Trading time for money is a trap

Everyone has different reasons for becoming an acquisition entrepreneur.

For some people, it’s about making a boatload of money... and that’s a great goal if you want it. Nothing wrong with that!

But for me, money was never the whole point of business ownership.

Acquisitions have made me a lot of cash.

But truth be told, I could have brought in even more income over the last 5 years.

I could have worked more every day (and on weekends) to squeeze every last dollar of profit out of my business empire.

But I chose not to.

Why?

Because money isn’t my most valuable resource.

Time is.

Back when I worked at J.P. Morgan, I knew the last thing I wanted was to become just another guy stuck slaving away at a corporate job, watching the best years of his kids’ life fly by from a distance.

So for me, my goal has always been to use income from acquisitions as a tool to allow me to spend more time with my family.

I think a lot of people understand this logically.

But it’s still too easy as an entrepreneur to get stuck in the trap of trading time for money.

The beautiful thing about business acquisitions is:

They allow you that flexibility to choose.

Being an owner instead of an employee allows you to separate your “time worked” from “income earned,” if you set it up right.

You can treat it like a full-time job if you want.

Or, you can put a GM in place taking care of the daily operations, and set your schedule up how you see fit — you can build the business around your lifestyle, instead of the other way around.

For instance:

I’ve done 7 acquisitions now, all bringing me in streams of semi-passive income.

And I have 3 young kids, all under 6 years old.

On most days I get up, help them get ready for school, and send them off.

Then I go work out, and jump on the computer by 10AM.

I lock in and crank out four to five hours of uninterrupted work.

Then once the workday’s over, I turn off the computer and all my notifications. My kids come home, and I focus on being 100% present with them.

Could I work 5 extra hours any given day if I wanted to?

Yep.

But for me, I’m optimizing for what’s most important in my life.

Your goals might be different. But whatever they are, the same rules apply:

Time is your most valuable resource.

And business acquisitions are one of the best ways to leverage the limited time you have into creating more income, so you can build a lifestyle that serves your goals.

If you want an easy way to get started…

Fill out the 2-minute survey below and I’ll put you on my Interested Investor list.

Any time I come across valuable deals and investment opportunities I think my subscribers might like (not frequent, but sometimes), I send out an email to this list with the details.

👉 I want to buy (or invest as a silent partner into) a small business

Or if you want to sell your business and are looking for buyers, tell me more about it at the link below.

👉 I want to sell my small business

Onward,

— Ben Kelly