I met with a business broker I have known for some years who has given me business advice from the trenches as he deals with valuing and selling all sorts of businesses. He can spot a dud a kilometre away.
Yet he’s being having a hard time selling businesses in this down economy. Sellers are desperate to sell even events businesses which have little assets and dubious goodwill because of fickle corporates who change suppliers at the drop of a hat.
Buyers of concrete solid businesses such as small manufacturing companies are taking long to make decisions – a sale can take up to 6 months or longer.
On top of this, he’s been moving from a large home in the suburbs to a smaller cluster house. Downsizing has proved traumatic for his wife who wants to take all her positions to their new home. She’s finding it difficult to change and let go.
After changing job several times the business broker did not provide for enough pension in his younger years to deal with today’s high cost of living.
I strongly believe that when your back is against the wall, you can’t give up. You must find a way. I revere the words of Hannibal, not the muscleman in the “A Team” but the military commander (247 – 183 BC), “I will either find a way, or make one (incidentally, he did find a way).
I gave the business broker a fun and simple creative tool to use to come up with new sources of income. He is open-minded and still young at heart enough to think differently.
A few weeks later we met again. This time my broker friend was beaming ear to ear. He eagerly told me his story. He used the creativity tool and dug into his past experience. An idea suddenly popped into his mind.
He’d done investigations in companies for compliance issues and remembered enjoying the work. He gave me a new business card. He’d started a private investigations business as a second source of income and already had recovered a large sum of money for a client.
You don’t need to be in your late 60s and wait until your back is against the wall to come up with new business ideas.
Place your fingers on your keyboard and jot me a quick email. I’ll let you know how you can get started. And the secret technique my friend used.
Stay inspired
Chesney Bradshaw
