There is no manual for owning a business.

For more than 20 years, Patrick Dowling has worked with business owners as clients and organizations. Along the way, he's learned something:

Business owners are usually excellent at what they do. That doesn't mean anyone ever taught them how to own a business.

There is no manual for deciding when to grow, when to hire/fire, how to keep the right people, where to accumulate wealth, when to transition, or how.

Patrick's approach starts by asking questions:

• What are we trying to accomplish?
• What's getting in the way?
• What are you walking away with (or toward) always?
• Are you spending time/money doing what you genuinely love doing?

As a Partner at Encompass Group, Patrick works alongside business owners and the professionals they already trust to help connect those dots.

Patrick doesn't limit what it takes to build a successful business. He knows the business pieces others understand intuitively, they're just not always thinking about them.

He's to help make sure the right questions are being asked.

Patrick believes many of the same things that make a business matter outside of it: vital activity, community, showing up and leaning in to grow others.

You'll often find him coaching youth sports, getting outside wherever possible, or finding a new way to get involved in the community.

Curious. Strategic. Approachable.