Set your exit number before you open the doors, then let it decide what you refuse to build.
Brian McNally set his exit number before he opened the doors, then let it decide what he refused to build.
Brian told me he and his partner picked a number, twenty million in five to seven years, sold to a buyer they had already named, before they ever opened their doors. That single decision is why the rest of the story works. It is also why I kept thinking about an HVAC company I looked at last month, run by a man still doing seventy percent of the work forty years in.
Most owners never do what Brian did. They leave a job they hate and build themselves a harder one with less freedom, then decide to sell only when they are frustrated or old, which he says is the worst possible time to start. This one stuck with me because I have seen the alternative up close, and it does not sell.
A target set before launch decides what you refuse to build later.
Removing yourself from the business only works if you start on purpose.
A visible finish line is what makes an unsustainable pace survivable.
- 01The North Star
Design the exit before you design the company
Brian and his partner set a twenty million dollar target and named their buyer before opening the doors. That number kept them out of building departments a buyer would only duplicate and discard, and pushed them to stay lean in sales, delivery, and a little operations.
- 02Founder dependency
The owner who is still seventy percent of the business
Sam recently looked at an HVAC company where the owner, forty years in, was still doing most of the work himself, paired with a valuation detached from reality. Brian's point is that founder dependency has to be removed early, because most owners only decide to sell when they are frustrated or old, which is the worst possible moment to start.
- 03The rebuild
Half the business gone in six weeks, then a fork
When COVID cut Brian's revenue in half in six weeks, he spiraled for three months before framing it as two choices: accept failure or fight. What followed, 4:00 AM alarms and three commitments, only worked because he knew it was a three-year sprint with a finish line, the same clarity that shaped the original twenty million dollar target.
From the conversationDesign with the end in mind. You're creating an asset, not a job.”
Find where you are still the business
Spend 20 minutes identifying one task only you can currently do, so you can start removing your own dependency this week.
- 1
Diagnose one task, client relationship, or decision that stops or slows down if you are unavailable for a week.
- 2
Choose one person on your team who could take over that specific task with training, or decide you need to hire for it.
- 3
Document the task and send that person or a recruiting contact a written plan with a target handoff date this month.