Success Stories
Coaching Helps Executive Pursue Lake Life Goals
To live his best life and achieve his long-term vision, Ian Faass enlisted the help of a Career Ownership Coach™ with The Entrepreneur’s Source® to explore his possibilities, options, and dreams.
After spending more than 25 years climbing the corporate ladder at a global engineering and manufacturing company, Faass was ready for a radical change. As a single father of five children, Faass coped with the challenge of finding work-life balance throughout his career. His corporate job also landed him in a different state than his longtime girlfriend, Lynn. With his last daughter nearly finished with high school, Faass was at a crossroads. He wanted to pursue a new opportunity that would allow him to relocate to his lake house to enjoy the fruits of his labor. Ready for a change, he chose to re-evaluate his relationship with his employer and resolved to spend at least a year away from the workforce.
During his break from the corporate world, Faass realized he wanted to be in charge of his future. He came up with several options for businesses he could start from scratch. In addition to having a passion for boating and the outdoors, Faass is a car buff. He developed several ideas combining his passion for cars with profits, but none would allow him to achieve the work-life balance he craved.
As he did his research, he decided to delve deep with Laurie Bosch, a Career Ownership Coach™ with TES. Faass had a clear vision. “My vision was an emotion-built story to get my girlfriend and me to our destiny. We wanted to retire debt-free at my renovated lake house while we are young enough to enjoy active free time,” Faass said. “I wanted to be productive, create value, earn income, maintain the ability to work remotely, manage my own time, and minimize stress.”
TES coaches use education-based tools to help people set goals and explore possibilities at no cost. Bosch started her career as a coach in 2021 after spending many years as an executive in the retail business. “Coaching gave me the opportunity to build relationships and connect with people to help them discover possibilities but eliminated the ongoing management responsibilities of a corporate job,” Bosch said.
Career coaching helped Faass find a path to business ownership through franchising. Franchising offers a low-risk, high-reward solution that helped Faass take steps to achieve his vision. Franchise owners operate a proven business model with support and training to succeed. They get brand recognition and a network of peers to help guide them on their journey. “Laurie was very good at engaging and picking out what was important to me. She tailored our discussion to what I thought was important,” Faass said.
Repair Franchise Ticks the Right Boxes
Faass signed a deal to open a Surface Experts, covering a territory extending from Peoria, Illinois, to the Quad Cities, which includes Rock Island and Moline in Illinois and Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa. “With Surface Experts, I could build the business around my vision and mission,” Faass said.
Surface Experts establishes partnerships with property managers to make cost-effective minor repairs to a wide variety of surfaces. Rather than replacing a damaged countertop after a renter moves out, a Surface Experts technician can repair it at a fraction of the cost in a short amount of time. “Time is money. If we can save them both time and money, they are happy,” Faass said. “The team at Surface Experts has a wonderful culture, and everyone wants everyone to win.”
Faass is enlisting the help of his family to ensure his business thrives. His oldest son is helping with logistics, and Lynn will manage the company’s marketing efforts. Faass is currently in the process of hiring technicians and sales managers. After attending training at the Surface Experts headquarters in Spokane, Washington, Faass will hit the ground running with his new venture in mid-July.
Talk to a TES Coach
If you are at a crossroads in your career and need a guide to help explore possibilities, take time to chat with one of our career ownership coaches to discover your Career 2.0®. For more information about TES, visit www.entrepreneursource.com, or check out our guide book, “Your Career 2.0® A Survival Guide for the Battered Career and Investor Syndrome.”