Help Wanted: Highly Qualified, Out-of-Work, Frustrated, Bewildered Professionals

This article is more like an Alfred Hitchcock movie than an Agatha Christie novel.?I’m going to tell you the conclusion right up front.?If you’ve been RIFed, have had it with the ridiculousness of the job market, and are exhausted from the networking roller coaster, you should seriously consider #buyingabusiness

Hold on.?Bear with me for a second and suspend disbelief.?Please, just hear me out.?I know, it shouldn’t be this difficult to find a landing spot given all your experience and wealth of business wisdom and knowledge.?I get it.?But if you’re middle age or approaching middle age, have had a fairly successful career, and made good money, you may be one of the many unfortunate souls that find yourself out of work and without a lot of serious interest from hiring companies.?Wondering why??C’mon.?Let’s talk bluntly.?You’re a male in his late 40s or 50s made 6 figure incomes, and had important-sounding titles.?You think you’re an asset. No, you KNOW you’re an asset to a company. Lots of companies in fact. ?The problem isn’t what you think – it’s what the hiring companies think.?To them, you’re not an asset. You’re a liability. Sad, I know.?But true.?People like you come with perceived baggage:

1.????You’re old – comparatively anyway. That means you’re behind digitally and likely not as speedy as younger talent.?In short, you have less fizz in the can.?Remember, it’s not what you think, but rather what the hiring manager thinks.?

2.????You cost a lot – as you should.?Your experience and wisdom is valuable.?But most companies don’t want to pay you what you are worth.?Sorry.

3.????Hirers perceive you as a flight risk if they pay you less than you were making and give you a lesser title. Are you? Probably not. But they don’t want to take the risk because it makes them look bad if you do leave.?Sucks, I know. One example spoils it for everyone else.

4.????You have higher vacation and time off expectations. This shouldn’t be an issue, but it is. You’re used to four weeks and you’re going to start over at two? No. Maybe HR will compromise and give you three. ?HR can’t risk setting a precedent.

5.????You’re a legal risk. If your new company needs to reduce its workforce in the future, you might pose a problem for them.?Need I say more??

How do I know all this??Because I’ve lived it – just like you are right now.?I was a CEO, CMO, GM, and Head of Corporate Strategy, led company transformations, lead a team of 70+, led M&A activity, and was a great leader (at least that’s what my team said – haha).?I made good money and would have crushed it for anyone I worked for because, well, that’s what I do.?I’ve been doing it for 30 years.?My reality - I was too old for a big company and too expensive for a small one.?Go figure.

So, what do you do? ?Well, you can keep pounding away on Indeed or LinkedIn or whatever other job board you use. Did that. You can keep spending time and money on coffee networking. Did that. You can hang a shingle and add yourself to the list of consultants available for hire. Did that. Or you can just retire. Can’t do that (kids going to college.?Go Horned Frogs!).

After all that, I came to the jarring realization that those options are simply illusions of progress.?If you’ve tried these things, you know what I mean.?Are there success stories of the magic coffee meeting that led to a million-dollar contract??Sure.?Do some find that perfect match on Indeed just like their ads show??Yeah, sometimes.?But don’t be fooled.?It’s not happening nearly as much as the outplacement firms and articles suggest.

Rats! Ugh! Heavy sigh!?You want to work. You need to work. You like to work.

Instead of the corporate grind, consider buying a company.?I know, sounds scary, sounds expensive, sounds difficult. But, if you’re like most corporate types, you’ve dreamed of owning your own business, being the boss, setting the rules, controlling your life, and earning for yourself. To be clear, STARTING a business is different than BUYING a business.?Starting a business can be difficult. I know.?I’ve tried that too. ?You have to spend a lot of time and money coming up with an idea or service; testing it; developing its production or operation, marketing and selling it; hiring people; finding a location; sourcing equipment and vendors, and attracting customers. Many of these start-up frustrations are bypassed when you buy an existing business.

