Ep. 6 Everybody Says Five Years from Now Featuring: Kevin Bozung

Bob Roark: This is the Exit series. I’m Bob Rourke. This is for founders, brokers, and attorneys. The people who are in the room when the deal closed or before talking about what happens next. This is the conversation nobody else is having. On this episode, we have Kevin Bozung. He’s an executive business coach and former co-founder of SafetyNet. Kevin, welcome. Thank you for being on the show. And before we start, tell me about what you’re currently doing now post-exit. And what an ideal client looks like for you in your current role.

Kevin Bozung: Yeah, thanks, Bob, for having me on your show. And it’s been great getting to know you little bit. ⁓ I was in the IT managed services space. ⁓ I actually started in that industry when I was a teenager, so it’s really all I know. ⁓ so I’m spending my time working in the industry that I came from, ⁓ exclusively. So I work with a gentleman named Paul Sissel. ⁓ he was my business coach that I’d helped me at the last year or so that I had the company.

Bob Roark: Yeah, ⁓

Kevin Bozung: And so I spend most of my time working with him and his company, Growth Caddy. And at any given point in time, we have ⁓ ten IT managed service providers that we engage with directly and help them try to achieve their value creation strategy. ⁓ most of those companies are privately owned with one to three owners and they’re two and a half to ten million in revenue. ⁓ most of them have somewhere between ten and fifty employees. So that’s how I spend most of my time today is ⁓ or or now is working with those owners and talking about their daily issues and trying to experience share and point at best practices and get ⁓ unstuck.

Bob Roark: Unstuck. Yeah, there’s a bit of that going around. You know, before you closed your deal, Safety Net, you know, and for twenty-one years, what did that business actually do for you that wasn’t on the PL?

Kevin Bozung: Yeah, you know, I ⁓ I thought about that. And you know, you start the businesses usually because you know you’ve got a passion in something and you’d want to pursue it. ⁓ and it kind of quickly becomes ⁓ wow, this is something that can support my family’s lifestyle and I can provide my family with things that I didn’t have access to when I was growing up. So really what it did was it ⁓ allowed my family to have some a lot of great experiences. So, you know, like f is a for instance, you know, my wife She loves to travel. She loved to travel when we were dating back 25 years ago and she always wanted to see the world. So, you know, we’ve taken the kids to 10 different countries and two different continents. And, you know, during COVID, we bought a fifth-wheel camper and we I think we took them to 40 different states. ⁓ and during those travels, we’ve been to, you know, probably 15 or 20 different ski resorts. Skiing’s a big thing that my family likes to do. So ⁓ we’ve been able to do all those things and we’re fortunate to live in a beautiful place here in Michigan on the Great Lakes. So we boat and ⁓ via the boat we’re able to go to cool ports, harbors, islands and ⁓ I kinda enjoy experiences a lot of people don’t have access to. So so it’s really been about kind of creating that lifestyle ⁓ for my family and having have great experiences and access to things that frankly we probably otherwise wouldn’t have had.

Bob Roark: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, building building the memories. Excellent way, I think, to think about a business. You know, five years before you sold the business, were you already having that mental negotiation with yourself, you know, about a potential sell? And what was that conversation like?

Kevin Bozung: I would tell you probably about 10 years into the journey. ⁓ you know, the fun stops at some point and you realize you’ve got a business and your family depends on it, your employees depend on it, your customers depend on it. ⁓ it’s hard and that’s a lot of work. And then you, you know, at least this was my journey. I was younger when we started the company, but you start thinking about, you know, where’s this gonna go? Is it gonna go on forever? And you know, ⁓ what does that look like? So I joined some peer groups and started to understand that.

Bob Roark: Mm.

Kevin Bozung: you know, exiting and selling companies was a thing and started to get an idea kind of how that worked and what it looked like. And we were pretty early in the value building process back at that time. And ⁓ you know, I say I would say if we fast forwarded maybe five more years, ⁓ got to the point where it was a lot of work and burnout was a real thing. And ⁓ so five years before I sold I was probably in the mental space of I don’t want to do this anymore. So But I have to do this because, you know, so many people are depending on this thing to work. So, you know, how do I navigate? I don’t want to do this anymore, but I need to do this and and ⁓ trying to figure out what does that mean. So eventually put the pieces together to figure out that, you know, we needed to have a value creation strategy that allowed us to eventually exit the company. So so I was I was thinking probably five years ago that, you know, how am gonna get out from under this thing that I’ve created and ⁓ and eventually be able to do something different.

Bob Roark: Yeah, that’s that’s a long time. You know, ten years out doing value creation, that really wasn’t that well talked about as far as I can tell. You know, and then you go five years in and you go, Well, I’ve done that and now I’m ready to go and I got five more to go. Wha what was the extension, five more? Did you need to get it to a certain number or size or operating efficiency?

Kevin Bozung: Yeah, I’m ⁓ you know, I’m kind of a numbers oriented person. So I kept doing the math backwards. You know, I’d look at the lifestyle that we had and the monetary requirements to maintain that annually and then start doing the math backwards to say if I want to do that annually, how big is the pot need to be to sustain that? And through that exercise, and I did several iterations of it, but kind of came too, you know, on number people talk about what’s your number. And so I had done the mental, you know, math gymnastics to determine kind of what that number was. And I remember the first time I did it, it was kind of depressing because, you know, the the value of the company at that time was so far away from what that number needed to be. ⁓ and it was just like, you know. So that’s why it took five years is we had to get more intentional about, you know, we need to grow top line, obviously, but how do we how do we create value? And, you know, understanding that ⁓ buyers buy EBITDA.

Bob Roark: Yeah.

