I started searching for a business to buy in mid-fall of 2022. At this point, I was doing it all part-time. I was, by most definitions, a “tire-kicker”- someone who was going to keep looking and looking but was never seriously going to make a run at buying a business.
I started to gain confidence in December 2022 when I made my first offer on a business. It was related to veterans, was very profitable, I had a good relationship with the seller, and I felt very confident about making an offer.
36 hours later, the seller told me someone else made an offer for all cash (for reference my offer was for $4 million) and they had previous experience with this type of business. I didn’t stand a chance.
A few months later, I decided to go full-time into my journey of searching for a business to acquire. So I’ve spent about 15 months searching for a business, where 8 of those months I was full-time.
And was unprepared for how much emotional stress I was signing up for.
I hope this doesn’t discourage you from going down this path- but know that it is not for the weak or faint of heart.
There is A LOT of Unknown
I had no idea when I would find a business that:
- Was a good business
- Was located where I wanted to be
- I could get a loan on
- Investors would be OK with
- I would actually like to run
Then let’s say I find a business that meets all these parameters, and I still have to make an offer.
And then get the sellers to agree to it.
And then hope I don’t find anything wrong with the business during my due diligence.
And then find a bank to make me a loan.
And then find investors and ask them for money.
And then finalize the purchase agreement.
Oh- and then I actually need to run the business.
Dealing with that uncertainty every day is rough.
It’s Hard to Balance Hope with Realism
I am currently under LOI (letter of intent) with a business, meaning the sellers and I are actively working toward a finalized agreement where they sell me their business.
When I got under LOI- I took my wife out to dinner. We celebrated a bit, but I made a point of saying “It’s not over until it’s over.”
I can’t get into too many details, but there was a week in this process where I was SURE this deal was going to close. If you asked me- I would have said I was 95% sure it was going to close.
A week later the deal was dead.
The reality of a major transaction like this is that A LOT of things can go wrong. As the potential buyer going through the process, I had to guard myself against having too much hope.
Did I start daydreaming about the potential of owning this business? Without a doubt.
Did I also have to constantly couch my thoughts and statements with “this deal isn’t done YET”? Yes. And it is exhausting to always have to do that.
It’s hard. Really hard.
You want to get excited. You want to dream and to plan.
You also have to know that it can all go up in smoke.
FYI….my deal that I thought was dead is now back alive. Stay tuned.
Comparison is the Thief of Joy
If you aren’t careful in this process, you can end up looking around you and getting caught up comparing yourself to others.
I compared myself to my MBA classmates who were making lots of money at big firms, and I wasn’t making anything from searching for a business. (Although It was made easier because all of my friends who went into consulting hated it).
I compared myself to other people who were searching or bought a business, constantly feeling like I wasn’t doing as well as them.
Comparing myself to others like this can be so ruinous.
First- I guarantee no one else is thinking about you like you are. We are all the heroes of our own stories.
Secondly, we mostly only see the surface-level “success” of someone and what they choose to share with the world. We rarely see the struggles and difficulties they are facing underneath.
Lastly….who freaking cares? Why do I need to measure myself against someone else. I am me, they are them. I have my own goals, personality, and self-image, and trying to replicate that all from someone else is a quick way to a long disappointment in life.
Would I Do It All Over?
Hell yeah.
Life isn’t easy. It’s not meant to be and the more you push against that in the short-term, the harder life becomes in the long-term.
So don’t shy away from things just because they are hard. It’s people doing hard things that change their, and others’, worlds.
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