Don’t think you can afford to buy a business??Trust me, you can get into a profitable, cash-flowing business for A LOT less than you think.?Worried about debt??Trust me, the bank is your friend and is going to help you be successful whether you like it or not.?What if it fails? Well, what if it doesn’t? Don’t know how to run a company? Neither did most business owners when they started.?The fact is, if you are reading this article right now, you are plenty capable of running a company.?You’ve got skills, understanding, and wisdom, and you know how to make things happen.?How do I know??Because those without your talents abandoned reading this article after paragraph one.?And those that are currently working aren’t going to read this article.?So that leaves you – the perfect candidate to buy a business, infuse it with your capabilities, crush it, and laugh.

Ok, finally to the good stuff.?Here is a list of the TOP 10 REASONS YOU SHOULD BUY A BUSINESS.?When you get done reading these, send me a note if this was helpful or not.?And please, follow me so I can keep trying to convince you.?Thanks for your time!!?I appreciate it very much.?Most of all, don’t lose hope.?Have faith!

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TOP 10 REASONS YOU SHOULD BUY A BUSINESS

(not in order of importance or value)

1.????The business has immediate cash flow from day one.

You start earning as soon as you sign the purchase contract. This is super advantageous over starting a business from scratch.?Cash flow is the life of any business. It doesn’t matter how profitable you are and the size of your inventory or how many satisfied customers you have. If you can’t pay your employees and keep the lights on.

1.???You’re making an investment in yourself.

Seems corny, trite, and overused but it’s true. If you don’t believe in yourself, don’t buy a business.?But if you’ve been successful in your career so far, why wouldn’t you be successful going forward??Investing in yourself is one of the best things you can do.

2.???The Government helps you succeed.

The SBA makes buying a company very accessible.?You can put as little as 10% down to buy a cash-flowing business.?Run the numbers:?You can put $50k down to pay $500k for a company with revenue of $1.0MM and cash-flowing $150k per year.

3.?????Existing customers are already in place.

Start-up ventures sometimes fail because customers do not come for some time despite the initial investment and the work you put in. When you buy a business you already have customers in place. These are people who have done business with your company and will continue to do business with your company until you give them a reason not to do so. As long as you do what the previous owner did you will get similar results. Your success is going to come from a current base of satisfied customers.

4.???You get financial benefits you don’t get working for a company.

The government wants more small businesses.?So, they offer perks and write-offs that help you make more money.?You can write off your car payment.?You can get a deduction for using your home office. You can depreciate Goodwill.?Plus, there are several other ways to limit your tax liability and increase your cash flow.

5.???You can make quantum leaps in your personal wealth.

Read the book Quantum Stack Investing by Chad Peterson.?Trust me.?This is no joke or scheme.?Follow this book and you can create generational wealth.?

6.???The odds for success are in your favor.

You’ve heard that 95% of start-ups fail.?Good thing you aren’t one.?You are buying an established business.?It already has customers, products, services, people, and things.?Ask yourself, why won’t it continue to be successful??

7.????The risk of business failure is lower.

Buying an established business with ongoing cash flow, proven systems, a known brand, existing customers, and a good reputation is less risky than starting a new business.?It’s also less risky than taking a new job, with new responsibilities, working with new people, in a new place, with a new culture, and new expectations.?

8.????The business has a reputation in the marketplace.

A business with a good reputation and a popular product or service is a good buy. A positive reputation in the market is a product of years of work. What if the company doesn’t have a good reputation??Easy – don’t buy it.

9.????Marketing, sales, and operating systems are already in place and working.

It took trial and error and many months or years to fine-tune the sales and marketing, order of procedures, accounting, payroll, operations, and inventory systems that are behind the success of the business.

10.You create the rules instead of being subject to them.

Think about how you feel right now.?You’ve spent years dedicating time and energy to someone else’s cause and passion.?Maybe you made out fine.?Maybe you didn’t.?Regardless, you have ideas of how you’d like to run things.?Want Fridays off, do it!?Want fewer meetings, stop ‘em. Want a cool website, create it.?You write the rules.

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About the Author

Paul Reppenhagen is a partner at Peterson Acquisitions – the nation’s #1-rated business and acquisitions broker.?Paul has 25 years of M&A experience working on deals worth over $2B in market value.?In addition to his acquisitions experience, Paul leverages his corporate career as a CEO, CMO, SVP Corporate Strategy, and GM to bring clients a detailed and comprehensive business sales strategy that optimizes values and accelerates the selling process. Paul lives in Edina, MN.