Kevin Bozung: So buyers buy profits. So it’s not just about top line creation, but it’s about expanding that bottom line. And then, you know, backing your all the way up into understanding valuation multiples and kind of all this stuff to finally arrive to a point where I could plot out, you know, this year, next year, and the year after, you know, where does it need to go to be able to hit those numbers? And and unfortunately for us, honestly, I was thinking we would probably have the business into 2027, 2028.

Bob Roark: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Bozung: And ⁓ we had a banner year, things were going really well. We got our EBITDA cranked up to where it needed to be. And ⁓ our you know, business coach, who’s a guy I work with now, ⁓ made an introduction to us to a buyer. I remember having that conversation with ⁓ with Rob too, and I said, you know, I’m figuring I’m gonna be at this for three more years, you know, because here’s my number and I I probably need three more years to get there. And ⁓ they were in a point with their ⁓ private equity cycle. that they needed to do some acquisitions and they were able to ⁓ bridge the gap and provide us the number that we needed two, three years earlier than we thought we’d get there.

Bob Roark: Yeah. You know, I I that’s not a common thought process where you start backing into the buyer’s perspective and how you need to shape your company to match, you know, a buyer’s requirements. Do you remember when that became front and center? Was that around the five year mark?

Kevin Bozung: It was well, it’s about fifteen years into the company, about five years before we sold. So, you know, it was that stage of, you know, severe burnout, trying to figure out how to get out from under this thing and really trying to boil it down into, you know, what do we need to do? And I tell people this all the time, you know, if you were to ask any given business owner when they think that might sell the company, everybody says five years from now. And next year they’re gonna tell you five years from now. You know, when you get to a point where you’ve got a specific number and a date.

Bob Roark: Yeah.

Kevin Bozung: And you lock that in in your mind, all of a sudden all the decisions you make every day, they f need to fall in alignment with that date and that number, and everything gets sharper. And ⁓ in in our case, what we experienced is the ⁓ we accelerated on that path to hitting the number that we needed, because you know, all the other noise and things that came up with the distractions, it was a lot easier to say no to those things because they weren’t on the path to where we needed to go. And I agree with you. I I don’t think most business owners think that way. Unfortunately, I think a lot of them start thinking that way ⁓ when they’re at such a state of burnout or you know, or there’s a deaf a divorce or something happens that causes them need to need to exit. And then they don’t necessarily have the time that they need to get everything in alignment. So I you know, we were fortunate that we were thinking far enough ahead that we had the time. And, you know, a lot of good fortune, a lot of good things happen too along the way to kinda have that happen. But

Bob Roark: Mm-hmm. Yeah, you know, it ⁓ my fan of business owners always have been. And you know, I think about what you learn and you know, you have a passion for your business, but where do you go to get educated on, you know, that being exit ready is actually just good business. And I don’t know that that degree or education exists anywhere in a formal fashion, I don’t think.

Kevin Bozung: Not that I’ve seen. ⁓ you know, you try to read pick up books and read books, and there’s there’s a few good ones out there that ⁓ picked up along the way, but a lot of it was people that I met. You know, one of my friends here, I’m in in our Traverse City home for the summer. I’ve got a friend, Brian, that ⁓ runs an investment bank. ⁓ and I’ve known him for six or seven years. He’s always been generous with his time and we have coffee or lunch or whatever, and he would kind of educate me on you know aspects of how deals come together, what buyers are looking for.

Bob Roark: Yeah, yeah.

Kevin Bozung: He’d introduce me to financial metrics and things I’d never heard of before. So I’d take notes and go back and try to understand what those things were. And then I tell people all the time, ⁓ business peer groups are one of the best things that any business owner can do. You know, get in a room with some other people that are at different stages, and hopefully a few of them are at a stage further along than you are that are willing to share what they’ve learned and shortcut your learning, your learning time. So did a lot of that.

Bob Roark: Yeah. You know I think of the homework that goes into all this, you know, and for you, you know, Safety Net was the managed IT company. You had client relationships, a technical staff, recurring revenue and all that stuff, and you were the guy who built it from the ground up. Or did you have a partner?

Kevin Bozung: wife was always the partner in the business. So, you know, I started it out of their spare room and she was actually making sure we could clothe ourselves and eat and pay the mortgage. So she had a different job for about the first year and a half and then she came into the business full time. So she was there with me for fifteen years, sixteen years. ⁓ we took a sabbatical and hired a CEO to run the company. ⁓ and ⁓ we ran into some tough patches with that and some transition. And I I was the one to come back full time and kind of take it to the finish line.

Bob Roark: Okay.

Kevin Bozung: But ⁓ it was it was kinda always the two. It is one of those things, you know, I’m sure this is common a lot of business owners’ households, but you work ten or twelve hours and you come home and you have dinner and you talk about work some more. And so that was always kind of a dynamic and it was something we were actively trying to, you know, ⁓ cordon off and the family, especially as the kids got older, you know, it’s you gets to a point where you don’t necessarily want to talk about

Bob Roark: Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ yeah.

Kevin Bozung: all the employee problems, the customer problems, the business problems constantly in front of the family because ⁓ it kind of creates a family dynamic where the family’s all about the business and it’s not what it’s supposed to be about. It’s important. ⁓

Bob Roark: Yeah. So you and your bride were it, and when you guys thought about selling, was there something that you were concerned about losing, not the revenue, but something else besides the revenue?

Kevin Bozung: No, I I I think I’m an outlier on that, you know. ⁓ you and I are both SIPAs, so we’ve kinda gone through that process and understanding what happens to owners when they exit and you know a lot of them have a lot of regret and they miss things about the business and I’m not one of those people, so I was just you know, I I wasn’t concerned about it up front and I have yeah, I haven’t been concerned. I actually went to my building and saw some of my former colleagues the other day ’cause ⁓ you know, ⁓ the company that bought us still occupies our building and I know most of the people in the region here that part of the company and it’s great seeing ⁓ they’re great people. A lot of them are friends of mine, but I don’t miss being kind of, you know, in the in the mix and in the war ⁓ with everything that’s going on every day. So there’s there’s really not much about it that I miss. And I that maybe sounds bad. Might not be the answer you expect to hear and that you know people that listen in might want to hear. But ⁓ as I said, I was pretty profoundly burnt out fifteen years in and I toughed it out for another several years. So I was I was ready.

Bob Roark: You know, and was it September of twenty four the the deal closed? You know, if rolling back, walk me through the day, you know, where were you? What was ⁓ in the room and what was it, you know, the first thing that basically your visceral body response when either the wire cleared or the check showed up, what was that like?

Kevin Bozung: I was sitting right in this office. This is the same office I was in. And ⁓ I don’t know if you’ve gone through this before recently, but you know, probably back in the day you’d get all the attorneys and the buyer and the seller and you’d get in a big conference room and you’d hand the pens out and the sign the documents and then it would feel like there was a a conclusion to the event. Well, it’s not really how it at least it happened for me. It was all it was actually, I remember this specifically, the deal packet was exactly nine hundred and ninety-nine pages. The legal documents, everything together. It was just one page under a thousand documents. So there’s, you know, dozens of places to sign this document. And the way they do it is they send it out doc you signed the day before, and you actually sign your name to the document the day before. There’s a final meeting on a Teams or a Zoom call, and everyone kind of goes around and and confirms that ⁓ everything’s on track, everything’s all set and we’re done. So it was the most anticlimatic meeting that I that I could have possibly imagined. We were on the call for ten or fifteen minutes, everyone said, We’re good. All right, we’re closed. And then you sat around the whole rest of the afternoon, you know, refreshing the browser on your bank app to see when the wires gonna click. You know. So And I knew I couldn’t be in the office that day ’cause I was just like, you know, I was consumed with that, just kinda waiting. So there’s this mix of like euphoria that you did it, but you know, the money’s not there yet, and there’s not like nobody’s popping champagne bottles and you know, spraying you down and so it’s kinda

Bob Roark: Yeah. No parade.

Kevin Bozung: kind of anticlimatic at the end, but but I was with my wife, you know, we started the company and her and I lived it for almost twenty years. So she was the one I wanted to be with at the end.

Bob Roark: What ⁓ what day did you close on of the week?

Kevin Bozung: I’d have to go back and look at my calendar. ⁓ I wanna say it was like a Tuesday. It was just kind of a s normal. Yeah, they wanted it at the clean conclusion of a yeah, it was a Tuesday. October first.

Bob Roark: ⁓ really well done. You know, it’s it’s w ⁓ one of the things that I I tell folks about. It’s just for goodness sakes, never close on a Friday and really make sure you don’t close on a Friday of a three day three day weekend. Right?

Kevin Bozung: Right. Yeah, one of the best pieces of advice we got too was someone someone had the foresight to say, make sure they send you a dollar a week or two in advance to your bank account so that you know that they got the wire instructions right. ‘Cause I c and I could have imagined sitting there all day going, ⁓ my God, what if I transposed two of the numbers and I went to somebody else’s account and so

Bob Roark: Yes. title Yeah you’re kind of done. Yeah, you know, and and that really sounds like a very, very small thing, but making you know making sure you can ACH, make sure the account’s sorted out, make sure the account is titled in the name of whatever remittance and who they made it out to, you know, and you coordinate with who’s actually sending it and go

Kevin Bozung: Yeah.

Bob Roark: know, give me the wire, you know, IMAP, give me all the stuff and your reference number the exact total so I go find the thing. You know, and that’s not w I don’t think that’s well known, you know.

Kevin Bozung: Yeah. Yeah. But you know, you kinda ask about my, you know, my body and whatever. But you know, I was so amped up for I mean, this process was super accelerated. You know, from the day that we signed the L OI, it was a forty day forty-two-day marathon for sprint ⁓ to closing. So ⁓ yeah, we closed on October first. So it was just nonstop due diligence for the six weeks leading up to that. I had done basically nothing else other than, you know, the minimal duties that I had at at the office still. So it was just this huge like, you know, weight coming off your so shoulders when I was like, it’s finally done. It finally happened. And it’s not just the six weeks, it was the twenty years leading up to it and everything that went to get to that point.

Bob Roark: Yeah, no more blood samples and ⁓ yeah. You know, the the document puke is just it’s an event. It it truly is. Or ⁓ pro yeah, it’s a long time. So, you know, f for you guys, so you’re post close, you you and your wife are gone, well, we got her done. You know, how long did that last before something else kind of moved to front and center for you guys? And what was that something else?

Kevin Bozung: You’ll appreciate this. Yeah, you can’t make this stuff up. So one of the things that kind of triggered me to push me over the edge to, you know, talk to a buyer was I had this one customer that we picked up. We were doing a lot of business with them. ⁓ we had a great relationship with them and they brought in a new CEO and he was just like this ⁓ I’m trying to care you know, this is being recorded, so I don’t want to use harsh language. He was challenging, very challenging to work with. He’s like he’s like this mafia style character. And it kinda walked in and, you know, basically stopped paying the bills and said, We’re not gonna pay you guys and you know, just kind of it turned into a big problem. We had to get the attorneys involved. So, you know, we had to file suit to try to get them to pay us. They owed us like a hundred thousand dollars. And you know, this is all tied up in the working capital calculations too, and you don’t know if you’re gonna get the a hundred thousand dollars or not. So, you know, we closed at I don’t know, nine or ten in the morning on the first, and I think it was around one or two o’clock that afternoon. They counter sued us for a million dollars. So we didn’t even get through the first day of being able to enjoy it and then we got a we got a counter suit for a million dollars. And it was just completely like bogus made up claims that they were gonna drag us through cordon and stuff like that. So so I kinda moved pretty quickly, kinda back to like, all right, well, you know, we still gotta clean this stuff up and and I had to kind of get back to work too, because you know, I’d I’d kinda done the bare minimum. I had a six month transition contract with the buyer, so I had certain things I needed to keep moving along. So

Bob Roark: Okay.

Kevin Bozung: So it was it was kinda like ⁓ you know, yay we did it. ⁓ have some champagne and enjoy the afternoon and then, you know, ⁓ you’re getting sued for a million dollars, so probably gotta deal with that and need to get back to work.

Bob Roark: It kind of takes a bubble out of their champagne for sure.

Kevin Bozung: Yeah. Yeah. And then we ended up settling and walked away from a lot of the collections that we had with those folks. But ⁓ yeah. Wasn’t wasn’t exactly how I pictured it happening, but it’s how it worked out.

Bob Roark: Yeah. You know ⁓ What was post exit integration like? F you were responsible for integration, I s I presume.

Kevin Bozung: You know, I wasn’t. when I originally talked so I back up a step too. You know, it wasn’t just my wife and I, my wife Beth. ⁓ we’d over twenty years built a management team. So, you know, we had a CEO in place, ⁓ VP of ops, he was more like a COO. Three other people that have been with us for eighteen years running different parts of the company, two junior managers. So, you know, we had a really solid leadership team, which you know, I think is one of the reasons I got a premium multiple for the company. It’s one of the first questions a buyer will often ask you is like, Well, what do you want to do? And my answer was, I want to go away. ⁓ I want to go away as you know, as soon as I can. I’ve like I’ve burned out, I’m done, I wanna do something else. So they said, All right, well, you know, we’ll just do a ninety day transition contract and you can be done ninety days after close. And and like I remember sitting there thinking about that and you know, I d obviously I wanted to go away, but ⁓

Bob Roark: Mm-hmm. Okay.

Kevin Bozung: Had responsibilities to the employees and and the customers. And I just felt like, you know, I I played a pretty central role in a rebuild that we had done. And it felt rushed. So I actually renegotiated it to six months. ⁓ which ended up being it should have been 90 days because they didn’t need me after after the first 90 days. But anyway, ⁓ this particular buyer, you know, they’ve done 26 acquisitions, so they actually like queue ⁓ up.

Bob Roark: Right.

Kevin Bozung: And they were chewing through two of them that they’d closed earlier than us. So they basically said just keep running the company the way you were running it before. And so my team was it my team was used to going a hundred miles an hour. You know, we were an EOS company. So we would always have aggressive ninety day rocks and we’d always work really hard and we’d hit our rocks and so all that like went on pause. They said just maintain it. And there was no sense in doing another initiative because we were gonna get integrated with them. So ⁓ you know, we went from a hundred miles an hour to just kind of coasting.

Bob Roark: ⁓ good.

Kevin Bozung: And so ⁓ I really didn’t have a ton to do after you know, probably the first thirty days I caught up on the work that I’d ignored in ⁓ August and September. And then it got kind of quiet after that. And ⁓ they didn’t actually integrate us until my last day on my transition contract. They started throwing over some of the key technology platforms into their platforms, so I kind of escaped it. ⁓ I didn’t have to live through it, which I kind of appreciated that because ⁓ you know, you spend all this time thinking in detail about putting this system and that system and these processes and policies and how you’re gonna check ⁓ and integrate ⁓ and train everybody. And you know you’ll build you try to build the perfect mousetrap, right? And you’re kind of proud of that. And then the buyer comes in and depending on the buyer, they may just say, That’s nice, and they throw that in the trash can and then th they move the company over to their mousetrap and And that’s what they were and we knew that going in, we knew they were gonna do that with us and it was kinda nice not being there to see them, you know, rip that thing apart. So I was happy that I transitioned out when I did.

Bob Roark: Yeah. You know, y you already did described you know the the fizz coming out of the champagne, you know, with the the counter suit or the suit after close. You know what did you notice in your your bride post exit, kind of close to the exit day, what’d you notice?

Kevin Bozung: She was anxious as I was kinda going up to it. You know, we’d had so much going into it. So, you know, there was th both of us had this huge sense of relief at the end of it and ⁓ just being able to focus on family again was a was a big thing. We did, you know, we’d wouldn’t say we put that off. We we definitely leaned into family last few years, but that last two years of getting the company ready to sell, it was most you know, it was pretty much what I what my brain was fixated on from the time I went to bed to the time I ⁓

Bob Roark: Yeah. Yeah.

Kevin Bozung: I got up in the next morning and all day long, so it was twenty four seven. So I think the family was happy to have my attention back at home again. ‘Cause you know, when you’re in those situations, even when you’re present, you’re not really present. Your your brain’s thinking about the next problem or the next to do list. So so it was a nice opportunity for us to just kind of be us.

Bob Roark: Yeah, you you described earlier kind of 30 to you know sixty days past exit and then it got kind of quiet. And you strike me as a a planner and an executor and a goal setter and that kind of thing. So when you were 60 days out, what did that process look like trying to look forward and go, this is this is what we want to do? How did that work?

Kevin Bozung: Yeah, the the work side was weird for me ’cause again it was I’m not used to coasting. I’m used to like I’m the guy with the checklist and you know, the strategic plan and I’m challenging that and pushing that and keeping everybody on task. So that started to fade off in the distance and you know, and then you know, we have kids in school, so it wasn’t like we were just gonna take off somewhere. So we were still kind of living our normal week to week life. And ⁓ you know, so I don’t know. ⁓ try to spend some time thinking about, you know, what was next. And I I’d sort of already had that mapped out too. I wanna do the consulting work that I’m doing now, so Yeah, it was just kind of this interesting transitionary time. And I think when people think about what’s gonna happen that there’s just gonna be this life changing event and everything’s gonna be different and I don’t know, you’re gonna be sitting on a beach somewhere doing whatever, but it wasn’t like that. It was more like the bank account was full, ⁓ and I still had responsibilities and you know, we couldn’t pick up and go. So it was just kind of different.

Bob Roark: Right. You know. You were describing that the things that the business provided for your families, the opportunity to travel and you know, do a bunch of things. Do you think that that was very good preparation for post sale next steps, the fact that you’d actually done a lot of those things and you could say, I want to do more of this one and less of that one?

Kevin Bozung: Yeah. Yeah. And you and I’ve had conversations outside this ⁓ this call today. But, you know, ⁓ because we became untethered to the hometown that we live in, ⁓ my wife started exploring the idea of, you know, our kids have been a downhill race skiing since they were little. ⁓ my daughter loves it. So we started exploring the idea of, you know, living somewhere else for the next couple of years. And so we ended up moving to Colorado for the school year. We actually moved last August out to snowmass area. Enrolled my daughter for a junior in high school out there. So ⁓ it wasn’t too long after we started having these conversations and we actually almost bought a house in Copper Mountain. So we started kind of transitioning to thinking about, you know, where are we gonna be and how we gonna do that and solve those types of challenges and things like that. So so that probably ⁓ you know yeah, that would have timed out about then. That started to kind of dominate and take over what we were focused in on. But it was great all the traveling we’d done. Up to that we had pretty good ideas about things that we like to do and where we like to do ⁓ and made it a little bit easier.

Bob Roark: Yeah, that’s that’s the antithesis of what I hear a lot of times. Well, somebody will have exited and they’ll say, Well, what are you gonna do? So I’m gonna move to Florida and play golf. So, well good on you. Yeah, you’ve been to Florida? No. Well, you would play golf. No. That’s where you think maybe you should rent first. ⁓ yeah, you know, go down there in July if you really think you want to do that. You know, and it’s it’s interesting to see the compression of all the things they do to the exit period.

Kevin Bozung: You hear that, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Bob Roark: And then after the exit period it’s gonna like I’ve got to sort this out ’cause I’ve not done training, you know, or it’s what I think.

Kevin Bozung: Yeah. I feel I feel really fortunate too. You know, during COVID we took a sabbatical and we lived in an R V and went across the country with the kids for six months. And ⁓ you know, I was paying attention to business, but I wasn’t in the day to day for quite a long time. Probably about a year. My mom got sick and passed away during that time too. So I was focused on different things that were going on. And ⁓ you know, after we traveled and got back home, I realized pretty quickly, like, I’m bored. Like when we’re not

Bob Roark: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. ⁓

Kevin Bozung: intensely doing travel. Like I got bored in a hurry and it was part of what and the business needed me, but I needed something to do anyway. So ⁓ I recognized that about myself early, which was good before we actually sold the company. I knew that I would need something to put my time into because I just don’t sit around very well. So yeah, I’ve been trying to, you know, ⁓ develop the consulting work that I do. And you and I talked, I like to big game hunt. So, you I’ve been ratcheting up the number of trips and how much time I spend doing that. I spent

Bob Roark: I mean.

Kevin Bozung: six or seven weeks in the mountains last fall, chasing critters around and having a great time with doing that. So I try to open up more space in my life for the things I really like to do and and ⁓ and my wife too.

Bob Roark: Well, you shifting gears a bit, you got your CEPA certified exit planning advisor credentials, I think in twenty-five, you know, and it was after your exit, not before. So y you went through the knothole selling your business first, and they got trained to help others go through the same knothole. So now when you sit across a business owner in the middle of exit planning, is there s you know an instance where you go, Yeah, I remember feeling like that or doing that. you know, twenty four, twenty five months ago, you know, what does that feel like now when you go, I’ve been there and I know what you’re experiencing or, you know, been in your shoes. What’s that like?

Kevin Bozung: ⁓ yeah, all the time. ⁓ you know, we had a client that we helped get ⁓ to market and sold earlier this year and I remember having a few conversations with Chris about, you know, how this process was gonna go and he was you know, he was mentally spent and done too. He needed to move on and we’d have conversations about like what is life gonna look like after for you. And we had that exact same conversation too. Like, it sounds great that you’re gonna golf every day, but you’re gonna get sick and tired of that. So, you know, what are you gonna do? ⁓ so yeah, I I have those those conversation it the what’s interesting about that is ⁓ you can tell people that and people probably told me that, but you’re so engrossed and wrapped up in everything you’re doing, particularly if you’re trying to you know polish up the company and you’re going through due diligence and it’s just consuming all of your time. Someone can tell you that and it’s hard to hear it. hard to actually hear it. So you you try to do your best to have a conversation. You hope you get through, but you know, at some point they need to kind of live through it on their own and and you just hope that they’ve done the right thing for them and they’ve got some kind of afterlife plan and you can guide them the best you can to doing that. But but I, you know, there’s always these woulda, shoulda, coulda’s too. And ⁓ I wish I would have gotten my CPA three or four years ago. I wish we’d have met You know, some tax strategist. I wish we’d done this. I wish we’d have done that. I wish I would have done the peer group facilitation. I thought about it and I hadn’t done it because I was focused on the business. So you know, go kind of back in time. I think I would have invested in some of the afterthings and some of the, you know, ⁓ transaction things before we did. And, you know, now that I’m on the other side too, you know, with that experience, those are those are conversations that I have with people.

Bob Roark: Mm-hmm. Yeah, you know, I th I think the value that you bring to the table, you know, for the folks that you’re consulting with, go been there, done that. You know, I’m not just talking out of a textbook, you know, and ⁓ my experience is a lot of business owners get to the altar and then don’t make it quite that, you know, past the altar. And so they say, you know, I’m gonna worry about that after I close. And you know

Kevin Bozung: Yeah. You hear that a lot. And y and again you kind of sympathize. You’re like, Yeah, it was where you are and I know you don’t have a lot of mental bandwidth left for anything else, but ⁓ yeah, there’s trouble coming. You know, that euphoria lasts about ninety days and then you’re kind of living life again and it’s not that different. It’s just you’re again your your portfolio, your ⁓ wealth management account is filled up and hopefully with as much as you want. But there’s a lot of owners too that you know they’ll sell. Not for enough to maintain the lifestyle. So they’re they’re kind of looking at, you know, am I gonna start another business? Am I gonna consult? Am I gonna get a job reporting to somebody else? So they’ve got all those things to think through. And and some of them will stay on with the buyer too. But I’ve got friends that have done that. some successfully, not not as often. It’s it feels pretty weird working for somebody else doing the same thing in basically the business that you sold. So ⁓ I’ve got a friend I can think of right now that did that and I don’t think he’s enjoying that process very much either.

Bob Roark: Well, if you have responsibility but not authority, it’s a bit of a challenge. And just like company, you know, we’ve got the way we did it, and boom, you sell it and you go, Well, that you know, the what made you successful, we’re not gonna do. And that’s a challenge.

Kevin Bozung: Yeah. Yeah, worse still when they’ve got an earnout and they’ve got to, you know, hit certain, you know, EVITA targets, revenue top line targets, but they they lose the ability to control everything in between. And that creates a lot of ⁓ I don’t know, challenges and anxieties and conflict for them as well.

Bob Roark: You know, you describe yourself pretty driven, goal-oriented EOS, moving rocks and boulders and you know, ninety days and all that stuff. So now you’re on the other side of the exit and you’re in the consulting space. How do you apply that type of drive to what you’re doing now?

Kevin Bozung: Yeah, that’s an interesting balance. ⁓ you know, over the winter I probably worked more than I wanted to. ⁓ I did a webinar series with an industry leading company. So every week I was on doing doing a call like this, but I put the content together and drive that forward. So I was starting to push full time again. ⁓ and like mentally I’m like, well, wait a minute. We sold the business, so I wouldn’t have to do this anymore. So that I could do, you know, I go skiing or I could hang out with my daughter and stuff like that. So I find myself checking myself often with reminding myself that I don’t need to push that hard anymore. Even to the extent like, you know, Paw and I at any given time will work with ten companies. And sometimes I sit there and go, But I could probably take on two or three more if I wanted to pick up if I wanted to work more, and then I could make more money. And then I’m like, well, why? I don’t need to make more money. I need to make I need to stay occupied and but what really am I after is, you know, personal freedom and flexibility and

Bob Roark: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Kevin Bozung: you know, time with my daughter while she’s still in the home and stuff like that. So so I don’t know, it’s it’s kind of the yin and the yang going back and forth in my head about, you know, I wanna stay occupied, I wanna stay relevant, I wanna give back, but, you know, I I can’t let that slippery slope take over and put myself back in a situation. And really it’s like a comfort space. You get used to going hard for twenty, thirty years of your profession. It it doesn’t feel right.

Bob Roark: Yeah.

Kevin Bozung: You know, it feels I I I find myself saying, Man, I was really lazy today. Like I only worked like five hours today. Really lazy. And it’s like, Well, that’s by design. That was that was the whole point.

Bob Roark: Yeah. ⁓ You know, I I dn I think of those as guardrails. I was a after the the trip to Nashville, I rented a car that had self-driving. Didn’t ⁓ hit this hit the button. I thought it was cruise control. Here I am going down the road, right? You know, staying between the guardrails effectively until a semi came in my lane and of course then I adjusted. You know. But I think about what you’re talking about. overwork and saying what’s important, recentering, get your guardrails, go, you know, the destination is comprised of this, not just work. And I don’t know that that’s a common thought process that’s arrived at early for for a lot of folks.

Kevin Bozung: Yeah, and I I guess I’m fortunate I’ve talked to a number of people and I’ve heard stories about other people, but you know, from what I understand it’s pretty common for somebody to sell a business and then within weeks or months they’ve jumped right back into another one. ⁓ or they’ll start a restaurant or they’ll do this and do that. And so often you hear that those don’t turn out very well, ⁓ either economically and from a life balance perspective. So I’ve been really careful ⁓ about not doing that. ⁓ and certainly could, but I go back to like what’s what’s the point? ⁓ life is about more than working and making money, you know, at some point. And I think I’ve got the benefit too. My mom got sick and died of cancer when she was sixty-four or five. And, you know, she’d worked right up until she got the terminal diagnosis. And then she finally retired. So, you know, that kind of grounded me to say, Well, wait a minute, like you can work your whole life and do all the right things and then, you know, I’m sure there was a lot of trips she wanted to take with my dad and things that she wanted to do.

Bob Roark: Yeah.

Kevin Bozung: That she never did. ⁓ and she probably could have. She had she known the finality of it and you know, when she probably would have. And so that rattles my head all the time too, is you know, there’s no guarantee I get up tomorrow. So ⁓ you know, now that I’ve had success, it’s like take advantage of the spoils of the success, do the things with the people you care about.

Bob Roark: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and in thinking about your role where you’re coaching other founders, you know, and and that came into focus for your next chapter. Was that pre exit or did that start to really manifest post exit for you to be want to be a coach?

Kevin Bozung: It was pre-exit. ⁓ it was something I decided actually quite a while beforehand. I’ve got a close friend of mine that’s in my home market here and ⁓ he’s got a technology related business and I won’t say too much so I don’t kinda call him out, but you know, he struggled to figure out, you know, how to get the business to where he wants it. And so ⁓ I had the opportunity to come in and dig through his business and, you know, provide him some coaching and some pointers and things like that. And I get done with that and I like, you know, I really, really enjoyed that. I really like digging into the nuts and bolts of somebody else’s business and providing guidance and sharing lessons learned. So I knew from that experience it was something that I wanted to do. And as I mentioned, I’ve been involved in peer groups for ten years. And so I was having conversations with my peer group facilitator. He was looking to stop doing that and I was going to pick up his ⁓ his groups and do that. So so I kinda had those thoughts in advance and ⁓ probably quite a few years in advance. So I kind of knew that I would transition into doing that. And I do like it. I I get a lot of fulfillment from it. And I don’t know that that’s real common either, that people have kind of got their next thing sort of mapped out. For me it’s been good because it’s ⁓ I can work as much as I want to work and I can work with who I want to work with. So it hasn’t been a thing that where it’s sort of like takes over because you’ve got all kinds of obligations and responsibilities. So it’s it’s been a great, great balance for me.

Bob Roark: Okay. staying relevant and passing on what you know. You know, y your your coaching business is called break free business coaching. You named it that right way, I’m sure on purpose. You know you know, walk me through what the break free means to you now from the other side of having done it. You know, ’cause it seems like that has a lot of, you know, identity attachment to it, and you live through that. So

Kevin Bozung: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I did. Yeah. I remember. So I used to cycle a lot, mountain biking and stuff like that. And it would be the kind of my mental therapy time. And I always remember feeling like, you know, I was like this caged lion that just wanted to kind of, you know, break out of my obligations that I’d created. So I always thought like, you know, I’m living I’m living in this cage in this prison of this company that I’ve created around myself and like how do I get out of this? How do I break free of this, you know, thing that I’ve created? And again, like

Bob Roark: Sure, yeah. Mm-hmm.

Kevin Bozung: Going back years ago, it wasn’t worth enough that I could really stop doing it. And I probably couldn’t make enough working for somebody else to not do it. So I always just kind of felt like stuck. And so that was really the idea when I got into the coaching. It’s like I you know, after twenty one years of hard knocks, ⁓ a lot of good luck and meeting a lot of great people that helped me along the way. I feel like finally figured out the secret sauce, should have it come together. And we had a great exit. So ⁓

Bob Roark: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Bozung: I just kinda wanna pay that forward to other people. So that’s the idea is, you know, breaking free from, you know, their business. So either whether they want to keep or they wanna get rid of it, but such that they can focus on life and have have the balance that that they deserve to have. So that’s where it came from.

Bob Roark: That you know, I so much in that comment, you know. I hope for the folks that listen to this that they take that to heart for sure. You know, and and you know thinking about now your post exit, you’re three months down the road, things have quieted down. And if you could put one person addition in your life at that point, what would they have done for you? And what’s that role that maybe didn’t exist or wasn’t available at that three month time frame?

Kevin Bozung: Yeah. ⁓ I’ve been pondering on that question and I’m I’m struggling to kind of come up with a good answer for it. ⁓ you know, we rushed through filling some of those holes while we were going through our due diligence. And by the time we got through that I feel like we kind of had the people on the team that we wanted to have on the team. ⁓ so I’m not sure that I have a good answer for that. I I think that probably more on the personal side, I you know, I

Bob Roark: Okay.

Kevin Bozung: I think that ⁓ and I always think this, I wish I had a few more close friends and people in our community circle that we did more actively ⁓ participate and did did things with. And we spent so much time just head down focused that you know a lot of the personal stuff kind of fell to the wayside. So and that’s you know, as as we’re kinda home in Traverse City for the summer again. you know, I’m trying to get out for breakfast this and lunch and we were at a leadership lunch book club thing and seeing other people that I haven’t seen in a long time. So So I would say it’s probably more about ⁓ filling in those personal blanks than it is about, you know

Bob Roark: Reestablishing community. You know, and particularly if you’re there in the summer and you’re somewhere else in the winter, right? You know, yeah, you’re missing most of the seasons, yeah.

Kevin Bozung: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, makes it hard.

Bob Roark: You know, for you you know, you think about you know, compound interest and other things. And for you, you know, with your work and board work and coaching, what’s compounding for you now in that environment? Not capital or not, you know, cash flow, but you know, what feeds you on on the compounding side there?

Kevin Bozung: Well, there’s a peace of mind that keeps compounding. So for a while it’s like, Is this real? This is this gonna be okay. So, you know, we’re going up on it’ll be two years of the fall where it’s been post exit and it’s like, Okay, this feels like this is gonna be okay. So, you know, maybe the math and the spreadsheets were were correct and the wealth planners were correct. So so that does kind of keep building, which is great. You know, I’ve always been kind of the worrier that worries about, you know, whether there’s gonna be enough or this or that or that. So ⁓ so that’s been great. Self-confidence, I would say too. So, you know, I think a lot of people have this ⁓ imposter syndrome where they look around and they say, God, I wish I was great like that person, or I wish, you know, this, or I’m not sure that I should be here, whatever. ⁓ when I got into coaching, there was a lot of that too. Was, you know, am I really do I really have the the skills and the experiences and the expertise to be telling other people what I think they should do and how to solve their problems. And ⁓ you know, coming up on a year and a half of

Bob Roark: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay.

Kevin Bozung: doing this kind of work, I’m I feel like that imposter syndrome is kind of starting to go away. So which just feeds back into, you know, self confidence and being comfortable in my own skin. ⁓ so I would say that’s probably what’s compounding for me. It’s being real comfortable.

Bob Roark: That’s a pretty good destination. Truly. Yeah. You know, if if there’s somebody listening now that’s a business owner and maybe they’re inside their business, you know, right now, ⁓ the way you were in Safety Net, ⁓ and they’re starting to think it’s time, where do they find you? How do they reach out to you and contact you?

Kevin Bozung: Is a good destination. It’s a good place to be. Well, I think I might be the only Kevin Bozung on the planet. ⁓ it’s a pretty unique and I gotta give you a major like credit. ⁓ you introduced me and you said my last name correctly, and that doesn’t happen very often. So if you were to Google my name, I’m pretty sure you’re gonna stumble on my LinkedIn profile. And ⁓ that’s a great way to connect and reach with me. ⁓ the gentleman that I work with, Paul Sissel, we’ve we’ve launched a website. It’s ⁓ Growth Caddy. It’s ⁓ C A D D I E dot com.

Bob Roark: Yeah, Okay.

Kevin Bozung: And you can there’s a connect ⁓ contact us form on that website too if you wanna reach out to me to me to me on that. But yeah, probably LinkedIn is a great way to find me. And ⁓ my email address is simple. It’s my first initial last name at gmail dot com. So that’s not too hard to find either.

Bob Roark: Okay. ⁓ Let’s see. One specific sentence, maybe not wisdom, that you would ⁓ share with a founder eighteen months pre exit. You know, so you could talk to them and say, you know, this is a statement I would tell you right now to make a difference.

Kevin Bozung: Yeah, you probably listened to the Built Through Built the Cell podcast and read the book and heard John and I I love his tagline that just kind of built the sell. So ⁓ that’s kind of how I think about is you should be running the business as if, you know, something happened that it was ready to go and sell. And I think that’s that’s probably the best piece of advice is is have it ready to go to sell tomorrow if you had to. which means you’re not gonna do it in crisis and you know, and and I don’t say that to mean like ⁓ stop investing in it, stop making it better and squeeze every penny out of it. But you know, have your house in order, ⁓ have your estate plan in order, have your ⁓ have your team in order. Make sure you’ve got, you know, good legal and CPAs and things like that. So ⁓ but yeah, I don’t know if that kinda answers the question the kind of the way you were thinking, but but yeah, think a little further forward.

Bob Roark: Yeah, John Warlow is a he’s a gem. Yeah, he’s a gem. I I’ve had him on a previous podcast. Good guy.

Kevin Bozung: He’s great. I mean any time I’m driving for more than half an hour, you know, I I go in and then, you know, find his podcast on Spotify and I click the next one and listen to it. So I pick a nugget or two out of every single one of those that I sit on. So he does he does a great, great job. But yeah, my only other thought is, you know, the focus on value building. ⁓ it’s really easy to kinda get in a ⁓ a rhythm or a rut or a you know, you just kinda go in the office every day and

Bob Roark: Yeah, and and easy

Kevin Bozung: and not focus on what am I building? At some point you’re gonna exit whether whether you want to or not, you’re gonna exit. So you know what are you building to leave behind to your loved ones and the people around you? So and focus on that. Stop getting distracted with everything else.

Bob Roark: Yeah. Well, that’s the the tactical versus strategic move. Tactical day to day, strategics down the road. And I I think so many of the folks in the exit space, I mean, it’s it’s just good business principles to build an exit ready company. And you know, you may wake up and go, I love running a company this way and not sell for a while. But yeah, it’s just yeah. Yeah. I mean what’s wrong with that?

Kevin Bozung: Mm-hmm. Absolutely. That’s the best, right? If you got a company you love and it’s making great money for you and you want to keep doing it, that’s awesome. That’s what you want. But if something changes, then you know, hopefully you got the optionality to stick with it or get rid of it.

Bob Roark: Yeah. You know, so for you kinda to come to a close here, your life now in one frame, what’s the frame?

Kevin Bozung: ⁓ it’s probably, you know, family and experiences. That’s what I’m focused in on. So my wife and I are kind of thinking about buying a new home. ⁓ you know, we’ve we’ve got the very specific properties that we’re looking for and I’ve got the mental image in my mind of what that’s gonna look like so that you know the kids can come back with grandkids and do all the things and so you know, I’m I’m kind of thinking about what that long term vision looks like. But it’s all about the people you love. Keeping them keeping them close.

Bob Roark: Okay. Yeah, my my father in law did that. He ⁓ he went to Minturn between Vale and Beaver Creek. And so yeah, and so the all the skiers in the family, yeah, that was a great place to go ’cause it was in the mountains where, you know, the kids always aspired to retire to and go see ⁓ So yeah, you know

Kevin Bozung: Yeah. Yeah, and I’ve seen other people do that too. And, you know, you look at it and like, what do they need all that house for? And whatever. And it’s like that they built it so their family would come. And so I think about that a lot.

Bob Roark: Mm-hmm. You bet. You bet. Well, Kevin, this has been a joy. You know, a great follow-on to our chance meeting in Nashville. That was good. so I I appreciate your views and willingness to share your observations and time. ⁓ you know, and going

Kevin Bozung: Well, I’m so glad that we happened to just sit down at the same table together. So it’s been great get to know you a little bit too and I’m hoping you ⁓ go to the next conference so we can catch up for cocktails or breakfast or s or whatever we have time for.

Bob Roark: ⁓ yeah. Just to see what’s going on. You know, and and for all of this stuff for the folks that are out there listening, you know, it I hope you find it informative and useful, you know, whether it’s for the founders that are pre or post exit and the professionals that are serving that business owner. So to close, this is the exit series. If you know of a founder who’s sold or is about to, or brokers who’ve seen it, or an attorney that’s set across from the table, send them this episode and subscribe to wherever you listen, and we’ll see you next time.