10/14/2026
Today we celebrate 10 years at Beratung.
I think about that time of looking at Amanda and saying, let’s burn the boats. We sold our house and put everything we had into a vision God placed in our hearts.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only about one in three new businesses is still operating after ten years. Beratung is one of them.
As I reflect on these ten years, it’s hard not to get emotional. It started with just me and zero clients. We are further along after ten years than I dreamed of at the beginning. We often overestimate what we can do in one year, but we underestimate what God can do in ten years of faithful obedience to His calling.
It hasn’t been easy. The life cycle of an entrepreneur goes from the excitement of the vision, to thinking you’re never going to make it, to having a few wins and saying I’m back in business. There were so many times we wanted to give up. Very few people could have stayed supportive through the frustration and the sleepless nights the way Amanda did.
Amanda, thank you for being my number one cheerleader, for respecting me, and for believing in this crazy vision that God placed in our hearts. I never said it would be easy. I also never said it’d be this hard. Thank you for never giving up.
To our clients, thank you for allowing us the opportunity to serve you. We’re nothing without you. To the clients who came with me the first week our doors were open, I’ll never forget your belief in me. Thank you to Jim and Mike Sullivan for becoming part of Beratung, and to the clients who believed in them and now believe in us. And to every family who has joined us since, thank you for letting us do life together with you.
To every Beratunger who has been through our doors, thank you for believing in this crazy vision. Every one of you has left your thumbprint on me and on this company.
Life is full of wins and lessons, not wins and losses. I’ve made more mistakes than right calls over these ten years, and I wouldn’t trade any of them. Those mistakes were the way God was forging this vision.
We enter the next decade renewed, working toward the 412 Vision. We don’t want to be the largest firm in town. We want an impact so great our community would weep if we closed our doors.
Here’s to the next ten years.
Live Intentional.