Saturday, October 15, 2005

Taking a break from the process of selling the business, I flew out to southern California last night to start my vacation. I'm just going to enjoy the coast, and eventually hook up with some old friends who moved here after college.

I told the other partners they could reach me by phone most days, but there would be a couple of days I probably wouldn't be able to reply for sure. Nobody is really happy with me about this delay, but I told them they said this was okay a few weeks ago, and I'd have to be reimbursed as part of the sales deal if I had to cancel this vacation now. I don't like to play hardball like that, but I didn't think it was right for them to be suddenly upset about this. I certainly didn't complain about their vacations.

They're definitely upset and nervous about something, but I don't know what it is. I'm hoping they're just frustrated by the delay of meeting with their business lawyer.

The crazy thing is that while I don't sell my business interest, I'm reminded of my business lawyer's advice to just keep going along with everything as is ("stall"), and I'm still making over $1K/day, even as I sit our here in sunny California this afternoon. Maybe the partners have figured this part of the "game" out, and that's why they're upset? Still, they need to make me a firm offer, and they haven't even done that yet.

As I think about their nervousness -- and their impending lowball offer -- I'm also thinking that I need to start talking to some outside people to gauge their interest (or non-interest) in buying my shares. I don't have a backup plan, and I always have a backup plan.