MARK KOHLERMain Street Professionals, Main Street Professionals, Main Street Professionals, Main Street Professionals, Main Street Professionals, LLC · Owner at Main Street Professionals, LLC

The Hardest Decision in Business 🛑

22 Jun 2026 · 0 min

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In this reflective conversation, Mark Kohler and Speaker A discuss the painful but crucial decision to shut down a struggling business after years of trying to keep it afloat. Speaker A recounts the emotional difficulty of laying off an employee, Lacey, who had been recruited with high promises, and how her reaction highlighted the toll of prolonged uncertainty. The discussion underscores the importance of recognizing when a venture is no longer viable and the need to act decisively. This realization led to a strategic pivot toward self‑directed IRAs, illustrating how closing one venture can open opportunities for new business models. The key takeaway is that knowing when to pull the trigger on a failing business is as vital as any growth strategy.

I think the best decision in business— this was the learning experience— was to actually close the business. Sometimes it's hard to do, but the decision to know when to throw in the towel is sometimes just as important.
That's a good point. Now I see your point. The story went, we tried to keep this damn thing on life support for 3 or 4 years. It was just dumb. Yeah. And we could have just— as soon as we saw The Big Short, pull the trigger.
And at that time, I was still on that quandary of, well, what am I going to do? Because we've done that. We were running that business for 2 years. I remember the last escrow officer we let go. Lacey. Lacey. And I remember going to her telling we were gonna close it down. And I was like, I felt so bad for her. I recruited her from another title company. Like I gave her big promises and I was feeling terrible. And she was like, Matt, I was been waiting for you to lay me off so I can just go get unemployment. What took you so long? I was like, oh my gosh. And that's where I frankly decided to do self-directed IRAs. And so it was looking strategically about the business opportunity, even though this one is already far along and saying, I need to reset and do something else. So that was the lesson.