, admit them, and fix them

Todd says that actively owning your mistakes and finding ways to fix them has a better impact on clients. It helps to build new policies, crosscheck processes, and plan better.

Brand growth happens from this agility. Further, the value of expertise is significant to the learning process. When experts like financial, legal, and other advisors come together to evaluate your business policies, you add to your plans infinitely.  

External board members of a brand have different backgrounds and come with a lot of experience. Todd says, "We got a woman who had spent her career with PwC, in mergers and acquisitions, and she understood the space and she could look at the financial statements and in about three minutes have an opinion. I could stare at them all day long and, and not really grasp what she could see in such a short time. She just asked different questions. She wasn't in our business, but she understood business."

The importance of quick plans to adapt rapidly

Todd highlights the importance of a flexible system and how to make it work. He says, "Jim and I owned the company, but we were still in there on the weekends when things needed to be done. If there was a mess in the back shop, we would be cleaning it up. Or if there was a late proposal to do, we were there helping the admin staff staple things together and, bind things up. And if we had to deliver it, we did. I think that was another thing that a lot of entrepreneurs figure out in due time, but some people miss the mark, where they just assume that I'm the boss, I don't have to do that. I've always said over my career that I've worked with a lot of people and never that people work for me."

Fun, frank advice from Todd Perry

“Quit thinking about it and start to do it. It doesn't matter what you're talking about. Whether it's financial planning or growing your business or thinking of selling the business, stop thinking about it and just start to execute. And that's such a difficult thing to do. But boy, the reward when you start to do it is great.”

For more insights to secure your future business plans, please listen to Todd Perry's conversation with Colleen O'Connell-Campbell.

Listen to the entire podcast here:

https://iamamillionairesonowwhat.libsyn.com/ep220-business-buyout-consulting