buying a business

[Gorilla]

so my dad got offered ownership of the business he works for. hes been doing it nearly 20 years now so he knows the in and outs.

what do you all recommend that you might have experienced as far as buying said company?

i figure you have all had some experience in this in some way that might be helpful to take into consideration.

[Elfdroper Gravelender]

My father ran the family printing business for almost 30 years. My sister brother and I all worked there since we were 10 or so. We had over 100 employees most of the time and made a good deal of profit each year.

That being said about two years ago we sold it all for a pretty penny, mostly because of the stress it put on my father as the owner. He was always at the plant and always stressing about what was going on there.

Now we own two other businesses heh. A real estate business which the whole family runs and a contracting business that I run and my father help w/ the sales. I can tell you from doing the contracting for about a year it can be great and it can suck. It's awesome because you make tons of phat loot, have no one to call boss, and can generally take all the free time you want. It sucks because you have to depend on other people who are generally unreliable and the job can and most likely will consume your life heh.

My advice is this, if your young and have the time to really develop a business than do it because nothing beats being your own boss. For your father Gorilla I would advise to take a look at how much longer he's going to be working. If he's like my dad and almost ready to retire then I'd say ride those last year out letting someone else pull the yoke of running a business.

That's my 2 cents....longest post I ever made here... Woot!!

[Gorilla]

hes like 42 and has got like 8 years or so left he thinks. he says for sure he wont stop till my sister is 18 or out of highschool. and shes 8 or 9 i forget.

i would love to learn to be one of his employees and get shit done. im a no nonsense kinda person but very able to see clearly a goal that must be reached and no f'ing around while its getting done. the business is well established and hes their top employee although he is only a worker so i dont know how much he knows about the financial part of the company

[Elfdroper Gravelender]

Hmm sounds like taking the position might be in his best interest then. Especially if he's gonna working for however many more years.

I would definately consider how much more work he will be doing as a deciding point for taking it or not. If he's going to just have a few more responsibilities than he did before then hell go for it. But if he's gonna be swamped for the next 10 years of his life then I'm not sure the cost is greater than the benefits.

Working for my father was always a pain in the ass soloely because he's a pain in the ass lol. That being said I don't think he was a worse boss than any other really...if fact working for him and my family always did make me proud.


All other BWC to @CONTRIBUTE@ & give Gorilla some insight to ya'lls own experiences.

[Gorilla]

i think him and my mom would share roles in running the company he doesnt have the energy he did at 25 and doing the grunt work is what hes trying to avoid. my mom has an accounting degree and my dad knows everything about the actual layout of the orders and any materials and laws needed to be aware of.

he has about 10 years of mngment experience but that was with another company in mexico where he was some sort of general manager for a couple o chains for an oil business

their minimum aim is to spread the work between him and my mom and makeing the same or more money as he is now...without having to deal with the laborous part which is kiling his old body

[Amit]

ive been working for another doctor for the last 2 years and i am about to buy the practice. so the last 12 months or so have been talking contracts and evaluating financial statements etc etc. I have also basically been running the business with the owner living over 1000 miles away so i know what it is like.

owning your own business is awesome.

there is nothing your father could do to better to secure his and your families financial security more than buying it, assuming he gets a fair price and that it is profitable.

now to determine that you need a good team. you want a lawyer and an accountant who are specialists in whatever business you are talking about. they will cost a lot, but every cent is worth it. (my lawyer is like 400 dollars an hour.)

So far I have been charged by my lawyer over the last year or so about 3 or 4k and probably by the time the sale is over it will be double that. however his help in designing the purchase contract and negotiation has saved me over 150k right off the bat and more in taxes later on.

As for the accountant you want someone who knows the field so they can go through the books of the place with a fine tooth comb for at least the last 4 years and figure out what you should pay for it to make it worth while.

the accountant can also help you setup the accounts etc you will need, get your federal tax id number etc etc.

if for whatever reason they dont want to show him the books, or dont have good records do not even go near purchasing the place.

as for negotiating, figure out what you guys think is a fair price and STICK TO IT. we were apart on price for the business by 125k initially and 25k on the land for a total difference of 150k. the seller, who is usually older is really the person who "needs" to get it done so the final price was 30k higher than my initial offer and 120k lower than what he thought was fair.

[Gorilla]

atm the business has been there so long that customer walk into the store without advertising at all. the guys who run it are like 80 and last 10 years or so were cheap with everything. no pcs.no advertising. no decent veh. everything they got was as cheap as they couldmake it so they *assumingly* would use it up later in retirement.

from what my dad says itjust needs organization and a little paint literally. the clientele already is well established enough to not really worry about advertising. just the paperwork needs to be checked as far as the books and theres like 6 employees.

hes a contracter so he remodels homes; kitchens and bathrooms mostly. now he wants to take management so he doesnt have to break his back at 45'ish years old and just train some guys and basically get the job done