It seems our corporate LinkedIn profile has this week as this business’s 25th anniversary and several readers have graciously sent congratulatory messages. My recollections take things back a couple of years earlier, to April 1988 (which would mean this should be the 27th anniversary), but the general milestone remains correct.
If a business can survive a quarter century or more, through a diversity of tumultuous changes both economic and environmental, it has a history — and some degree of driving vitality that provides a story of strength and optimism for the future. ?Although we don’t have a full, formal, written company history, the “Construction Marketing Ideas blog “about” page provides some perspective.
Of course, 25th anniversaries aren’t that uncommon in business; we’ve profiled several of them in our publications over the years. Longer stories are rarer. If a business can make it through its?first years, it often faces a critical testing point when the original founder/owner(s) are ready for retirement. Will the business pass on to the next generation of the owner’s family, will it continue under employee ownership, or will it be gobbled up by another business (or close down)?
The biggest personal milestone will occur three years from now, as my 65th birthday approaches. I don’t intend to retire — that is never a good idea for a man, especially if he enjoys his work — but the visualization is by that date the business should be able to operate viably and consistently without my active participation, involvement or control.
Our son, while interested in business, may not be interested in “my” business — so if the enterprise is to continue, it will be under the direction/leadership of employees and key current contractors. The priority now is to work out the best transformational structure/arrangement that fairly incentivize contributions and achieves continuity.
The business history can become a story; of course, if the story is old (and 25 years can certainly be seen as quite old in business history terms) it can become either stale or wise with a forward-looking optimism. I believe?the latter will be the truth.
P.S. Since this is a media/publicity business, frankly, your story is much more important than ours. If you wish, we can share it with our readers — at no cost to you. ?Please email me at buckshon@constructionmarketingideas.com with to get started.
