Prospective business-for-sale buyers should be able to picture themselves as the owner. This can be different pictures for different buyers. Lets say the business is an engineering firm and the current owner is an engineer. The firm is large with plenty of engineers. One new owner could replace the owner as the lead engineer. Because of the size of the firm and the depth of engineering strength, another new owner might take an administrative role and put another engineer into the lead engineering role. In a smaller firm, it may be that the new owner MUST be an engineer, working as an engineer.
This decision can be financial as well. The newly elevated lead engineer in our example may reduce the profit from the new owner.
In some companies the lead person is the best sales person and must be because the breadth of staff is slim. If the prospective buyer hates sales and sees no way around the owner being the sales person, they should not buy.
When buying a business, the prospective buyer could be making the decision on likes and dislikes, skills, necessity, expected development of the company. In small businesses, the buyer is, by necessity, a jack of all trades and trades can include sweeping the floor.
Don’t ignore this evaluation of a business for sale. It is important as for only so long can one find the energy and enthusiasm for doing something one detests.
