We were Three Amigos, full of enthusiasm and ambition, and despite all of us being in our late 20’s, we were able to achieve quite a bit in a short period of time. We engaged an attorney and set up a new company, secured a $50k line of credit, bought a second service van, and signed a 3 year lease on office/warehouse space that we wouldn’t be embarrassed to show vendors or clients.

We also recruited a contract electrician and the office manager from my previous employer, ensuring we had an experienced administrator and on-staff help for lighting projects. We then started a minor remodel, replacing all flourescent light fixtures with recessed can lights and dimmers, ran network cabling everywhere and my friend Kevin setup an Exchange Server for mail and scheduling. We had a logo, letterhead, business cards and website designed, lettered the 2 service vans with our logo and contact info, and setup a phone system and voice mail with emergency after hours rollover to our mobile phones.

Due to my previous relationships with the Panasonic, Lutron Lighting and Crestron sales reps, plus a substantial deposit on a project from a previous client that needed all three product lines in their new home, we were able to become dealers for all three manufacturers fairly quickly.

At 18 months into our venture we were 7 talented and hard working people, all under 40, who had gained the trust of high-end builders and architects, and some notable clients in the DFW area. We had covered operating expenses and payroll without additional funding, had over $1M of scheduled business in various stages of completion, and had more projects coming soon. Things were great, but...

Conflicts developed between the partners, resulting from scheduling delays on multiple projects, and in time those conflicts exposed irreconcilable differences in operating philosophy. It became clear that the best way forward, was for me to leave. So, I trusted my intuition, and took another leap into the unknown.