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Loving Retirement: Celebrating Five Years of Enjoyment

The trick to enjoying retirement is doing what you love. Sounds pretty simple, but for many business owners it’s a challenge they just can’t quite conquer. Someone who has spent years managing a company and its employees, may find him-or-herself lost along the way. Time for interests and hobbies fall to the side as a business owner strategizes and grows the client base. Long hours at the office are spent with intermittent dreams of lounging poolside or sipping beer while discussing the finer points of Tom Brady’s downfall as America’s favorite quarterback. So, when the day comes that your alarm clock can be beaten into its last snooze while meandering into that first morning of retirement, a now-former business owner can embrace the suntan lotion or cradle the remote, confidently sure that this is the life. But then the days blur together until a routine work life is replaced by mundane, unfulfilling retirement. Get in line.
Except for Emil Turille, who is so far outside that line that he takes retirement to its best art form.


When Turille received a promotional postcard asking him if he’d planned his exit strategy, he thought to himself that the idea was interesting. So, he met with the broker who had sent him that piece, and spent the next hour hearing about the guy’s bowling league. Hardly a promising start.


Then he was introduced to Cortney Sells, president of The Firm Business Brokerage. Sells offered a give-and-take, telling Turille a little about herself and her business, and asking question after question about his. “She was interested in my business, and concerned about what I was trying to accomplish,” says Turille. Sells wanted to know what type of buyer Turille had in mind for his software company, which helped her to hone in on who to bring in for a meeting with him. It was a process that took three months, and left Turille “amazed at how easy the process was. Cortney Sells made the whole thing exciting, and off I went into blissful retirement.”


Turille had spent decades developing his software company, which specialized in managing all the business aspects for Anheuser-Busch’s distributors. It was something he fell into by chance. Having trained as an accountant, Turille quickly realized how “boring [accounting] was, doing the same stuff month after month, and closing the same books again and again.” When his employer’s computer department wasn’t helpful in creating the programs he needed to better complete his job, Turille taught himself to program computers. It was the start of a perfect relationship.


While working for Herman Brothers Trucking, Turille was asked by the owner’s brother to develop a software to better run his beer distributor operations in Lincoln. At that moment, the seeds of his company were planted, and he soon broke off and began selling his software to other Anheuser-Busch distributors nationwide.


When it came time to selling his niche company, he had to be sure to pick a niche buyer. It couldn’t be just anyone with a passing interest, but “someone who could bring something to the table that I didn’t have,” says Turille. The finely-honed process and qualified buyers were what drew Turille to Sells and The Firm. “We interviewed a couple of buyers,” says Turille, “and only stopped the search when we found the perfect one.”


It’s been five years since Turille transitioned into retirement, and he hasn’t been bored once, which you would think would be difficult for someone who went into retirement with no definite plans. In fact, he had even considered purchasing another business after the sale, but the enjoyable temptations of flexibility proved too much of a draw. “I haven’t found a business that can allow me to be free with what I’m doing day to day,” says Turille. Rather than choosing to work again, he has found contentment and happiness as a busy retiree.


And, boy, does he keep busy.


Between traveling, consulting, volunteering, and his many hobbies, Turille can make any business owner think twice about stalling an exit strategy. He’s spent days on jobs sites with Habitat for Humanity, having built houses in Springfield and Omaha. “The site manager will give me tasks to do and I go do ‘em,” says Turille. “I once spent two days painting walls.” For anyone who’s spent years staring at screens behind a desk, the idea of basic construction work is a breath of fresh air. But for Turille, it’s more than just exercising some different muscles. It’s about “meeting new people and getting that feeling of giving back.” He also enjoys working on his model railroad with his daughter and participating in model railroad events with his N-Scale Club.


Twice a year, Turille can be found at his alma mater, Holy Name School, where he talks to kids about how they can have a future working in the tech industry. As Turille says, “it’s a good career possibility.” Not only are we increasingly reliant on technology, but it pays remarkably well for even entry level positions.
Retirement has been made even more sweet through wise investing. Taking the money from the sale of his business, Turille has been able to double his wealth through the stock market. It’s allowed him more freedom for traveling for months at a time, whether it’s to Florida for winter or to Table Rock Lake for the best of summer.


He even performed the wedding ceremony for his only daughter. “She wanted me to get a minister’s certificate, and we had the wedding in the from room [of our home],” says Turille. To be fair, he could have done as much while still working, but it’s a more enjoyable process while retired. Let’s face it: everything is more enjoyable under retirement.


And Emil will be the first to tell you why selling his business has been a joy. “My career was successful and satisfying, but retirement offers a different quality of life. I’ve developed hobbies with different groups that I spend a bunch of time with,” says Turille. “Retirement keeps you busy. I enjoy the diversity of everything I’m doing now.” Comforting words from a man who stepped into retirement not knowing what he wanted to do. If there’s anyone who’s unsure if retirement is for them, just consider what you would do if you didn’t have your business tomorrow. Let that be your guide. THE FIRM

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The Firm makes no warranties or representation in consideration to the information provided above. All communication regarding this business must occur directly with The Firm Advisors, LLC. The Firm is not a real estate brokerage and does not sell real estate. The Firm solely advises on exit strategy.