How did you know that it was time to exit your business?

 

An interview with business owner Rally de Leon. Rally was the owner/operator of the Chick-fil-A at North Hills in Raleigh, NC. In this interview, Rally shares his insights on how to know when it’s time to exit your business and how to make that exit well.

 

Rally: Sometimes we can overstay our welcome. I can think of, I'm sure we all can think of athletes that  should have hung it up or singers whose voices started to change. I recognized after reading a book called “From Strength to Strength” by Arthur Brooks, that was time for me to start looking at making a shift. I had been thinking about this probably for 14 months or so and in my reflection, I realized this was the right thing to do for myself, for my family, and for those people around me that I influence.

 

There's a phrase that I've heard at Chick Fil A and I've carried into my own life and I'll probably carry in the months and years to come and that is when the rate of external change exceeds the rate of internal change, you have a problem. That's where I was at.

 

I was at a point where there was a problem, and I did not know how to fix it. We were in the middle of covid, and our dining room was shut down. We were changing our revenue stream and using phones for people to place and pay for their orders. We were at one time number 11 in the nation and number 1 in the market for percent of transactions that were done on people's smartphones, and we did not do them ourselves.

 

But some things were shifting that I couldn’t control. Whether it be entities around me, our landlord, the federal government or other things that made it challenging to maintain a consistent profit.

 

 

 

Rally: It was definitely a process because when you've been doing something for 22 years, it felt more like, what I think a divorce would be like. It was just like, oh, I'm just going to stop doing this.

 

So there was a lot of, history. There are a lot of fond memories that I'm always going to carry, but a lot of this had to do with a lot of listening. I had to listen and allow feedback from people in the way I make decisions. And I began listening to trusted advisors and friends that would give me sound advice.

 

I started reading some books where I realized that maybe it was time for me to shift where I was headed. My relevancy was starting to fade. Figuratively speaking, I was used to dunking in basketball and I was used to playing the whole game, but now the goals are 11 ft high, and the quarters are half an hour long and I no longer have that type of endurance.

 

So, you know, looking honestly in the mirror and being courageous about it and talking to family and listening to them. Seeing the marketplace shift and listening to my wife who had seen for many years the difficulties was almost permission. And it felt freeing.

 

And the more I started exploring and thinking about other opportunities, I realized how relevant my experience was and how much I had learned at Chick-Fil-A that could work in other environments. So now it's time for me to find another arc, another journey to go on. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It does require a level of self-reflection, humility, and honesty to say, hey, even though I've had a good run here, maybe it's time for me to find another field to plow.

 

 

 

Rally: Prior to meeting you Transworld Business folks, I really didn't know much about what you all do. Now I'm realizing how necessary it is. Just like a brain surgeon cannot do surgery themselves, they need someone to assist them.

 

The confidentiality that we bring into the marketplace is essential versus when I'm trying to sell my house, I want everybody to know about it, you know, not in the case with business brokerage. We serve as a trusted agent and I think, surrounding yourself with good people that you can trust is essential.

 

Really for me I'm looking at listening and trying to express care to those businesspeople that I that I'm around.

 

Just the other day I was at one of the services that I frequent in the community and I know the business owner and they were asking me how things are going. I told them that I had made a transition and we exchanged cards. This business owner is ready. They're at that that age and season where they're saying you know what I'm doing is hard, it's difficult. I’m there to say let's go ahead and talk about your exit strategy. That's what I love, being able to help in that specific way.

 

 

 

Rally: We're all going to dismount; we just don't know when. This can be a really awesome time in your life,  if you embrace it and make the most of it with the right experts in place to help you every step of the way.