Questioning the Boom of Business Sales by Boomers

Posted by Chuck Richards on Dec 9, 2015 12:00:00 AM

There have been a number of articles lately talking about the ‘missing’ boom of business sales by boomers.  For example, The Wall Street Journal recently published "The Missing Boom in Small-Business Sales" where they question when this will happen, but at the end of the day, you can never dodge the demographics. The boomer business transfer wave will happen.

It is pretty clear that sooner or later all owners will have to transfer their business, voluntarily or involuntarily. The demographic wave will happen. We all get that – but how can it happen? These stories are all about businesses not being ready to sell. Why, because owners tend to treat their businesses as jobs, not assets. They drive revenue not enterprise value. So when the time comes they are never ready. Why does it matter to all of us? If we do not fix this less than 20% of our private businesses will transfer, and that puts 30% of our job base at risk. Imagine that … 30% at risk. Delay of the boomer transfer problem, does not mean it is not real.

Population Projections

Topics: business value, small business sales

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