Better than a Side Hustle: Buying and Scaling a Business
Many Americans have come to realize that the economy of today moves lightning-fast and can change in an instant. Because of this, many workers have started looking for alternative methods of making money, and one of those methods is to start a small business as a side hustle.
What many Americans do not realize, however, is that a side hustle can only be life-changing if you can convert it into a full-time focus. It takes a bold person to walk away from the stability of a career and move into working for one’s self as an entrepreneur.
But what if you don’t want to walk away from a career to build a business from the ground up? Then, you might buy an already successful business and add your skills to take it to the next level.
Get to Know the Market
So, what are the types of businesses that are doing well? What are the brands that are getting a lot of attention but might be overhyped? What are the underrated buys no one is talking about?
Research on the Internet is helpful (that’s where you found this article, after all), but this is also where getting to know a business broker can pay off. Reaching out to those who specialize in helping individuals or companies both buy and sell businesses is a smart first step into finding the right kind of business. You can get their inside knowledge of current buyers who may be looking to buy up small businesses and identify what their key purchasing points may be.
Making those connections early is like finding a map when you are lost in the wilderness. It can guide you to safer areas.
Set the Foundation
Once you know what buyers are looking for in a small business, you need to consider your skills and interests. Sure, if you have a degree in accounting, that’s an obvious skill set, but think about all the things your colleagues praise you for that don’t fit neatly into a resume and, thus, aren’t top of mind when you think about skills. Are you great with communicating ideas to outsiders, or are you the person people look to in order to shepherd a project from start to finish, or are you the detail person everyone counts on to pick up that missing line of code or catch that typo? These sorts of skills are invaluable for business ownership.
Buying and scaling a business will be something that consumes a lot of your time and energy, so going forward with something that interests you will help sustain you through those moments that break other business owners. Being a great accountant won’t get you through back-to-back 16-hour days unless what you are doing provides you with satisfaction or engages your sense of wonder throughout the process.
Find the Right Fit
You’ll want to stay patient through the process. You need to find the right fit for your skills and your budget. You might be looking to slowly replace your full-time income or you might be ready to jump in and scale the business to the moon. Excitement and motivation won’t be enough. You’ll need to look at opportunities.
Some of these opportunities include:
- Areas of internal improvement the seller didn’t explore sufficiently (or at all)
- Products and services the seller didn’t have capital to create and deploy
- Basic best practices in digital marketing that the seller never implemented
Ultimately, diversifying your income through buying and building a business is a smart way of insulating yourself from a rapidly evolving and fluctuating economy. Once you have the right partnership and the right systems for building and scaling, you can put them to work making sure your time on the economic roller coaster of today is a joyful and rewarding experience.
If you are looking to skip the start-up and buy into a business that has already proven itself, give us a call. It’s what we do.
