How can you tell if someone is successful?
Employees are successful when they show up, do their work well, and can be counted on. Physicians are successful when their patients recover. Attorneys are successful when they consistently deliver results for their clients. Politicians are successful when they improve the lives of the people they represent.
Business owners, however, face a different kind of test. Their success depends on their ability to manage countless moving parts: payroll, overhead, cash flow, taxes, customer expectations, regulatory mandates, and employee satisfaction.
One such business owner is Reardon Sullivan, P.E., LEED AP, founder and owner of WFT Engineering in Rockville. For more than 30 years, Mr. Sullivan has provided real value to his customers, many of whom continue to return to him for project after project. When I asked him how he had managed to remain successful for so long, he answered simply: he was lucky.
That response falls into the category of, “Yeah, but no.”
Many people experience a stroke of luck. Some may even encounter a rare opportunity to launch a business at exactly the right time. But not everyone can turn that opportunity into a lasting organization. Mr. Sullivan, along with Montgomery County’s many other small business owners—realtors, gardeners, consultants, barbers, painters, restaurateurs, renovators, and so many others—keep going through drive, enthusiasm, discipline, and hard work.
They do this despite operating in Maryland and Montgomery County, where hostile regulatory and tax policies too often work against the very momentum that helps businesses grow.
Montgomery County has lost too many opportunities to build a vibrant economy that supports both large and small businesses. Too often, county leadership and the small number of voters who elect them have failed to prioritize the welfare of residents and business owners. Mr. Sullivan has recognized this problem for years and has committed his time and resources to helping correct it for the benefit of the entire community.
Most notably, he provided seed money to help launch the Control MoCo Spending ballot committee—Stop the Spend, an effort aimed at limiting county spending increases to the rate of inflation.
On behalf of county residents, small business owners, and everyone working on and supporting Stop The Spend, I extend a sincere thank you to Mr. Sullivan.
I also want to appeal directly to small business owners: Stop The Spend is an initiative designed to limit the growth of government spending, taxation, and fiscal burdens that make it harder for you to sustain your life’s work. Please do your part to help make this ballot initiative a success. Visit Control MoCo Spending, scroll down to Please Donate and click Donate Now.
