I’m currently an extremely small partner (1%) in a media company with annual revenues of 10M USD and 30 employees. I’m also a small partner (20%) in a marketing agency of 300K USD annual revenue and 7 employees that I cofounded with the owner of the media company.
I’m an introverted 35 year old. My contribution to the tech media firm is with heading the marketing team, interviews and journalism (direct), product development of media websites, large conferences, and digital marketing campaigns for clients. We have a good team that’s paid well, and I am able to delegate effectively and spend time innovating on what we do.
My contribution to the healthcare marketing agency is with training fresh hires. A lot of the work done for clients is basic to intermediate stuff (setup their website, online presence, develop lead gen solutions, etc).
I earn 300K from the media company and 40K from the agency. I’m in the leadership team on both.
I’m trying to figure out if I should stay with both companies and diversify myself, or double down on growing the media company. I do not wish to double down on the healthcare agency because I don’t find healthcare marketing agency work satisfying (at the moment) though it is relatively more lucrative.
I’m currently on track for financial independence for me and my 4 dependents by the time I hit 45. Exiting from the smaller firm will delay that by 2 years if I’m not able to use the extra time to grow the media company faster.
Based on the relationship you have with the owner that’s also in both businesses would it be easy for you to sell out of the agency and truly get out completely?
Or, is it one of those things where they would still try and pressure you or you would have some obligation providing your skill set over there even after you sold.
If you can make a clean break, and you truly don’t like doing that type of work - then I can understand selling your share. When you have work you really like doing then life’s too short to do the work you hate.
In general due to similar people being invested and owning each biz it might be tricky to remove yourself and still be in good standing? I don’t know.
Also, if you don’t see the agency 10xing in 3 to 5 years then you’ll likely do a lot more work you don’t like for not much more revenue and not really that valuable of a biz.
How are you making an income? I assume you’re getting a wage from one or both of the companies in addition to profits from shares?