Mark Raderstorf is a Rehabilitation Psychologist by training and lifelong entrepreneur by choice. Mark was working at the University of Minnesota Medical School and decided to launch into private practice back in the 1980’s. He founded Behavioral Medical Interventions, Inc. (BMI), a disability management company and national provider of psychiatric and physical disability management services. For the next 15 years before selling the business, he helped people with injuries or disabilities in their emotional, psychological, or vocational adjustments.

If you listen, you will learn:

How important referral relationships and reputation are to a service business

The impact key employees/shareholders have on the value of a company

The importance of having a coach/consultant during a company sale

How employees are the key asset in a service business sale

Having a plan for the sale of your company and your life after business can relieve stress and help with the adjustment

From Psychologist to Business Man

Mark describes himself as a service-oriented individual. His passion for helping people was sparked by a traumatic event in his brother’s life. His older brother had a football related head injury and almost died from an aneurysm which dramatically changed the trajectory of his career. This experience was eye opening for Mark and he knew he wanted to help people in similar situations.

Mark’s small private practice grew from Raderstorf and Associates to Behavioral Medical Interventions, Inc. when he was becoming too busy to handle the incoming business all on his own. He hired one person after another and the company continued to grow even through the financial downturn of 2009. The key to their success was a little bit of luck mixed with good relationships and reputation in the industry.

Working on a Sale

Mark took on more and more with the business which caused stress and worry. At the age of 50, he contemplated if he wanted to continue with the business for the rest of his life. He was spending more and more energy managing people and customers. He couldn’t “turn it off” at the end of the day and it was taking away from time with his wife and kids.

“The business can just gobble you up if you let it. You gotta draw a line somewhere,” says Mark.

Mark found himself spending less time impacting the daily lives of people which was why he went into psychology in the first place. He decided he wanted to do something different and figure out what his encore career was going to be.

It took Mark two to three years to get his company ready to sell with the help of a CFO advisor. He brought in key employees to increase the value and marketability of the company. He tried to first sell to a private equity group but the deal went nowhere. He talks more about his experience in the podcast and what he learned throughout this process.

Eventually Mark did sell to a partner, Crisis Care Network that later rebranded into R3 Continuum, whose services were a natural complement to BMI’s.

What’s Next?

Even though he could have stayed in the business and possible sold for more at a later stage, Mark does not regret the decision. It was his time to sell. The plan for Mark was to sell the business, take a sabbatical to Ecuador with his wife, and figure out what to do with the next stage of their lives.

“The more time and energy you can spend on what’s next around the corner, the better the adjustment is going to be. It is really hard when you’re selling a business because all the focus is on getting business ready…It is important not to get too far down the road…It is impor