Parakeeto’s Post

Less than 10% of agency owners have a successful "exit." I knew the number was small, but that stat was surprising... even to me. I've been guilty of paying myself less than I should, and reinvesting all of my profit back into the business to chase more growth. "I'm building equity." is what I'd tell myself. To a degree, that may be true. The problem with equity is, it's not liquid until it's liquid. If the business doesn't "sell" in some way, that equity never turns into money. Here's the big idea: Should we tie up the majority of our net in an investment that is very volatile, and only has a 10% chance of returning any money at all? Of course not. We know the balance is placing a portion of our wealth in that investment as a high risk/high reward bet, and diversifying the rest in things that are more reliable. When I was taking pay cuts to re-invest in growth instead of taking some profit off the table to diversify - that's exactly what I was doing. I might as well have been betting the farm on Shitcoin 😁 Unfortunately, I'm among peers with this mistake. I've got plenty of friends who've done the same thing. Sometimes, instead of keeping all the money in the business, it looks like taking lots of it out to fund an expensive lifestyle instead of making investments. In both cases, the founder is resting their livelihood on their business, which is a very risky proposal. This is why I was excited to have Jason Peck, CFP®, AAMS® on the podcast. He works specifically with agency owners to help them build a strategy for turning their agency into a vehicle for long-term wealth that achieves their financial dreams. He helps them balance investments in their business to build equity, with taking profit off the table to diversify and build wealth in a more predictable way. It's a lesson I've had to learn over the years as I constantly overestimated how quickly I could grow the equity value of my company. At times, I felt like doing this was unfair to my team or meant that I didn't believe in the business. But I've learned that it's more about acknowledging that business is risky, and the more financially stable I am personally, the better I can show up for my team and company. Building wealth outside the business isn’t a backup plan. It’s the foundation for long-term stability. It’s what gives you freedom inside the business—so your choices aren’t dictated by short-term cash flow or pressure to grow at all costs. There’s more on this in the full conversation with Jason in the latest Agency Profit Podcast—linked in the comments.