The decision to leave a successful business built upon a significant financial and emotional investment is one many small business operators eventually have to take.
The decision to leave a successful business built upon a significant financial and emotional investment is one many small business operators eventually have to take.
For both Gary Delves and Deborah Pitter, changing family dynamics and a need to reassess work commitments drove their decision to leave their respective businesses.
Speaking at a forum on work/life balance last week, the former WA Business News 40under40 winners conveyed some of the reasons for their change in direction.
Mr Delves said the decision to sell his retail business, Bike Force, which he built into an award-winning franchise, was motivated by a combination of factors, particularly the desire to sell at a peak time and increasing his changing family situation.
“We had a 20 per cent increase per year in the last years,” he said.
“The business still had the potential to keep increasing but, at the time, we had to say; ‘these are the sacrifices we’ve made, let’s move on to something that doesn’t take seven days a week’.”
Mr Delves said he was very happy with the decision to sell and had no regrets.
“We thought the best thing to do was to leave all our options open,” he said.
After taking six months off to travel, and brainstorming with some friends in the US, Mr Delves said he was currently negotiating with several companies to become a distributor in WA for a range of convenience products.
He said the long-term goal was to become involved in the vending industry, potentially at the top end of the market, incorporating cashless technology, which is being used in the US.
For Deborah Pitter, a changing lifestyle was a major incentive for the decision to close her consultancy, Business Today, which she had established in her early 20s.
Ms Pitter closed the business after realising the need for a major restructure.
“I brought a manager in and tried to restructure the business through a joint venture arrangement, but I realised the business was very dependent on me and that I’d created a job rather than a true business,” she said.
“That was when I realised I had to re-engineer the business if I wanted to continue.”
Ms Pitter said she realised she had created a situation where the business was overly dependent on her, and with the demands of a young family, decided to close the business rather than restructure.
She has since bought the master franchise in WA for small business consultancy Icon Solutions, with business partner Paul Reed.
“It’s not a dissimilar business, but it’s a very systematic approach,” she said.
Although the two businesses delivered a similar service in business improvement, the models of each were very different, Ms Pitter said.
She describes herself as managing the business at Icon, rather than being self-employed.
“Icon is very systemised and process driven, with a systematic approach to business improvement,” Ms Pitter told forum.
“Business Today had an individual approach to every client relationship.”
