SBA Deal Structuring to Manage Risk in a Cyclical Industry

You're going to have to move a little bit further out from the urban core to see that.

You know, it's interesting, Andrew, because you do seem like a great fit for the kind of services business that services the government. And there are countless here kind of consultancies, services businesses and in technical ones, ones that are in cybersecurity, msps, all manner of white collar consulting style Services, businesses, but that are delivering a technical outcome or at least…

Yeah, so I'm actually, I'm getting a little bit of a physical reaction here. So it was. No, because it was, I mean it was something that I looked at and it was part of the thesis was, you know, do I want to go look at one? And I looked at this business that was a contractor to Department of Defense.

It had, I had previously had all the right security accesses I would need. I mean it was like back in my old world. Exactly. And when I say I'm feeling it viscerally that I actually, I had this pit in my stomach as I'm reading the sim, like what's going on here?

So then you start to ask yourself like why am I really reacting to just reading about a business? And you know, it became clear to me as I sort of unpacked it that I didn't want to go back into that world. That ultimately a government contractor is led by its client.

And so, you know, everything that I was looking to step away from, from the, you know, the large organization that is the US government I would be going back into now. Sure. Might you have the great financial outcome? Yeah, maybe. But it, it wasn't how I wanted to get up and spend my day.

Was waiting for a contracting officer to approve a contract MOD or next year scope. And you know, similarly the, the national labs would have been a great place if I wanted to continue to do government work and government implementation, I should have stayed at the labs. Maybe you wouldn't have the financial outcome but I mean they're still, you know, like they're great places to work.

So I actually put I. One of the things I did that I would recommend to folks is start making a no list. And it just, it makes it so much easier.

You know, you got your buy box. But after like the third metal finisher I looked at and I realized that I didn't want to pay the high, you know, I wasn't comfortable with the high capex required in metal finishing. I just put it on my like I actually wrote it down, the no list.

And so government contractors were on the no list. Metal finishing was on the no list, machine shops were on the no list. And it just it became really important to me to just say that structurally these are not businesses for me.

It's great Andrew, because as thoughtful and analytical as you are, that decision to not go back into government was very much just an emotional one. You just, it just didn't resonate with you. And, and that is that, you know, what might be called the X factor is probably, should be everybody's sort of criteria.