Sustainable Small Business Buying for Solopreneurs
This post is the sixth instalment of my 8-week series of research about the failing economic system, solopreneurship trend, blockchain, and Solana Pay.
This research wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Superteam UK so follow them on X.
If you miss the previous posts:
Week 1: The Mighty Have Fallen
Week 2: A Society Without Jobs
Week 3: Solopreneurship as the Modern Form of Distributism Where Decentralisation is Supported by Technology
Week 4: Solana Pay Aiding Solopreneurs in Tackling the PPP Challenges
Week 5: Investing in the People, A DAO Model for Solopreneurs
This week is about business buying from boomers.
Again, this will be a much shorter article since I have laid the foundation for the research earlier for weeks 1–4.
Why business buying, you might ask?
Based on the stats [1], the collective baby boomers are expected to pass down $30 trillion in inheritance in the coming decades. That’s 30 with 12 zeroes. Moreover, over 60% of small business owners in the US are baby boomers.
Baby boomers’ businesses have two outcomes in the coming years: to be kept, either by being inherited by their family members or sold to another or to die down because nobody is around to keep them running.
In 2019 statistics, baby boomers’ net worth in the US was >50%, while millennials’ (my generation, hello, high five everyone!) was just shy over 5%.
Let’s not repeat the depressing facts about work just like in the first few articles again LOL.
The greatest transfer of wealth is happening now [2] because millennials and Gen-Z are dominated by those who want to work in the tech industry, rather than manage the simpler (but undoubtedly intricate) family-owned restaurants or plumbing businesses.
Solopreneurs can benefit from these trends through several avenues, such as:
- Doing business deals
- Building tools to ease the business deals
- Working on the topics of business deals, such as writing financial topics, covering interviews with successful business brokers, breaking down how to manage multiple holdings of business in one’s portfolio, and so on
As for tech enthusiasts and builders, Solana Pay is a great payment method to incorporate in those areas of business buying. For instance, the international transfer method or accepting payment from your online storefront with Solana Pay makes the payment one less source of headache you have to deal with.
Doing business deals is not a walk in the park. There are tons of materials you can scour online and practise to sharpen your business intuition in assessing a potential seller.
For example, you can look out for businesses run by boomers without any successors, or if the state is in distress.
For the technicalities, you can always join a course or listen to some podcasts or training sessions that are given away for free, for example, from Codie Sanchez here (Oh, I love her!).
But, wait, what about not having enough money to buy a business, right? I get it. We’re intimidated by the hundreds of thousands of pounds or dollars to shell out in order to be eligible to sign on the dotted line of the deal closing.
There are a few means to achieve this, such as seller financing, crowdfunding, or having equities in the company you’re trying to buy.
I’m writing this article not to bombard you with the gory details of finance, but on how you can leverage your assets (that include your health, time, and energy) to generate more income to be financially sustainable. The essence of this research is to lay the basic foundation of a balanced life outside the 9–5 realm, while still providing support to maintain your mental health. This is the objective of this research, to realise a world where solopreneurship and UBI are normalised as the new lifestyle to earn incomes.
And what’s better than when profits meet purposes?
By buying these small businesses where the owners just plan to close them down after retirement, you can participate in, for example, sustaining the jobs of the employees (come to think of it, how many of us as employees would feel dreaded every single morning if our business owners didn’t want to continue running the companies?)
Moreover, you’re going to participate in the economy of distributed ownership. This is me shouting in the megaphone for distributism again.
The business buying from retired boomers is one way to ensure decentralised ownership.
What’s Next?
So, how does UBI play out in the overarching plan of the new economy? Stay tuned as I’ll post the article that ties it up together next week.
Thank you for reading this far.
If you are a solopreneur, an investor, or simply know someone who might benefit from joining this DAO, feel free to join the Discord server or extend the invite link below.
If you want more articles that are centred around business and leadership that value gentleness and a holistic approach to problem-solving, feel free to head to my ✨Substack✨ where I talk less about tech.
Until then,
References
[1] ‘Baby Boomer Net Worth Statistics [Fresh Research] • Gitnux’. Accessed: Mar. 14, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://gitnux.org/baby-boomer-net-worth-statistics/
[2] M. Hall, ‘Unsexy But Thriving Businesses: The Hidden Opportunity Gifted To Us By Baby Boomers’, Forbes. Accessed: Mar. 14, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://www.forbes.com/sites/markhall/2022/01/25/unsexy-but-thriving-businesses-the-hidden-opportunity-gifted-to-us-by-baby-boomers/
