After half a century of buying businesses, people still ask me why I spend so much of my time investing in buying businesses instead of real estate, the stock market and other things like that.
And I always tell them -- and this is absolutely true -- the reason I don't do anything but buy businesses is because, in 50 years of doing so, I still have yet to come across a better investment than buying a business. In fact, nothing else even comes close in terms of both return on investment and risk.
Let?s put it this way. If you get any financing at all, the cap rate on the average business with some
financing is about 60 percent. What I mean by "cap rate" is you?re getting 60 percent of your money back
every year.
So, if you invest $100,000, you?re going to get $60,000 back a year. I mean, on real estate you invest a $100,000 and you?re going to get 10,000 back -- if that. So, buying a business gets you six times what you normally get with real estate and blows it right out of the water as an investment.
But it?s actually more than that because the amount you normally invest (if you use investor financing) is as close as you can get to zero in most cases.
And while it's true you need to have an attorney and a CPA help you through the whole process, if you understand what to say to them, they?ll "ride along" with you, not billing you until after you actually buy a business -- so you can pay them with money from the business you bought, and not your own money. You may also have expenses for traveling to different cities, too, if you choose to go long distance. But even with that, you just make sure you tell your investors that at the close of escrow, you're pulling back all the money you invested. Which they will almost never complain or care about.
Again, I have yet to see anything else that even comes close to buying a business as far as return on investment and risk go.
Arthur B. Hamel has bought over 200 businesses in the past 50 years, and is a well-known author, consultant, investor, business owner, and dynamic lecturer who has shared the stage with such business greats as Robert Allen of "No Money Down" fame. For the past 20 years Art has taught thousands of people around the world -- even so-called "little guys" with no formal education or money -- how to quickly and easily buy large, multi-million dollar businesses with no credit, banks or prior business experience. He has recently decided to share his unique business-buying secrets and tactics free of charge at: http://arthurhamel.com
