Have you ever bought a business?

[Frimley111R]

I was at a business meeting yesterday and, to cut a long story short, the topic of growing through acquisition was raised. Although it's not something I am considering it did raise quite a bit of interest among others. One had bought a gardening related business (maintenance of outdoor swimming pools) for £50,000 which had net annual profits of £40,000 and a database of 2000 customers which seemed more than a good deal! Particularly as he also offered related services which he could also sell in. We had a look on the web and there were seemingly some quite good businesses for sale with short ROI timeframes. I appreciate that businesses are complex and top line info never tells much of the story of the business but I wondered if others had gone this way on here?

[Frimley111R]

Well yes, I accept that. The question wasn't aimed at that particular value, it just happened to come up in conversation.

[Frimley111R]

Chrisgr31 said:

Surely the ultimate question is why is the business for sale if it is such a good prospect to buy? If you had a great business doing well and you foresaw it was always going to do well why would you sell it?

1. Retirement
2. To do something else
3. To realise the value in case the business fails in later years
4. To regain lost time (family, leisure, friends)
5. Because owners become just managers of people and process