My Defining Moment- by Jonathan Saar

2008 was showing its full teeth with its effect on the economy.  I was the general manager of an import company and had been with them for 12 years.  It was a challenge to help grow the business due to the owner’s viewpoint on finances, but nonetheless, I took the lead and as a team we pulled the company out of near bankruptcy once and I successfully raised its profit level each year and reduced overhead considerably with new technology and higher profit margin transactions.

The ever going issue which persisted for years was there was never any capital to reinvest into the company.  I was never given any details as to where these funds went, so I started running my own set of books.  At the same time, there was never an end to the new cars the owners had or the financing of family member’s personal lives. (it’s their business)

When 2008 took its toll on everyone, the company I worked for was not spared.  It saw a 75 % decline in sales in only 2 quarters.  This was absolutely devastating and the company had no foot to stand on.  In November 2008 the owners were in a complete stage of panic.  My solution to them was to provide FULL disclosure of financials so that I could assess where some drastic changes could be made.

Little did I know what I had got myself into.  My worst fears were realized as I began to see how much money was being funneled into a separate corporation that was in the owner’s name and how much money was spent on personal items and financing family members.  Of course this all their prerogative, but as a result of this the company was about to go under.

There were only 3 options.  The first was to layoff most of the staff, the second was a complete shakedown of how the owners spent their money, and the third was for me to leave the company since I was the highest paid employee.  The first one was not even realistic to me.  These folks had worked so hard and were so scared that I did not even want to approach that as an option.  I discussed the latter two with the owners and also submitted a formal proposal in writing.  The one item I forgot was to protect myself.  I had the mistaken mentality that since I had been with the company for so long that my loyalty and hard work would speak for itself.  In the end.. money won.  They used this proposal as if I was proposing my resignation and 4 weeks after my proposal I received an “EMAIL” stating that they were going to take option 2 on the proposal.  No severance, unemployment, nothing. A tearful phone conversation with the owners and then..  Goodbye

That was my defining moment.  Would I allow this situation to change who I am?  I was in emotional shock for a few months after this. After all the years of me helping this company and its entire staff…who was there to help me?  Shortly after that I was approached by my wife’s boss who was aware of everything I was going through and offered me some side work doing production work for her company The Training Factor.  The next segment of my life was about to be defined.  I went from the floral industry to the apartment industry.  I never would have thought that even possible.  The owner of the company was seeking a change in how her company was being represented and how it was being branded.  In June 2009 I became part of that transition on a full time basis.  2009 was still not an easy year to be branding or promoting a service of any kind, but I took my own philosophies in marketing and working with people that had proved successful for me for many years, educated myself in this new industry by full immersion, and started going to town.

My defining moment has landed me in a situation where I work with some of the most wonderful professionals.  The owner of The Training Factor is one of the hardest working, hands on type of person I have ever met.  My defining moment has availed me to allow my personal values and beliefs to be invested into something that will define the rest of my career.  It is my privilege to see my defining moment land me in the multifamily industry and to what I love to do best…help people.

Written by Jonathan Saar

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