Conversations with Mitchell Bolnick

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mitchell Bolnick.

Hi Mitchell, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself. 
After obtaining my MBA in Finance/MIS, I started my career at the old GTE (re: Verizon, in part) as a financial analyst supporting the IT department. I was at the forefront of using computers for financial analysis and process management. I helped build systems for billing IT services to the internal user base of our company, the manufacturing unit of GTE.

I held various financial and operational management positions, with my last assignment being the Director of Business Operations for a $100m business unit. Under that role, I was responsible for not only the financial management of the business unit, but also OSHA compliance, support of 700 field installers, engineers, and trainers, contract management, administration, process development, and ISO certification.

After being laid off just before my 20th anniversary with GTE, and after our unit was sold the a third party, I developed several business plans to run my own business. We (myself and two partners) finally settled on the purchase of a small low-voltage electrical business that supported mostly audio-visual and security systems for several manufacturers being installed in commercial settings. We turned that company from $300k in revenue with 3 employees the year before we purchased it, to $3m with 23 employees, selling it after 9 years of operation.

Since then, I have supported start-up businesses and small businesses in a mentoring/advisory/investor capacity. That includes funding two businesses, both of which were sold in 2023. Since then, I have worked with real estate clients, both commercial and residential, currently hanging my license with Coldwell Banker Realty.

I am a mentor with the State of Arizona ACA’s Venture Ready program, funding and mentoring start-ups. I have written two books on business planning and development, both available on Amazon. I also have sat on several boards and commissions for the City of Peoria, the Economic Development Advisory Board being the most recent.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
NO! I don’t think anything in life is truly a “smooth road.” In fact, the best way we learn is from the bumps that hit us along the way. I grew up in a lower-middle-class family in the Northern suburbs of Chicago. We had no money and nothing came easy. I had to pay my way through college. But I always worked hard and persevered.

My first job out of college was managing a restaurant in downtown Chicago. I started at 3-4 am and worked 10-12 hours 6 days a week and learned to hate the restaurant business. So, I decided to get my MBA!

Honestly, the next 20 years were pretty easy from a career perspective, as I moved up the ladder at GTE. Sure, I learned things like: I talk too much, I’m a little smarter than many and let that frustrate me (which makes me appear arrogant), I am not a good listener (I am much better now), I believe I am right until I am proven wrong, then I will fight just as hard for my new-found knowledge.

I am passionate about the things I do and the people I surround myself with. I like a diverse workforce. I like structure, planning, budgeting, and measurement of outcomes. My lesson-learning years came after I was pushed out of GTE at an inopportune point in my personal life and started down the road of self-employment. I thought I knew pretty much everything I needed to know to run a small business, having helped run a $100m business for 10+ years. Boy was I wrong.

Where $50k was “no problem” to spend, every $50 became a major decision point. Managing people is always a babysitter’s job, but doing it when they directly generate the money that goes into your pocket is a whole new ballgame. Did we make mistakes? Yep! But we learned, pivoted, and survived.

My biggest lesson came the day we were informed our bank had gone bankrupt during the Great Recession, and that our loan was being recalled. IT had hit the proverbial fan, and we were forced to sell the business. That was an eye-opening, frustrating, scary time of my life, yet in the end, I got out of what could have been a much worse situation, and life/business moved on. I wish I knew myself now, back when we bought the company, but I did not yet exist! That’s what I bring to my clients and the people I interact with now.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I think one of the biggest lessons I had to learn was the art of communication. I honestly believe people should be given the communication model we learned in college on the first day of work at every new business. I wish management was critiqued on it on a regular basis, and I wish people in general were just much more aware and better communicators. But as a whole, we are terrible communicators.

We tell people things and expect them to understand. We expect them to take their understanding and turn it into our expected outcome. Yet we never bother to make sure they really understand what we expect, nor whether they even know how to get there. We hear instructions and take action, worrying about asking questions along the way to avoid looking stupid or being a bad employee.

I can go on and on but the roles we play in communication are multiple and should be understood/adhered to. I dedicate an entire chapter in both of my books to this because I believe it is the number one thing that gets a business in trouble!

Who else deserves credit in your story?
Wow, I would say all of my past bosses, peers, and employees have played a role in shaping who I am. I think my immediate employees deserve the top billing as they were as open with me as I was with them, and I tried to mold myself after the manager they wanted to be the most productive for.

My boss and former partner in the low voltage business, Dan Melsek, taught me so many things, both good and bad. My parents, and especially my mother, were always large in my life. And I would definitely be remiss if I didn’t mention my wife and children. Family is a huge part of who I am.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mitchbolnick.sites.cbmoxi.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/honestagentaz/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HONESTAGENTAZ
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchell-bolnick-3b294511/ 

Image Credits
Chris and Kenny