Lessons Learned: Mistakes I Made Launching My Own Business or "Happy 1st Birthday, Austin Search Partners!"

This month I'm celebrating the 1 year birthday of Austin Search Partners! Boy, what a year...the ups and downs, the careening and jostling during the year felt a lot like being on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland. Two years ago, I had just returned to Austin after a stint as head of sales recruiting helping a CEO I know for a little known venture-funded internet marketing company in New Mexico. We ran an experiment believing that we could make a positive impact on the high unemployment rate by turning anyone into an internet marketing sales rep. We developed and executed several models and in the end hired a small core in-house team and put 50-60 job seekers through internet marketing sales bootcamp. We got interesting results and when the investors took over, I wrapped up the experiment and returned to Austin.

I spent the first year back in Austin as Dir Recruiting at SmarterHQ, and then when I had completed my task of the first 27 hires, I started out on my own launching Austin Search Partners. Though I had been on the founding team of another firm in the early 2000's in the Bay Area, this would be the first time I could run my own show. Well, it comes at a price.

Do any of these themes sound familiar?

• Friends who run companies hire your services to get you started, so you give them a deep discount, but then they end up stiffing you in unpaid fees.
• Some companies just decide not to pay you for successful work completed.
• You have a bleeding heart for the unemployed, the underdog. You hire one of them, train them, pay them really well and get burned when they get lazy, don't actually work, go to a competitor offering confidential information and spread lies around town that your business is experiencing financial distress.
• You offer part-time work to friends so they can make extra cash on the side, and they end up abandoning you as soon as they don't need the cash.
• Biggest rookie mistake...you offer deep discounts to clients low on cash at the time, you make a gentleman's agreement that when they raise more funding they'll pay you at regular rates for future work. Then then when they come into money, they hire other firms at non-discounted rates.
• You join a women's business owner's group thinking that they would be more helpful to you as a woman. You seek strategic business advice but don't get any. All you get is some HR advice.
• You trust people too much and you follow your "gut".

Now don't get me wrong, it's not all bad. I am proud to have served several other (well-behaved) clients in my first year, including companies like Indeed, Vyopta, SmarterHQ, GasPedal, and working in collaboration with my former business partners at very successful firms like Vantage Partners and 3Forty3. My mistakes cost me a lot of money and headache this first year but it was worth the price. What do I do differently now?

1. I got a really great business lawyer (Jones Spross) who drafted a solid contract for me to use with clients. And I will not hesitate to take legal action against any client who breaches the agreement by not paying for services rendered.
2. I got a really great employment lawyer (Cornell Smith Mierl & Brutocao) who guides me with proper procedures and agreements ahead of any hiring for my own firm (i.e. not for clients' searches). I run background checks and references on anyone I hire to join my firm.
3. I make everyone sign an NDA.
4. I don't provide my services to friends who run startup companies anymore, no matter how well funded they are, and I never hire friends to work for me anymore.
5. I created my own group of mentors and advisors (most of whom are men) who provide me with sound business advice when needed. Not sure why, but they seem to take me more seriously than the women did when I ask for business advice.
6. I don't rely on my gut instinct when evaluating new clients. I run discovery, do my research and references on my clients, and let the facts guide me. The "gut" feeling is just the icing on the cake.

Sounds draconion but really isn't. It's just good, sound business judgment. Happy Birthday, Austin Search Partners! I'm looking forward to celebrating the next many years of my own firm, with less battle scars I hope.

---

Christine Lee is the Founder/Managing Partner of Austin Search Partners, based in Austin, TX but serving clients nationally. Austin Search Partners is a boutique retained search firm specializing in leadership roles and building high performance teams with all-star, A-players for emerging and high-growth SaaS and startup companies. With over 15+ years in search and recruiting, we’ve successfully completed retained searches and full–cycle recruiting for all level roles from EVP, SVP, VP, Director/Manager and individual contributor level across Marketing, Product Management, Sales/Customer Success, Business Development and Software/Engineering/Data Science.