This is Chenmark

The past few weeks have marked a return to school—elementary, middle, high school, and beyond. For some, this is welcome news. For others, particularly those entering a new grade or starting at an entirely new school, the change of scenery can be daunting. Our daughter described the impending start of kindergarten as “half exciting, half scary.” We’ve all been there, kiddo.

This week, Charlies Watts, the Rolling Stones drummer, passed away at the age of 80. A member of the band since 1963, Watts was an icon in the music community, and perennially tops lists of the greatest rock drummers of all time.

As our long-time readers know, beyond our passion for acquiring and operating small businesses, some of our defining characteristics are that a) we live in Maine and b) we are into Crossfit. Last week was not only the middle of the Tokyo Olympics, it was also the week of the Crossfit Games, so we wanted to take a moment to highlight a Crossfit-related story.

We typically have very full days. Our calendars are scheduled—often weeks in advance—and we have specific things we want to accomplish on a daily and weekly basis. We try to get as much rest as possible over the weekend and evenings to ensure we approach each day with the drive and energy needed to accomplish our longer term goals.

Chenmark is in the business of acquiring and operating small businesses. On the deal side, we spend our days looking at new acquisition opportunities, putting together deal models, negotiating purchase prices, securing debt financing, and reviewing legal documents. On the operational side, we spend our days hiring (and sometimes firing) talent, nurturing sales relationships, implementing new tech systems, collecting cash and paying invoices, evaluating equipment purchases, and developing marketing programs (among other things).

As parents of young children, we find ourselves reminding our children on almost a daily basis that the most powerful word in the English language is “yet”. I can’t play soccer. Yet. I can’t do math. Yet. I can’t read. Yet. I don’t have any friends. Yet. I don’t have enough princess dresses. Good news. You can grow up, get a job and buy some for yourself.

Every year, we work through budgeting at a number of companies. While occasionally we are able to forecast significant positive improvement in a single line item, more often than not, our challenge is to push for progress in areas where operations already seem to be functioning pretty well.