Are you learning to buy businesses for the right reasons?

Making the leap into business ownership means sailing into uncharted waters.

No one can guarantee your success... but there is one major factor that separates the winners from the quitters:

Your reason why you want to be a business owner in the first place.

If you’re serious about learning how to do acquisitions, then I want you to really ponder this.

If your reason why is “to make a lot of money,” that’s totally fine — achieving financial freedom should be the point.

But there are a lot of different paths to wealth, and buying businesses is only one of them.

So there’s a deeper question to consider:

Are you pursuing wealth through acquisitions because it fits into your broader life goals?

Or...

Are you trying to become wealthy for its own sake, and you think acquisitions are your ticket to getting rich quick?

And if your plan is to pursue acquisitions as a full-time career the way I do it, then it’s especially important to do some serious soul-searching here before you get too invested.

Because only one of these mindsets leads to a positive outcome.

Let me tell you the secret to winning in business.

It’s not about hustling 24/7, or being the smartest person in the room...

It’s about outlasting everyone else.

And I’ve found that people who are motivated solely by “getting rich” are the quickest ones to tap out as soon as the going gets rough.

Even if they do get rich, chasing wealth for wealth’s sake is still a dangerous path — I've seen many entrepreneurs fall into chasing wealth as an addiction, neglecting their relationships, health, and spirituality.

Lifestyle creep sets in, and eventually their money controls them, instead of the other way around.

On the other hand...

Entrepreneurs who succeed for the long haul start by designing the lifestyle they want first, and then buy or create businesses that can help fund that.

With an authentic “why” as their foundation, they have a reason to keep going even when business is tough.

When I started buying businesses, my “why” was financial freedom.

I wanted to spend more time with my family, and to be fully present for all of my kids’ milestones growing up, while knowing that their college is fully paid for.

If I’d gone in looking for a quick buck, I would have burned out before even closing my first deal.

To sum it up:

Buying businesses can make you very wealthy.

But becoming a financial success won’t save you from having your priorities in the wrong place.

If you’re determined to follow this road, I urge you to figure out where you want to end up, and why, before taking your next steps.

Instead of asking yourself how much money you want to make, ask yourself what your ideal life would look like if money was no object.

And if you decide that buying a business is still the right path for you?

Then you’ll find the following links valuable.

If you’re interested in buying your first small business (or passively investing into a deal as a silent partner):

Let me know by filling out this 2-minute survey, and I’ll let you know if I come across deals that match your budget.

Or, if you already have a business and are looking to sell:

Tell me more about it here, and I’ll help match you with qualified buyers.

All the best — see you in next week’s issue!

— Ben Kelly