The one surprising reason you shouldn’t buy a business

I’m about to say something that might surprise you.

After building a portfolio of businesses generating almost $1M in annual cash flow, I need to be brutally honest:

If you’re chasing passive income above all else…

Business acquisition might NOT be for you.

Let me explain…

If you're looking for true “set it and forget it” income where you can make a living passively, buying a business could be a struggle.

Sure, some require less work than others.

But owning a business requires work.

Even with a great team in place, you're still the owner.

If you want to truly disconnect and never think about your income source, just buy index funds and be willing to wait.

But if you’re only chasing passive income, you might miss a huge benefit that comes with buying a business:

Getting a shot at building serious wealth.

There’s a huge difference between optimizing for that, versus optimizing for passive income.

From my view, business acquisition is the fastest path to building wealth if you're willing to work for it.

You get scalability that’s hard to match with other investments, and after buying one business, you can use the cash flow to buy more and build an empire.

You get recession resistance when you buy essential services that people need regardless of the economy.

And you get more control over your income instead of just hoping the market cooperates.

But it requires your involvement.

Unlike truly passive investments, you're not just putting money somewhere and walking away.

So the real question is, what’s more important to you:

1. Generating passive income

2. Getting a shot at building serious wealth

If you genuinely want to set it and forget it, business acquisition may not be for you!

But if you want the fastest path to financial freedom and you're willing to work for it, buying a business could be exactly what you're looking for.

For me, the trade-off is worth it.

I’d rather work on businesses I own than climb someone else’s corporate ladder.

And if you’re reading this newsletter, you probably feel similarly!

If you’re interested in buying a small business, or passively investing as a silent partner…

I occasionally share interesting deals with this list when I come across them.

If you’d like to get these emails, just fill out the 2-minute survey below.

👉 I want to buy (or passively invest into) a business

Or, if you want to sell a small business and you’re actively looking for buyers, tap the link below and tell me about it:

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Onward,

— