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Article contributed by Dan Lounsbury

I have over 25 years of experience building small businesses. I’ve had both success and failure that have taught valuable lessons and I leverage these experiences for my clients, helping them design strategies for long-term business growth that adds value to their lives.

Small businesses start small, but they don’t have to stay that way

Every business venture I’ve ever been involved with has started the same way. Small. It started with one idea and one vision. From there, growing into a diverse enterprise was about becoming an expert in that one thing, knowing my competition, and being able to exploit our niche.

As revenues grew, the need for scalable production become more crucial. We took this journey over a period of years by first subcontracting to other overseas and domestic manufacturers, and eventually building our own facilities here in the U.S. to deliver the best quality products we could offer.

Growth for many of my businesses was about being in the right place at the right time, with the exact solution the client required. As we continued to grow, I came to realize that hard work and persistence was the cause of being in the right place at the right time, not just luck.

When the simple things became more complex, so did the day to day operations of my life. I had to create a plan to meet my personal goals as well as my professional goals. This involved the addition of experts to our team — we hired the best people we could find and empowered them to do what they do best — perform. Most business owners will focus on the growth of their company, but often sacrifice their own well-being, justifying the “company first” mentality. This mistake can be catastrophic.

The whole point of building a successful business is to build the life you want for yourself and for your family — your legacy. The goal shouldn’t be to work yourself to death, but rather to build a business that works for you, makes you happy, and provides you with the ability to enjoy your life with friends and family.

Pulling from past experience

My background is quite diverse. I served as an enlisted man and later an officer in the Navy, learning about the needs of the U.S. military — which was invaluable later in life as I drew upon my experience working with and building teams of professionals whom relied upon each other.

Spending more time in the private sector, working in the finance, software, telecom and defense industries helped broaden and refine my abilities to analyze a variety of situations and create a strategy to achieve our team objectives. I started my first business in 1998 and have since built 7 different companies.