Every time I write an article or do a piece on buying businesses someone will always ask me if it's possible for them, even with rotten credit and a string of bankruptcies on their record. When I tell them it's totally possible they just don't believe me. Realize this: I've been doing this for over 50 years and I dont remember anyone in the last 30 or 40 years who used investor financing where -- even if they had filed bankruptcy -- anyone checked on them. Not the owner or the broker or anyone else. And if they did check on them, they really didn't care. Why? Simply because What happens is if you have a poor credit rating or if you have a bankruptcy thats only going to be important to the owner or the bank or some other lender if they are going to be giving you financing. What youre going to find is, I hate to this, they dont check. Do they occasionally? Probably, Im not aware of it, but I dont remember the last time that came up, but I do remember every week talking to people that filed bankruptcy or had terrible credit, and its not important because what happens is youre focusing on you the buyer. This is why I always say dont start a business and dont buy some little donut shop -- because you'll usually have to get traditional financing where things like your credit actually matters. But when you buy something larger -- a million dollars or more -- the people coming in, the people putting the money up, the people checking are going to see the business, not you. In fact, you can be a flake today and just filed bankruptcy and have no money and dont pay anybody. Tomorrow, when you take over that business, you can go out and buy it. As soon as you go into escrow, theyll deliver a new Mercedes to your house. You can go out and buy a ten million dollar house. Why? Because you now have taken on a persona of that business you bought. You are now that business. You are now a person making X number of dollars a year, not some person that screwed up, with rotten credit or whatever. |
