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Episode Summary
You took a corporate paycheck for two decades, you’ve got a 401(k) you haven’t touched, and somewhere in the back of your head is the question every corporate refugee eventually asks: could I just buy a business and run it myself. Mike Wickham did exactly that. He spent his career turning around divisions for GTE and Verizon, got cynical, started a consulting firm, and ended up buying one of his own clients (a struggling plumbing franchise) by collateralizing his house, his stock portfolio, and a chunk of his 401(k). What I wanted to get into is the part most owners skip: he ran the business with an exit date on the calendar from year two. He built a “just-in-case” sale document in year two, updated it semi-annually, then quarterly, and treated it as the operating dashboard. He hired a GM around the year-and-a-half mark even though it cost him personally, because he was building toward an absentee-owner Milestone 3 — Net Worth & Valuation Targets, not a fatter W-2. He grew from $1M to nearly $3M, sold in year five exactly as planned, and his CPA’s net-proceeds estimate came in within $5,000 of the actual wire. That kind of precision doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because he ran the business the way most owners only run the sale process: with a number, a date, and a plan.
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## Top 10 Takeaways- If you don’t pick a date and a number, you’ll keep rolling your exit forward five years until you’re 70.
- A “just-in-case” sale document built in year two becomes your operating dashboard for years three, four, and five.
- Your bank loves a quarterly operational and financial review more than your CPA does. Build it once, get cheaper capital forever.
- Hiring a GM costs you personally in the short run and pays you a higher multiple at exit. Both are real.
- An absentee-owner business sells for more than an owner-operator business doing the same EBITDA.
- SBA loans look cheap until you see the collateral schedule. Get conventional financing the moment your numbers support it.
- Distressed companies with good bones (real customers, real database, real systems) are buyable. Distressed companies without them are jobs.
- Pay top wages, pour money into your team, run a leaner P&L on purpose. Turnover costs more than the line item ever shows.
- Knowing your franchise’s valuation grid is a cheat code most private owners never get. Build your own grid if you don’t have one.
- The day you wire-out, you should know your net to within rounding error. If you don’t, you don’t have advisors, you have vendors.
Sound Bites
“I’m not borrowing against the house. I’m going to use part of my 401k and this’ll be, it’s really cheap. I got it at a very, very good price.” (@TBD) — Mike Wickham
“I would rather drive a really nice work truck on the company’s balance sheet than give that money to the government.” (@TBD) — Mike Wickham
“I came up with a document. It was my just-in-case document and it was basically the brochure on buying my company.” (@TBD) — Mike Wickham
“That check that I got that day was within $5,000 of his estimate.” (@TBD) — Mike Wickham
“There’s actually a running joke out there that every owner’s got a five-year rolling exit plan because when they get closer, they just push it back out, but you actually did it.” (@TBD) — Ryan Tansom
About This Episode
Mike Wickham spent two decades in corporate America running turnarounds for GTE and Verizon, including the government and major accounts division in San Diego and the Southern California business unit. After leaving Verizon, he started a consulting firm helping small and mid-sized companies build sales infrastructure, which led him to acquire one of his distressed clients (a residential plumbing franchise in the Twin Cities). He ran it for five years, grew it from under $1M to nearly $3M, sold it in year five exactly as planned, and now works as an operating partner with Gratis Capital. His story is a clean case study in acquisition entrepreneurship with a pre-built exit on the calendar.
Resources Mentioned
- The Dwyer Group — The franchise group (now Neighborly) Mike’s plumbing business operated under, based in Waco, TX.
- The E-Myth by Michael Gerber — Referenced for the “entrepreneurial seizure” concept.
- The Unforced Rhythms of Grace and Gratitude by Mike Wickham — Mike’s book, available on Amazon.
- Gratis Capital — Where Mike works now as an operating partner.
- Email Mike — mike@wickham.com
Connections
Phase + Module:
- Module 1 — Ownership Goals — Mike picked a number and a date in year two and ran the business backward from it
- Module 3 — Owner’s Playbook — The “just-in-case” sale document as a recurring operating cadence
Milestones:
- Milestone 3 — Net Worth & Valuation Targets — The five-year valuation target Mike was solving for from year two forward
- Milestone 7 — Value Growth Plan — Hiring the GM, buying neighbor territories, running absentee-owner on purpose
- Milestone 6 — Transaction Value — CPA scenario modeling that landed within $5K of the actual wire
Concepts referenced:
- Value Growth Plan™ — The five-year arc from acquisition through exit
- The Owner-Operator Trap™ — Mike’s deliberate decision to build out of the seat by year two
- Independence by Design™ — Buying with an exit date, running with a number, selling on schedule
- Three Lenses of Value — Owner’s value, market value, and transaction value all reconciled at close