Career Stage 5: Becoming a Consultant

In the last post in this series (Career Stage 4), I talked about some of the lessons learned from selling my share in Vomela to my partner Tom Auth.

Because I was only 39 years old at that time, I knew that securing my success after Vomela was just as important as negotiating a profitable deal for my share. So, over the course of the 19-month sales process, I dedicated half of my time to the deal at hand, and the other half to planning my future endeavors.

I realized that I couldn’t control the sales process. So, I left the nitty-gritty details of the dealmaking up to my trusted advisors. That gave me time to focus on creating a new post-deal life based on my creativity, passions, and experience.

Becoming A Consultant to Vomela

Today, many people who leave full-time employment (voluntarily or involuntarily) choose to go the consultant route – at least for the short term.

And that’s what I did, forming the LaManna Alliance in 1993.

Before closing the sale of my share of Vomela to Tom Auth, I signed my first client – my former employer!

At the time, I knew Vomela didn’t have the in-house resources or contacts to buy the raw materials they needed for their expansion plans. So I structured the closing deal to name me as Vomela’s new raw materials supplier. Then, I cut a deal with 3M to resell their raw materials to Vomela at a discount rate.

I also reached out to the many other suppliers and experts I had dealt with during my years at Vomela, to tell them more about my new venture. (Personally, one by one: social media and LinkedIn didn’t yet exist!)

Over time, my experience at Vomela and as a consultant has paid off. The LaManna Alliance (rebranded the LaManna Consulting Group in 2020) has helped hundreds of clients in the label, converting, and specialty graphics markets to grow their businesses, buy other businesses, and sell their own businesses.

Lessons Learned

The term “consultant” means different things to different people. I prefer to think of myself as a “coach” – advising and encouraging business players how to continually refine their skills to win in both their careers and their lives.

Here are some of the lessons I have learned during the consulting phase of my career:

Network, network, network. Relationships matter. Even in an era when anyone can build groups of friends and followers online, networking at in-person events still matters. The best way to judge a person’s character is to look them straight in the eye – without the distortions of a video camera, computer screen, or VR headset.

Find people you trust to give good advice. Good consultants never claim to know it all. But they do know trusted sources of good advice. They have worked with enough experts over the years to sense which ones really know their stuff and which ones have only superficial knowledge of a subject.

Help people make connections. While LinkedIn is a powerful online tool, a lot of meaningful, longer-lasting connections still happen through offline introductions and referrals. When one of your referrals leads to new business or opportunities, your contact will be more than willing to make referrals to you. People are always willing to help those who helped them solve a problem.

Always be learning. My father and professors at Harvard Executive Leadership program taught me the value of continuous education. Whether you get information from business publications or podcasts, keep your mind open to trends, new technologies, and new ideas. Be curious about changes that could affect the way things work.

While many of my clients are business owners who are ready to retire, I love meeting younger business owners and entrepreneurs who are thinking about exit strategies and succession planning. They help me see new ways of thinking and understand what elements of business have and have not changed in the last 10 years.

Freely share what you know. Before the growth of content marketing, many consultants feared publishing their best ideas and insights. They worried that others would copy them. That thinking is short-sighted. When your published ideas resonate with people, they are more likely to contact you for paying assignments that help them with problems that are specific to their own situations.

Is Consulting a Viable Post-Sale Path for You?

Many business owners don’t give enough thought to what they want to do after they sell their businesses. But it’s a really important part of the process. Some business owners may want to retire, travel, and spend more time with family. Others may be eager to start another business, perhaps in a different field.

Personally, I believe that anyone who has successfully started, grown, and sold a business has gained wisdom that can help others feel more confident in their decisions or avoid costly mistakes.You can share that wisdom through consulting and/or writing books and articles.

In my memoir, They Named You Right, I candidly describe some of the painful life lessons I learned at a very young age as CEO of a fast-growing family business. Writing this book was a cathartic experience for me, and if you read it you will see why I am so adamant about some of the advice I give business owners.

If you are curious about the process of becoming a consultant after you sell your business or about writing a book about your own experiences, I can speak to both topics. Call me at 561-543-2323. I would be happy to share my thoughts.