Consider Buying a Business
There is a lot of risk in starting a business, mainly because it is hard to see how profitable a business will be until you actually do it. But buying a business means acquiring a business you already know is profitable. As it turns out, roughly 10,000 boomers are retiring every day in our country, and many of them built successful businesses.
On our church’s recent men’s retreat, a young dad mentioned how difficult it seems to be to get established financially in our day. This has been noted by others—the challenges for millennials trying to buy homes compared to previous generations. This dad had said, “If you don’t have a family gifting you a chunk of money, how do you ever get out of the month-to-month expenses and build wealth?”
I have been thinking about that question over the past few weeks. My suggestion to him had been that he start his own business (a plan he was already working on). But I asked a couple of other members of the congregation, “How would you have answered that question?” The two answers I heard were these:
Starting a business is good. Buying a business is better.
Invest in yourself.
There is a lot of risk in starting a business, mainly because it is hard to see how profitable a business will be until you actually do it. But buying a business means acquiring a business you already know is profitable. As it turns out, roughly 10,000 boomers are retiring every day in our country, and many of them built successful businesses. They might not have a plan for it after they retire, especially if they don’t have children who want to take it over—they’d maybe love to have a godly, hard-working, honest young man, woman, or couple they could train for a year or two and then sell the business to them. This may be an opportunity that more younger Christians should be considering. (You may be wondering why I'm talking about buying a business on a blog that's typically about doctrine and the Christian life. I will make that connection midway through the article.)
Success does not come haphazardly. It involves discipline, order, planning, learning, and intelligence.
I have seen the benefits of buying a business in the lives of those close to me. My dad sold his business to one of my closest friends, which he has expanded and grown over the past decade. Also, my sister bought Avenue Bread when it was just one small bakery in downtown Bellingham. She had a great product that she expanded into multiple cafes and a central bakery and then started The Filling Station restaurants (which she has now sold). I’ve seen buying a business work.
Why Buy a Business
One of the chief benefits of buying someone else’s business is the possibility that it could be owner-financed. You might think you could only buy a business if you had a big chunk of cash to buy it with or at least enough for a down payment. That is not necessarily true. Many businesses are sold through the buyer paying the seller over time with no down payment. And here is the benefit: the business is buying itself. Since it is already profitable, it can be calculated into the purchase agreement to pay off the business while also making a living. When a person realizes this, it means they may actually be able to buy a larger business than they originally thought. Why not? If the business is buying itself, why not make the most of it?
But another reason is that many of these boomer businesses have opportunities for adding value through updated branding or the use of newer technology. As it's hard for old dogs to learn new tricks, many people who’ve had profitable businesses for decades have not employed new technologies or marketing methods. These businesses could thrive even more with some fresh life. Young people might be more familiar with the internet and social media or more open to new tech. All this means there is opportunity to take an already profitable business and make it more so.
But you might say, “Well, how would I go about buying a business? I wouldn’t even know where to start to do such a thing.”
Invest in Yourself
Buying a business is a skill that can be learned. And while that learning will inevitably include making tons of mistakes along the way, there are resources that can help you avoid disaster and make good decisions.
First, there are consultants: people who have successfully done what you are seeking to do. They can teach you the basic principles for wisely acquiring someone else’s business and discerning its health. We don’t know what we don’t know, which is why consultants are so important. (It goes without saying—only seek advice from someone who has actually done the things they are teaching you to do.)
Second, there are courses. For example, there are mastermind courses for teaching you just about anything in the world. These courses are generally far less expensive than college but give you key tools from experienced people. Here is one example (though these people are in the cannabis industry so probably not the best models to emulate).
Despite these helps, you must accept that investing in yourself—educating yourself—takes time and diligence. People do not prosper by drifting along, and success does not come haphazardly. It involves discipline, order, planning, learning, and intelligence. As Proverbs tells us: “The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor” (12:24).
Being your own boss will demand the diligence encouraged in this proverb, and that likely needs to begin before you are your own boss. The difference between ruling and forced labor is not unrelated to the difference between being an employee versus an employer. I also think that difference says why this issue matters to us as a church.
Is This a Spiritual Matter?
You might ask, “Why is a pastor writing about this? Is this a spiritual matter?” My answer is: everything is a spiritual matter. “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col. 3:17). And I do believe this question is addressed by the Scriptures. Though Christians should not be motivated by a love of money (1 Tim. 6:10) or the desire to store up treasures on earth (Matt. 6:19-21; Luke 12:13-20), I do believe the wise and righteous are productive and live fruitful lives (Prov. 14:23).
Businesses are an incredible expression of the image of God in humans.
The Bible begins by giving men and women a cultural mandate integrally tied to their identity as image-bearers: “And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth’” (Gen. 1:28).
Being image-bearers of God is both what we are and what we are meant to do. The doing part is summarized in being fruitful and taking dominion over the earth. We are vice-regents— sub-rulers—authorized by God to extend his rule to every corner of the earth.
That means we are supposed to take the elements of God’s earth, transform them, and offer them back to God. Or as Tolkien put it, we are to be sub-creators.
One of the reasons I love businesses is because of the creative work they do. Businesses take God’s raw materials and make them into something that wasn’t there before. Whether homes, meals, medical tools, musical instruments, or millions of other things businesses make, these are all amazing sub-creations. Even more than the products themselves, businesses design new policies and processes, serve people for their good, and employ people and their gifts. Businesses are an incredible expression of the image of God in humans. We should see our businesses as offerings meant to bring him glory and expand his kingdom in our region. They are beautiful pictures of human rule.
But there is also a sense in which one seeking to take dominion resists becoming a slave. We are meant to take dominion as God’s sons, not become enslaved to the world. Before the Industrial Revolution, most Christians basically owned their own businesses, as farmers or blacksmiths or bakers. These were family businesses, usually done jointly with husband and wife, children chipping in with them. But now much modern work is under large corporations, and there may be some parallels between modern corporations and the ancient institution of slavery. People are often tied into these corporations for life, and the workers often do not benefit from the upside of the business’s profits. You might not think a software developer at Amazon is like a slave. But we should recognize that slaves in the ancient world took on many forms. Many were very skilled, respected, and trusted managers over their master’s estate and wealth.
To be clear, even if modern work is like slavery, being a slave was never considered a sin in the Bible. In fact, sometimes a person might love the security of living under a godly master. (Consider Ex. 21:5–6. We have to be careful to not project the unjust slavery of the American South onto all forms of ancient slavery.) Some people don’t want the pressure of owning a business or don’t feel gifted to do so. They should feel no guilt about that.
In fact, Christians bear a double status as free sons of God who are bondservants of Christ. We are able to be both slave and free. But there is an interesting verse about calling in 1 Corinthians that could make some people reconsider whether they should own their own business:
“Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men. So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.” (1 Cor. 7:20-24, emphasis added)
Though the Lord calls us to contentment, he also nudges us to seek freedom when the opportunity arises. In our day, there may be an abundance of opportunities for freedom as thousands of businesses are passed from one generation to the next. How much would that serve the mission of Christ in Bellingham and Whatcom County if businesses were owned by men and women who loved the Lord Jesus and operated their businesses for his glory? Should buying a business be something you should be considering? Maybe now is the time to start thinking about it.
