Buying Someone Else's Success

September 4, 2026

If you're a new subscriber Welcome! What you are reading today is a revisit to a previous article. This is week 2 of my 8 week break from writing so I can complete a new project I'm working on and hopefully give my brain a break so this newsletter doesn't become too stale. The following is an article from July 2024. I have updated where necessary to be sure it's still relevant today. Enjoy!

Buying Someone Else's Success

The two best ways I know of to build your financial momentum is to own investment real estate and own a business. Buying a business is very similar to buying real estate. In fact I’ve made the case that when buying income producing real estate you are in fact buying a business.

Why is buying an existing business such a big deal? It’s about the biggest leverage of time I can think of. You are saving years of hard work and long hours of building a business from the ground up. So unless you have a burning passionate desire to build a business from the ground up, you should think about buying and building on someone else’s success.

There are millions of baby boomers retiring and many of them own a business. That means there are going to be millions of businesses for sale for the next decade. The problem? There aren’t enough buyers to absorb all the businesses. That’s your opportunity.

Biggest Leverage Of Time

If I wanted to own an HVAC company I could start my own business from scratch, working long hours trying to get new customers, new service contracts, building a reputation, etc. Why do it that way? Why not buy an existing company owned by a person in his sixties who is ready to retire?

Why would you do that? Because you are buying their success, their reputation, their service contracts, their connections with school districts, city government, commercial real estate owners, and homeowners.

These are the people you will spend years building relationships with so you can get their business. That is the business the seller already has. You are buying their success and cutting out years of hard work and stress. This seller is handing you a head start on your dream of owning an air conditioning and heating company. Or a plumbing company. Or laundromats, car washes, landscaping, cleaning companies, etc. And the list goes on and on. Thousands of business types are for sale.

Every Problem Is An Opportunity

The sad truth is there are not enough buyers out there to buy all these businesses. It's estimated that 80% to 90% of them will not sell. This is a problem to be sure. Who is going to fix my air conditioner! But every problem is an opportunity for someone. Do you think it might be easier to buy one of these business now than it was ten years ago? When a seller has trouble selling real estate or a business they start looking for ways to make it easier and more attractive for someone to be a buyer. That can result in lower prices, partial or full seller financing, and other creative and attractive terms to make the deal work. The alternative to these sellers is to close the business, sell off the assets (probably at a loss) and fire all the employees.

Be Bold!

When approaching one of these sellers, don’t be afraid to make offers with creative terms and seller financing. The worst they can do is say no and kick you out of their office. And who knows, a year later if the business hasn’t sold yet they might be willing to talk again.

Women!

This is a great time for women to buy a business. Why shouldn’t you own any of the businesses mentioned above! And if you happen to have been working for the business running operations, being the executive assistant to the owner/CEO, or being the office manager for several years you probably know more about running that business than anyone else. Why not own it! You’ve been doing the job anyway.

Thanks to all our readers and welcome to the new subscribers! I hope you enjoy the newsletter!

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That's it for this time. See you next week!

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