“As Good As It Gets” | Mike & Debbie Rogers’ POTOMAC Experience
I had a conversation with a company down in Atlanta yesterday and I could pick it up from him, thinking that, you know, this is — this is as good as it gets right here where I’m at, you know, my business is doing good, it’s growing like crazy, this is good as it gets.
Well, I got news for you — it’s not as good as it gets. Because he called me and I, in my opinion, how I liked where I’m at now, and I tell him, I said, you know what I like about it best? I said, I like not knowing what day it is.
And hell, I was just an old country boy, you know. I was graduating high school, that was it, man. We didn’t know nothing about business or labor or HR, none of that stuff, man. We saw — we just, we just done what we had done our whole life. We would do — we never been in business, we just wing it — oh, we’ll take care of it, we’ll figure it out. We started in ’93. Debbie’s office was in the laundry room. We bought it in ’07 and then we had it for ourselves for 11 years and we grew the hell out of it and then sold out in 2018.
There was definitely a couple of weeks where we’re just like, what is happening to our lives right now? We were — we thought we were on this path, but now we’re going on this different path, you know. But then the realization does kind of settle in on you that this thing that they built, like out of our laundry room — it’s their thing, it’s the thing that they built.
Once I started to sit back and evaluate the kinds of things that this business was taking away from Dad versus giving to him, once it got so big, then I really did start to question whether the path that we thought we were on was the right path.
The bugs are easy, the trucks are easy, the chemicals are easy, the customers are easy — it’s the employees, by far, that’s the hardest part. Just not having that headache to deal with every day and wondering which one of those bombs is going to explode. I mean, we had 165 vehicles on the road traveling 60,000 miles a week — that’s two and a half trips around the earth every week. The odds were just monstrous that we were going to have some kind of disaster.
So basically, with all that in mind, I came back to everybody, I said, guys, it’s time for us to sell. This transition that he was about to make could really set him up for a bright future that has no worries, because that’s ultimately what everybody’s working for, right? What are we working for if we’re not trying to get to a place where we are, like, unencumbered with life?
And I enjoy going to my garage every day, just playing with the cars. I enjoy that a lot. It’s almost like I’m meeting somebody new, because I’ve only ever known — in my adult life, I only knew this dad, you know. And so I really am meeting someone who is brand new. He’s like unencumbered, he’s relaxed, he’s down for an adventure. He’s got all his free time. He just wants to talk on the phone and there’s nothing to talk about, you know. And all that stuff is the good stuff that you don’t really know that you’re missing on the flip side.
PCT sponsored a webinar. There’s these guys and I can’t remember their names and I’m sure they’re good guys, but I asked the question, I said, does the advertising you do, your reputation that you’ve built, your brand — does that have anything to do with the valuation of your company? The first answer out of their mouths was, heck no, it doesn’t have anything to do with it, it’s all based on numbers.
Paul sends me a private message and he goes, that has a ton to do with your brand. I look at Debbie and I said — I thought — I said, that’s our guy right there, that’s our guy. Anybody that understands that nuance of the business, that’s who we want.
Honestly, what Dad has now is what people work for. It’s just hard in that last moment when you’re ready to make that transition to finally just let this thing go that you’ve just poured yourself into.
Deb and I will lay down at night and just think about what a great life we have now. I don’t know, it could not be any better. I want our kids and our grandkids to always see us work together, but I don’t ever want them to forget how we started.
Reach for your goals, you know, just don’t accept a job, don’t accept a paycheck. I’d rather see you do something to where there’s no limit. Paul would be good from day one — just start asking questions. He’s full of guidance. The good thing about Paul is, here’s a guy that knows what the acquirers are looking for and knows what they want to see. You want to be around somebody that you can learn from.
I always told our people — everybody in our company — I said, if you ever walk in the room and you think you’re the smartest person there, then you’re in the wrong damn room.
