Intentional Growth

The Missed Exit

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Today on the Life After Business podcast, we’re talking to Tim Hall. Tim’s story is so amazing that I just had to get him on the show. Tim was an executive at Cartoon Network and worked at Hasbro. Then Tim had the opportunity to buy the division of Intel. He was able to grow that business to 85 million dollars in revenue, but when the business climate changed and the economy went into a recession, Tim realized he’d missed his exit. Sit back and relax as you listen to what Tim would have done differently, opportunities he didn’t take, and much more.

In This Episode You’ll Learn:
  • Tim’s career journey, full of twists and turns, beginning when he was a young teenager.
  • How Tim jumped feet-first into Intel, which is what he considers his foray into entrepreneurship.
  • How he kept the cash flowing in his early days at Intel, later called Digital Blue, when he bootstrapped through the first five years.
  • How factoring works: Tim explains recourse and nonrecourse factoring and how it differs from traditional lines of credit.
  • Tim’s top priorities when the company’s revenue quadrupled.
  • How the recession in 2007 and 2008 hurt Tim’s business, as well as what he would have done differently.
    • Backdrop of The Missed Exit:

    While Tim was in Corporate America working toys and electronics with Proctor & Gamble, Hasbro, and was a top Executive at Cartoon Network he helped launch the Jurassic Park toys, pitched Star Wars toys to George Lucas and even worked with Disney.

    Tim saw the opportunity to get into entrepreneurship to buy the division of Intel’s electronic toy division before they shut it down completely. He hired an investment banker and attorney to make sure they knew he was serious and then approached them to purchase the division they were going to use as that year’s tax write off.

    Through grit, perseverance and sheer passion Tim grew that small division he bought for $500,000 into an $85 Million dollar company with $11 Million in EBITDA. He learned a ton in the trenches as an entrepreneur and found out the hard way what the risk is trying to reach for the  next revenue or value milestone…

    Takeaways:
    1. The next run on the ladder is not always revenue- or size-based. Tim wanted to hit a particular dollar amount so bad that he was blinded by what was going on around him. Don’t become so fixated on a particular benchmark that you lose sight of what it’s all about.
    2. Don’t make all of your life goals strategic to your business. Focus as much on the rest of your life as you do on your work. That will help you make better decisions overall.
    3. Don’t miss your exit when the timing is good. Good tim
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