#355: How Intentional Decision Making Took Mike Spack From a 75% Loss of Revenue to a 7-Figure EBITDA Exit

"What would you do if your revenue dropped 75%? Would you give up or pivot and double down?

Today, we have an awesome conversation with Mike Spack, the founder of SPAC Solutions, a company renowned for its technologies aimed at reducing traffic congestion and fatalities. Despite growing SPAC Solutions into a multimillion-dollar global business, a 75% pandemic-induced revenue drop forced him to make challenging cuts, focusing on the company's most scalable aspects.

In this episode, Mike and I discuss how his strategic and thoughtful decision-making process was crucial for his company's survival, a seven-figure EBITDA, and eventual exit. His approach towards planning involved signing up with the Intentional Growth Academy™ and participating in 1-on-1 coaching calls. During these sessions, Mike really dug into his growth strategies and exit options before choosing a path forward.

Mike ultimately sold his business to an acquisition entrepreneur just a few months ago. He shares with us his play-by-play thought process, and why he made the choices he did along his anything-but-straight-line path to his exit.

Spack's story underlines the power of intentional growth and deliberate decision-making in the face of uncertainty. His story is incredibly valuable for anyone navigating unpredictable business landscapes and wondering what questions they should be asking to eventually achieve their goals and make owning and running the business 'worth it'."

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What You Will Learn

• How Mike started his business off of a 20,000+ follower blog he created - “Mike on Traffic” - while working full time.
• How Mike pivoted after a 75% revenue drop during the pandemic.
• How Mike focused on the most scalable part of his business to recover and grow.
• How Mike was able to create a 7-figure EBITDA business with a few team members and 10 hours a week.
• How intentional decision making produced exponential growth for Mike’s business.
• How taking the Intentional Growth™ Academy helped Mike become more focused on where he wanted to take his company after the pandemic.
• Why Mike believes it’s so important to align your vision, financial targets and potential exit routes when planning for the future of the business.
• Mike’s decision making process when considering selling his business even though it was doing really well.
• Why Mike felt a little bit of urgency to sell his business.
• Why Mike sold his company to an acquisition Entrepreneur.

// Sign up for the Intentional Growth™ Starter Kit: the kit has intro videos on each of the 5 Intentional Growth™ Principles, the Intentional Growth™ Financial Scorecard along with videos reviewing a case study on how to project out the value of your company, and the entire Intentional Growth™ Podcast Library.

Bio:

Mike Spack founded Spack Consulting, Traffic Data Inc, CountingCars.com and Spack Academy. In 2019 Mike combined elements of these companies to create Spack Solutions, where he focused on providing safe, accurate, cost-effective transportation data to public agencies (and their contractors/consultants) around the world to help them tame congestion and eliminate traffic fatalities.

Before going to work for himself, he worked in a couple of consulting firms and also served as the staff traffic engineer for the city of Maple Grove, Minnesota. He’s taught in the civil engineering department at the University of Minnesota and is a past president of the North Central Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers.

Mike is a licensed civil engineer in the State of Minnesota (a PE). He was a certified professional transportation operations engineer, but decided to let the certification lapse and go inactive. Mike passed the exam and still has all of the knowledge in his head. He’s also a fellow of the Institute of Transportation Engineers.

Interview Quotes:

24:48  - “We looked like a much bigger company because we were leveraging all of these tools to make the system as seamless and as automated as possible.” - Mike Spack

39:41 - “The sheer amount of people I see that tie their identity to their business…” - Ryan Tansom

41:49 - “I would rather shift my identity in my 50s when I still have energy.” - Mike Spack

48:14 - “eCommerce companies are a totally different game in buying and selling.” - Mike Spack

59:02 - “He had investors behind him and kept wanting to renegotiate after the LOI so I kicked him.” - Mike Spack

1:08:33 - “I think I want to go back to school and be a math teacher.” - Mike Spack

Links and Resources:

Connect with Mike on LinkedIn!

Intentional Growth™ Vision Board

Intentional Growth™ Online Training

Reach out to me if you have questions about the Intentional Growth™ Training or Fractional CFO services