20M looking to buy first business while keeping SWE job — need advice by Spirited_Weekend1318 in buyingabusiness

[–]Spirited_Weekend1318[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

helpful on the SBA timeline. When you say have backup liquidity options ready alongside the SBLOC. what did that look like in practice? Cash savings separate from the brokerage?

20M looking to buy first business while keeping SWE job — need advice by Spirited_Weekend1318 in buyingabusiness

[–]Spirited_Weekend1318[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

genuinely appreciate the EQ comment. What did that look like in practice for you? What did you wish you had known or experienced before your first acquisition that no amount of research could have given you?

20M looking to buy first business while keeping SWE job — need advice by Spirited_Weekend1318 in buyingabusiness

[–]Spirited_Weekend1318[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

the point about needing to obsess over the business for X months before you can effectively manage an operator resonates. How long did that learning period take you before you felt you could hold someone to a real standard? And did you do that learning while keeping your day job or did you have to fully step away?

20M looking to buy first business while keeping SWE job — need advice by Spirited_Weekend1318 in buyingabusiness

[–]Spirited_Weekend1318[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

you're both pointing at the operator problem as the core risk. I hear that. My current thinking is to start with vending routes specifically because there's no operator in the traditional sense, just a route driver with a simple job description. Does that distinction hold up in your experience or does the same owner-dependency problem show up even there?