Analytics Magazine Analytics Magazine, January/February 2014 | Page 43

you need to ask for another loan before you’ve paid off the last one, you’re likely to see a previously generous lender turn more reticent than Ebenezer Scrooge. And similarly … 17. Talk to people when you don’t need their help. If you get a reputation of only calling when you want something, you’ll soon have trouble getting your calls answered. You’re already enforcing the same rule on people who call you, aren’t you? And finally … 18. Remember the (Colin) Powell Doctrine: don’t get into anything unless you know how you’d get out of it. This is nowhere more true than in a business. Do you want to keep it for life and pass it on to your kids? If so, do they want it? Do you want to get bought out? If so, do you want that buyout to include a good job with the buying company? (Not usually something that works out for more than a year. You didn’t like working for someone else’s company, remember? If you go this route, be prepared for getting quietly pushed out.) Do you want to go public and cash out? Do you want to make a certain amount of money and then quietly close down? Your exit strategy dictates a lot of other decisions. For example, if you want to retire in 10 years and don’t care whether the business continues after that, growing rapidly and hiring a bunch of people will head you into trouble. If you plan to go public, high-quality record-keeping is essential. If you want to stay for life, don’t get an ambitious board that might decide you’re holding the com pany back fr om gr eater success. If you have questions, I do happen to have some time available … Good luck! Douglas A. Samuelson (samuelsondoug@ yahoo.com), D.Sc., is president and chief scientist of InfoLogix, Inc., a consulting and R&D company in Annandale, Va., and a contributing editor of OR/MS Today and Analytics. He has been a federal policy analyst, a high-tech inventor, entrepreneur and executive, a consultant and a researcher. He is a senior member of INFORMS. Request a no-obligation INFORMS Member Benefits Packet For more information, visit: http://www.informs.org/Membership A NA L Y T I C S J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 014 | 43