The First Step Starts With Us
We can help you decide what’s next for you. And your company.
Leave A Legacy
SELLING YOUR BUSINESS
Selling your business isn’t easy. We know how hard you’ve worked, how much of your life you’ve invested in it. Now you’re thinking about options and what’s next. There’s excitement, stress and maybe even some guilt. We get it. We can help. It starts with a relationship built on trust, integrity and experience.
Make An Impact
JOIN OUR TEAM
Running a business is challenging. If you’ve always wanted to lead a company, why not earn the opportunity to lead one of ours? We’re always looking for dedicated, passionate people who believe they have what it takes.
What Our People Say
There was so much trust and confidence in dealing with Chenmark. Selling to them was the right decision for me.
Rarely in business do you get an opportunity to have such an impact with each and every project.
For any owner who’s looking to sell but wants to keep their dream alive while ensuring the well-being of their staff, talk to Chenmark.
Chenmark is a family business and we were a family business, so for us it was a great fit.
Weekly Thoughts
Skills Training
As mentioned in previous posts, we aim to help small businesses create sustainable processes by focusing on being “clock-builders” not “time-tellers.” For us, a crucial aspect of creating a lasting institution is the continuous education of our workforce regarding our particular approach to business.
Riding the Bench
We are keen students of long-term compounders and are fans of the greats—Berkshire, Constellation, Markel, and Danaher, among others. We take inspiration from these incredible companies, many of whom have routinely compounded capital above 20% for decades.
The Sound of Silence
We recently learned that Ruth Bader Ginsberg was known for her awkward pauses (to be fair, probably not awkward for her, just awkward for her counter-parties.) From a 2013 The New Yorker article: “During conversations, she is given to taking lengthy pauses. This can be unnerving, especially at the Supreme Court, where silence only amplifies the sound of ticking clocks.
Snakes!!
Until last week, we never spent much time thinking about snakes other than how they got on a plane with Samuel L. Jackson. Last week, however, we listened to a 99 percent invisible podcast about snakes that blew our minds. Take, for instance, the way the majority of antivenom is made.
Quick and Dirty
Last year, we were saddened to hear of the passing of Robert Gore, the chemical engineer who invented Gore-Tex (by accident) back in 1969. The story goes as follows: “In October 1969, chemical engineer Robert Gore was performing low-tech experiments for a Delaware company founded by his parents. W.L. Gore & Associates made insulated wires and cables for electronic equipment.
The Day Before Season
Last Monday was the “season start” for our lawn care business. The company’s CEO, who writes a weekly in-season email to his team, spiced things up with a poem written to the syntax of ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas. We thought we’d share this as an example of how we take our work seriously but don’t take ourselves seriously (and know how to have a bit of fun).
Many Constraints But Few Limits
We recently read Frank Slootman’s Tape Sucks: Inside Data Domain, A Silicon Valley Growth Story, a short narrative of his experience leading Data Domain from a fledgling start-up in 2001 to a $2.4 billion acquisition in 2009. Slootman then went on to serve as CEO of ServiceNow, taking the company from $100 million in revenue in 2011 to $1.4 billion of revenue in 2017.
The Average Man
Today, the concept of using an average to understand data is second-nature and impacts almost everything around us — building codes, furniture dimensions, clothing sizes, standardized tests, infant growth charts, and stock market indices.
How to Cook
As Chenmark grows, we have started to put processes in place where none existed previously. One example is the creation of our hiring “squad” (because committees are lame). As one might guess, this group interviews all candidates and convenes to share thoughts on the candidates’ capabilities, desire to work for Chenmark, and fit with our values and culture.
Nanaimo Bars
Every Christmas, certain Canadian Chenmark members break from their typically low sugar diets to treat themselves to Nanaimo bars, a holiday goodie that is simply too delicious to pass up. Some background on the Nanaimo bar from The Canadian Encyclopedia: