Boomer, Your Life Is Calling; What Is Your Transition Strategy?

Gary Mattie learned a tough lesson at his father’s knee: Don’t depend on a company to take care of you.

The 44-year-old commercial photographer and Philadelphia native saw his father’s decades of service to a major credit corporation go up in smoke when the company moved to the West Coast and told its top people to move with them or hit the road.

"He told me, '‘Don’t work for anyone else; do your own thing'," says Mattie. Mattie took those words to heart, but they’ve proven to be a double-edged sword.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in photography from the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, Calif., Mattie invested 20 years building his national reputation and business – the last 14 of which have been spent as an independent contractor – with such high-end clients as FAO Schwarz, Motorola, Subaru, Zaney Brainy, Edmund Optics and the Showboat Casino. His ads, corporate catalogs and unusual location perspectives have garnered him awards from a variety of sources, including a prestigious Addy Award, sponsored by the American Advertising Federation.

Mattie has hung from a helicopter "to get the right shot" and soared over rooftops in a cherry picker, but like many Baby Boomers, he now faces one of the biggest challenges of his career: facing the future as a single entrepreneur who may not be able to cut back the workload without cutting his income.

"The future? I have no thoughts of cutting back; no way, I can't," he says from his 6,000 square-foot Cherry Hill, N.J. studio. "Never even had time to really address it, to tell you the truth. At various times, I’ve looked for someone else who had my same drive, philosophy and attention to detail to share the business and watch my back, but to tell you the truth, for the solo business owner, the state is your partner, taking 60 percent of what you make. You can’t stop working."

Mattie is typical of the entrepreneurial Baby Boomers, says Dolly Garlo, founder of Thrive!! Coaching and Consulting, based in Reno, Nev. The attorney-turned-executive coach specializes in succession planning with a different twist.

"The Baby Boomers are a population of people who have accomplished a huge number of things. They are the first, of many generations to follow, of continuous learners. Whether working for someone else or starting their own businesses or practices, there is an entrepreneurial spirit.

"But at some point, they have to begin addressing issues of "where do you go from here and what do you want for the rest of your life?' " says Garlo. "That same spirit that keeps them learning, keeps them energized and moving has almost clouded the issue of how to handle transitions later in their careers."

Denial, she says, doesn't stop the march of time, however, and those professionals in particular who head companies or find themselves in solo practices -- such as attorneys, doctors, dentists or artists -- will have an easier time later if they implement a little planning today.

Do I Stop, Transition or Sell Out?

Garlo, at 47 a Baby Boomer herself, knows what transition is all about. Beginning her professional life as an attorney with another degree in nursing, she practiced health-care law until she realized, in the mid 1990s, that many of the professionals with whom she was dealing also were being challenged by issues arising from changing practices, aging, and the desire to transition out of a break-neck pace into something more satisfying.

"When I heard about coaching, it seemed as though someone had defined the orientation that I had been coming from for a long time," she says. "So I hired attorneys to do the traditional legal work and set up Thrive!! as a separate entity so I could take on clients who wanted and needed coaching."

Since that time, she has lent her brand of guidance to both corporate executives and to those professionals who have pioneered their own companies.

What she has identified are three possible pathways of transition, but each depends upon the type of career profile involved, and how -- and if -- financial planning has been integrated.

"If you are financially free, there are more options but with many who are entrepreneurs -- particularly those in a solo practice of some sort -- they are their business," says Garlo. "The decision then has to be made: make the shift from being self-employed to owning, running and overseeing the business; sell the business to someone else, or just close the doors and do something else.

"All three of those directions require very different action plans and carry a different emotional content."

How do you know in which direction to go? This depends on whether you need the continual cash flow.

"Is this a business you can sell and will the sale of the business allow you to either live on the proceeds, or reinvest them to provide cash flow totally or augmented by something else you choose to do?" says Garlo. "That’s a financial planning issue -- and that's just one of the ones involved.

"Some businesses don’t lend themselves to being sold. With others, the owner can begin to transition out by bringing in a partner. But the bottom line is, what are your financial needs? And a lot of this could be answered by a business plan. The problem is, most people don’t think about a business plan. The purpose of a business plan is to set up a structure and guidelines for the separate entity that is being created. Part of that structure, is an exit strategy.

"Young entrepreneurs and professionals are so busy building their businesses that they don’t think ahead to an exit strategy," she says. "But there’s no time like at the beginning to think of things like how much are you keeping, in order to give yourself some future flexibility. The more money you have, the more options are open to you so the sooner in your career that you think about this, the better.

"Also, if you are creating, or are part of, a company that will last several generations, you’ve got to think about how it is separate from yourself," says Garlo. "How you will relate to it or interact with it as you transition out is very different from being up-to-your-elbows working in the middle of it."

For Boomers who have been diligently building their careers and/or businesses for more than 20 years, there is another factor to consider as well when contemplating making a change for the latter part of their work lives.

Who Am I If I'm Gone?

It takes a lot of time and energy to create a successful business. Often, the process leaves little time for family, hobbies or outside interests other than staying current in technological advances.

Suddenly, you realize that your life has revolved around work. Your identity is your job, so transitioning out creates a vacuum that may be scary to fill. And, perhaps, you enjoy the types of friends and alliances that have peopled your business life. The idea of scaling back business to get involved in travel, an avocation about which you are passionate, or changing fields entirely may hold some fears regarding your identity and your network of contacts.

"Sometimes this issue is easier with business owners and entrepreneurs because, chances are, they have begun and moved away from several businesses in their lifetimes already," says Garlo. "But then you have the professionals who have begun one business and run it for 25 or 30 years, like doctors, lawyers, engineers and architects. Their professional and personal identification is completely wrapped up in their careers.

"The emotional issue becomes: Who am I if I stop being a doctor, lawyer, etc.? What do I do with myself? Many feel that if they step out of their professions, they will lose the community that’s been such a large part of their adult lives.

"The answer then is to develop other communities now, if you haven't begun doing that already," says Garlo. "Look to your church or synagogue, your social circles, your recreational circles. Create another source from which you can draw those feelings of community and connection."

Like his father's advice of so many years ago, Garlo's is good advice that Gary Mattie already is implementing.

Despite being a solo practitioner for years, Mattie now is taking a few steps toward being able to maintain his professional profile and community in the coming decade.

An avid competitive surfer, he dedicates almost as many weekends to surfing as he does working and staying up on the rapidly changing technology of the photography industry. And he’s just formed an agreement with another commercial photographer he's "known for years," with different but complementary specialties, to work out of his studio.

"I used to think that when I was done, I'd just close the doors and have a yard sale with all the equipment," he laughs. "I can't sell the business because it's not possible; people are buying me -- my particular eye, skills, and experience.

"I've got another good 20 years in me but the rat race can get nuts. My exit strategy now is not really an exit -- just a change in direction. I've taught workshops at the Palm Beach Photographic Workshop and enjoyed it, so I'd like to hook up with a college or university. I'd also like to pursue fine arts and getting some gallery shows going.

"I want to stay in this business and stay active," says Mattie. "It keeps you in the world you enjoy."