Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My husband and I are stressing out at finding a good existing business to buy after he's recently retired for 6 months. We have been researching on the internet for listings as well as information to help us find the right one but so far just anxious and frustrated to the prospect of finding one soon. Would want to hear people who have been there and done that to share their experience and advice. Thank you so much.
I am really not sure that internet horror stories are going to help you. This type of purchases requires a rational non emotional decision based on your own knowledge of the type of business and its specific location.
Business fails due to lack of capitalization (failure to have enough money), lack of knowledge of the industry, lack of traffic or just awful location, change in population, etc.
Or a business owner can just be a poor business person. I knew one woman who did not want to do anything for her customers. She just wanted them to buy her product and leave their money. She was not in business long. Another could not leave her customers alone because she was lonely. She was not in business long. We had a new donut business open to great fanfare and a whole newspaper series on how they started, etc. Out of business in less than one year. He did not have a unique product and expanded too fast. I mean how many people decide to start a donut business and THEN need to learn how to make a donut?
Some seemingly successful businesses are not money makers but are kept alive with income from jobs. However, I know one baker who was trained at the French Culinary Institute who has built a very successful retail and wholesale french bakery in our town. Started small and built it. But when it got going with good employees, she took a job teaching at the local culinary institute to supplement the income. Her husband runs a soup company and cooks for other places. They earn income however they can.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,585 posts, read 81,206,701 times
Reputation: 57822
I did this in 1992, when we decided to move to another state and had no job lines up. The sellers were just divorced and both moving to different states so the price was only $30k. I had looked at several other, more expensive businesses but this one was more suited to my knowledge and skills.
They were absentee owners and had one employee, so business was down to about $70,000/year and 37% profit. I couldn't live on that with 3 kids at the time but had $50k in the bank to help get us through the first year or so as we built up the business. We doubled it the first year and eventually doubled that. We got the kids all through school and did just fine until 2008 when the economy went bad and our customers started going out of business. Now I work for someone else again. I wouldn't consider running a business after retirement unless he retired really early. At my age even now it's not worth the long hours and stress. A home based side business seems more appropriate, perhaps consulting.
My husband and I are stressing out at finding a good existing business to buy after he's recently retired for 6 months. We have been researching on the internet for listings as well as information to help us find the right one but so far just anxious and frustrated to the prospect of finding one soon. Would want to hear people who have been there and done that to share their experience and advice. Thank you so much.
Take a break.
As long as you're feeling stressed, anxious and frustrated just searching it can cause you to make irrational decisions.
My husband is in his mid 50's and I am in my 40's. Finding full time jobs to cover the expenses are not easy in this economy. At first we were looking at buying restaurants, a lot were available for sale. Then it became clear to us that managing the staff and keeping customers happy are not that easy. Plus we saw some restaurants that were seemingly successful actually were not doing that well and were trying to sale. We've been looking at many types of business which we hardly know anything about them. We think we can certainly learn but nonetheless is very nerve wrecking, especially those for sale claiming high profitability with high price tags yet their tax returns did not reflect that, which makes getting SBA loan difficult. We've found out so many businesses as well as their listing brokers put a high price tag on the business yet they are not prepared to justify it. You guys all have good points. Welcome to share more. Thanks!
It's very difficult to find a small business that returns enough profit to pay its expenses. All the ones I've looked at are horribly overpriced and very often misrepresented. They don't list some of the expenses on the balance sheet.
Good businesses that are doing well and making money are often not for sale.
I've looked at some that could be turned into something, but they are priced at the value that they will have after the buyer does a lot of work.
I hope you can find something, but if you can you are going to have to dig hard for it.
The only thing I've seen lately that might work is a shop with a wharf on one of the bays in Oregon. Commercial Fishing boats are practically free, including their licenses, so someone could start a good fishing charter business, but it would have to be built up from the ground (or ocean waves) up. Lots of work, and the owner would have to be qualified as a sea captain and really know how to find the fish.
Make sure you have the books looked over extensively by a CPA that you trust, before you buy. I was approached by one of my competitors almost a year ago and he asked me to buy him out. His books were a mess and I let my CPA look them over. He had been in business for six years and never made a profit (especially the last three years when he lost over $60k). He was asking 150k for the business. Needless to say I didn't take him up on this opportunity. The hiring of a professional was the best money I've ever spent. Of course I wouldn't have done it any other way. Saved me from a ton of grief.
Oh boy! That's certainly scary. Can you be more specific and tell us what kinds of business you were running at the time. Also would love to hear positive experience of people buying an existing business and share their insight.
Are you going to be using your savings to buy a business? Have either of you run a business before? You may want to talk to your local SCORE office and attend some of their small business classes before you dive in.
My husband is in his mid 50's and I am in my 40's. Finding full time jobs to cover the expenses are not easy in this economy. At first we were looking at buying restaurants, a lot were available for sale. Then it became clear to us that managing the staff and keeping customers happy are not that easy. Plus we saw some restaurants that were seemingly successful actually were not doing that well and were trying to sale. We've been looking at many types of business which we hardly know anything about them. We think we can certainly learn but nonetheless is very nerve wrecking, especially those for sale claiming high profitability with high price tags yet their tax returns did not reflect that, which makes getting SBA loan difficult. We've found out so many businesses as well as their listing brokers put a high price tag on the business yet they are not prepared to justify it. You guys all have good points. Welcome to share more. Thanks!
Oh my God. You need to know something about business or the product or something before jumping in with both feet. Get the advice that the above poster suggested. Talk to business people that are local that you know or get to know. There are resources out there for people.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
