- PrivatEquityGuy
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- Time management 101; HoldCo edition
A quick note before we jump in…
Every time I start building something I ask, what would XYZ do?
When it comes to investing, acquiring and growing a business, I often ask - what would Mr. Steve Schwarzman do?
And here's how I think he'd manage his time building HoldCo in 2023.
At least that's how I do it.
- - - -
Dream in Decades -> Think in Years -> Work in Weeks -> Live in Days
Dream in Decades
This is where you let your mind wander.
Find a quiet space and let ideas build up your dream about all the golden geese–and their golden eggs–that you want in your life.
Think long, and think concretely: picture everything you want to have in your life - family, health, HoldCo, etc.
*Do whatever you need to actually feel that success.
Just make sure to aim for the ambitious eggs that are way out in your future.
Some of my personal goals:
I want to aggressively double the revenues and profits of our portfolio companies in the first 3-4 years
I want my podcast to be big enough in the HoldCo space that whoever I invite says Yes
I want to build a HoldCo portfolio of 20 niche companies
Think in Years
Time to break it into smaller pieces.
You’re planning every part of a twelve-month layer cake that will churn out your golden eggs.
Here's how I think about it:
A system to go prospect and find companies to purchase.
Let’s call it a cold-calling system – building a pipeline of niche companies worth $1-5 million who want to sell the majority of their business to us.
20-50 calls per week to new companies;
1. to maintain relationships (being on top of mind when they want to sell)
to understand their current situation
3. to understand the overall market.
At this stage, I'm doing the calls myself (I really enjoy doing this and I'm pretty sure it's something I'll never outsource - it's just too valuable an activity.)
Here is a screenshot of the Excel file I use to track all my deals:
Next.
A fund-raising system for bringing in investors.
I spend a significant amount of my time building relationships with people through Twitter (@PrivatEquityguy), podcasts (HoldCo Builders), and live events. (First one is going to be in Geneva, in August).
Each of these is a part of my layer cake, and I can get them in motion within the year.
Once that happens, I can start to understand what that cake might taste like when it’s fully baked.
Work in Weeks
This is where the huge dream meets with reality.
You know what you want to do in a decade, and in a year.
You know the systems you need to set in motion to make it happen.
Now, zoom in on the day-to-day for each system.
If you are in a project’s development stage, what do you have to do from week to week to get it off the ground?
If your systems are already running, what needs to happen every week to keep the project going and growing?
Live in Days
This is where your work thrives or dies.
When you live in days you’re focusing on the two or three things you can get done in one day that will help you reach what you want to accomplish in weeks.
That work will feed up to the systems that you’re building over the course of a year. That’s it.
My plan looks like this:
In the next decade, I will have 20 profitable niche businesses in our portfolio.
This year, my plan is to acquire 1 profitable niche business.
To accomplish the year’s goal, I’ve set five systems:
System 1: Build a pipeline of profitable $1-5M niche businesses
System 2: Sell products and services of current portfolio company
System 3: Record a podcast episode
System 4: Post to Twitter
System 5: Calls with investors
Each day of the week I’ll focus on building out one of these systems. Obviously I mix it up some days.
The secret to recognizing what you’ve accomplished over the past year without having to measure everything. You just need to measure one thing: money in the bank.
If that number has gone up in a year, then double-check that you’ve living the life you want by asking: Do I feel good?
If you answer yes to both, job well done:)
Take care,
Mikk aka PrivatEquityGuy
P.S. On Tuesday I uploaded another podcast episode:
Podcast name: HoldCo Builders
What to expect? Well, Amir shares a story on how the following happened:
