THE CHALLENGE Seeking to revive her long-neglected personal life, Ms. Gignilliat announced to her core staff in January 2010 that she was stepping back. She would continue to work, but she would cut back her hours and work mostly from home. The business did well, $1.85 million in revenue in 2010, with her on reduced hours. Last fall, however, she decided she wanted to re-engage — and double sales in four years. Her hope was that she could re-energize the business without demoralizing those who had been running it.
THE BACKGROUND A decade after starting her business, Ms. Gignilliat had an epiphany, when, as a panelist at the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T., she heard herself referred to as the owner of a “lifestyle business.” “Lifestyle?” she muttered to herself. “I have no life.” For years, she had been logging 80-hour weeks. Soon to turn 50, she was unmarried. “I’d stopped traveling. Stopped reading. I had no social life. I realized I was dating my business.”
Ms. Gignilliat took great pride in the business she had built from first-year sales of $40,000. Her creative offerings ranged from an $85-a-person, small-plate, stand-up meal to a high-end, Iron Chef-like competitive experience for $125 a person. Some months, Parties That Cook averaged two events a day.
But like many founders, Ms. Gignilliat worked so hard creating, managing and building her business that she sacrificed her personal life and burned out. Her self-prescribed remedy: work less, play more. “The first three months, I’d forgotten what I liked to do,” she said. But gradually, she downshifted from her customary fifth gear to what she pegs as second, working maybe 30 hours a week when she was not traveling. She started working out with a trainer and lost 10 pounds. She set off on several “bucket list” vacations, fly-fishing in Idaho and trekking in Bhutan. She hosted dinner parties for singles, and she fell into a close personal relationship.
Out of necessity, she delegated many of the company operations that she had continued to manage, like menu development, Web design and staff training. As she learned that Parties That Cook could survive without her constant attention, Ms. Gignilliat disengaged further — or “checked out,” as some of her employees termed her status in 2012. “The pendulum swung a bit too far,” she said recently.
In fall 2012 her boyfriend suggested that she consider “re-engaging and taking the business to the next level.” Those words struck a chord. Recognizing that she would want to sell the business by the time she was 60, only seven years hence, she realized she needed to create as much value as possible — “so I could sell it and retire.”
In November 2012, meeting at her home with two longtime employees to discuss budgeting and forecasts for the next year, Ms. Gignilliat slipped into a de facto announcement of her return to active duty. She set an aggressive sales target of $2.7 million for 2013, up from 2012 sales of $2.18 million. “I think we can do it,” she said, “because I’m stepping back in. I’m re-engaging.”
Seeking guidance, Ms. Gignilliat hired a business coach for leadership and personal advice but was unable to begin those sessions until after she stepped back in. She sought additional one-on-one counseling from Jim Horan, a speaker and author, because she was eager to use Mr. Horan’s One Page Business Plan to motivate her staff.
THE OPTIONS With the decision to step back in made, the lingering question was how she would pull it off. She had prided herself on a collaborative management style, but now she was simultaneously re-engaging and dictating an ambitious sales target. How would her team react? And how should her C.E.O. 3.0 role look? Could she ensure that she would stay engaged and not burn out again?
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/24/business/smallbusiness/a-burned-out-owner-who-backed-off-tries-to-step-back-in.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Speak Your Mind
You must be logged in to post a comment.