Hi, I'm Tim. For nearly as long as I can remember, I've wanted to try my hand at building a company. Something about the American Dream... 

With a Beaudry staffer at Burj al Arab, Dubai

Back Story

Armed with youthful ambition, I resigned from a corporate job at age 22 to pursue my dream of self-employment. You can probably imagine my excitement when I landed my first client several weeks later: "jeweler to the stars," Michael Beaudry. My job would be to design and facilitate the exclusive jeweler's presence at an industry trade show in Dubai. 

Beaudry booth designed by Sullivan

This is Awesome

Several days before my 23rd birthday, I boarded a plane to Dubai. My excitement was only mildly dampened when I paused to consider that I hadn't yet been paid. I may have been young, but I wasn't completely naive: executing a job on the other side of the world without pre-payment was not ideal. "But I'm probably over-thinking things. This is a last-minute project...the client hasn't had time to cut a check. Michael Beaudry seems like a nice enough guy. I'm sure he's good for the money." Such were my reassuring musings during the 16-hour flight.

I spent the first half of my ten-day trip to Dubai supervising the construction of Beaudry's trade show booth. By the time Michael Beaudry arrived with his employees, the booth had been installed at the front of the exhibit hall—a fitting backdrop for Beaudry's multi-million dollar jewels. When the time came to pay my subcontractor in Dubai, I dutifully forked over the princely sum. That's how business worked, I thought: pay up when the other party delivers. 

The jewelry show went off without a hitch: a steady stream of Emirati high society flowed through the booth's private fitting rooms. Million dollar sales were elusive, but I had done my job: the Beaudry booth, replete with massive diamonds, looked like a million $18,000,000 bucks. I took to heart Michael Beaudry's praise for a job done well; my check would be waiting for me back in Los Angeles, Beaudry said. 

Finished product: Beaudry's booth in Dubai

Hey Man, I Need to Get Paid

With payment still out of sight several months after Dubai, I began to contemplate my legal options for collecting. Following a series of false promises by Michael Beaudry, Michael's own father (acting-CFO, Ronald Beaudry) lamented his son's bad faith: "I've lost all control of Michael. I would go ahead with the lawsuit if I were you," said Beaudry Sr. 

Ever the optimist (and happy to avoid litigation), I agreed to give Beaudry more time to sort out his finances. The economy was faltering, and Michael had just hired a new CFO. Thanking me for my patience, Beaudry promised that payment was imminent. 

Lip Service From a Beverly Hills Mansion 

17-months after my return from Dubai, the troubled jeweler dispatched a remorseful email: "Nothing upsets me more than being in the situation we are currently faced with. You have done a great job for us and I apologize that this has become a problem. I understand your frustration and desire to use legal means to collect but I would suggest that you save your money for now. It has been a ridiculously long time I agree but we will know our position within the next two weeks and I can get back to you with more specific details as soon as I know something that we can count on. I look forward to much better times…" [sic]   

Better times were indeed on tap for Michael Beaudry: while his business was on the rocks, the celebrated jewelry designer was busy putting the finishing touches on a $13.5 million dollar villa in Beverly Hills. Cash flow did not permit Beaudry to make good on his debt to a young entrepreneur, but who could blame him? Beaudry notably had many things vying for his time and money (things like the importation of a 17th century fireplace from Europe, for example.) If you enjoy Cypriot antiquities, don't miss this narrated tour of Michael's home: 

Michael Beaudry's namesake company eventually filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. As an unsecured creditor, I was instructed to take a number and wait in line behind folks with much bigger axes to grind. If the likes of American Express and Bank of America were ever made whole by Beaudry, I might collect a few pennies on the dollar, lawyers told me. 

As months turned into years, Beaudry's Chapter 11 filing became Chapter 7 liquidation. I had long resigned myself to learn from this rookiest of mistakes: never again would I deliver for a client without full prepayment. 

Throughout his time in bankruptcy, Michael managed to operate with impunity under the ruse of another corporate name. Beaudry International, as the company is alternately known, cleverly shed the weight of pesky creditors with the scuppering of its affiliated company. 

Michael today caters to a more diverse buyer: QVC (yes—the home shopping channel) has recently inked a deal with Beaudry International, presumably to bring affordable Beaudry jewelry to folks everywhere. 

Beaudry's more exclusive jewelry is still sold via high-end retailers across America, including a flagship store at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills. 

  Shining bright like a diamond: Michael Beaudry in Beverly Hills

Please Sir, Can You Spare a Dime? 

As Michael Beaudry can attest, designing one's dream home in Beverly Hills is an expensive pastime. While I don't presume to speak for Mr. Beaudry, I do believe he would very much appreciate a little help to pay this embarrassingly old debt. Michael apparently had every intention of paying me himself, but let's cut the man some slack. Mansions don't renovate themselves, for goodness' sake! 

Financial considerations aside, my motivation for spilling Beaudry's beans is to help others. I hope that my story can serve as a cautionary tale to entrepreneurs everywhere: get paid, or don't deliver. 

The Prudent Beaudry Scholarship for Ethics in Business 

While I can perhaps do little to reverse my own misfortune, it gives me great pleasure to announce the Prudent Beaudry Scholarship for Ethics in Business. Named in honor of Michael's great-something grandfather, Prudent Beaudry, 10% of funds raised will be donated to the University of California at Los Angeles (for dispersal to business students at the university's discretion). The 13th Mayor of Los Angeles, Prudent Beaudry was celebrated for his high moral character. Here is what Los Angeles County had to say about Prudent upon his death in 1893:

Prudent Beaudry has the record of having made in different lines five large fortunes, four of which, through the act of God, or by the duplicity of man, in whom he had trusted, have been lost; but even then he was not discouraged, but faced the world, even at an advanced age, like a lion at bay, and his reward he now enjoys in the shape of a large and assured fortune. Of such stuff are the men who fill great places, and who develop and make a country. To such men we of this later day owe much of the beauty and comfort that surround us, and to such we should look with admiration as models upon which to form rules of action in trying times.

Prudent Beaudry,1884: 13th Mayor of Los Angeles

Thank you so much for helping Michael Beaudry pay his debt! Every little bit helps.