Ep. 12 — Eric Gustafson: I Am Not My Business

4 min read

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Episode Summary

You’ve been told due diligence takes a year. Eric Gustafson closed his sale in two weeks, hit his earnout in eight months, and walked away from the company in his mid-thirties. He didn’t get lucky. He ran a blueprint and digital printing business the way an owner runs a company when he already has one foot outside it: financials closed by the fifth business day, margins he knew cold, a sales force automation system that put 10,000 extra contacts into the funnel every year, and a truck driver he mentored all the way to operations manager so the business didn’t need him in the building. I sat down with Eric to walk through how the company survived the 1991 Halloween blizzard, why he picked a friend over a stranger when the industry started consolidating, and the line that hit me the hardest: you are not your business. He consults closely held owners now, and he sees the same pattern over and over. The owners who can sell quickly are the ones who built something that doesn’t depend on them.

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## Top 10 Takeaways
  1. The Halloween blizzard almost ended the company in week one. Surviving the sucker punch is part of the game.
  2. Your sales force is your operations. Ten extra contacts a day per rep is 10,000 extra contacts a year.
  3. Charge for the deadline, not the print. Customers pay a premium when their job is on the line at 3 a.m.
  4. Manage labor as a percentage of sales. That single metric runs the cyclical business.
  5. The price your company is worth is not the price you need it to be. Cash flow and a real buyer decide.
  6. Closing your books by the fifth business day is the discipline that makes a two-week due diligence possible.
  7. Sign every invoice yourself in the early years. The habit trains the whole company on where the money goes.
  8. Build an outside Advisory Board of operators outside your industry. No emotional baggage, no family politics.
  9. A buyer you already trust closes in weeks. A stranger writing a check the size of yours will take a year.
  10. Your business is worth more when it doesn’t need you. That’s the paradox most owners can’t get their head around.

Sound Bites

“Your business is worth more generally if you’re not involved.” (@TBD) — Eric Gustafson

“We’re not in the printing business, we’re in the sales and marketing business.” (@TBD) — Eric Gustafson

“I am not my business. I am a guy who has a nice family and great kids and I like nonprofit stuff and I like certain recreational activities.” (@TBD) — Eric Gustafson

“If you do one thing right for 24 months, you’ve done 24 right things.” (@TBD) — Eric Gustafson

About This Episode

Eric Gustafson is a Minnesota-based business owner, investor, and advisor who co-built a digital printing and blueprint business with his brother in the early 1990s and sold it to an industry consolidator in his mid-thirties. He went on to do technology consulting inside a Big Six accounting firm, M&A work in the telecom space, and later invested in and exited a second business that sold to a public company. He now advises closely held business owners and sits on multiple nonprofit boards. He brings the rare combination of having taken two companies through the full arc, from on-his-back to sale, plus the financial discipline of an operator who ran the company on its numbers from day one.

Resources Mentioned

  • The E-Myth by Michael Gerber — Eric’s recommended read for owners thinking about building a business that doesn’t depend on them.
  • Eric Gustafson contact — 612-239-7833, eric@thgustafsongroup.com

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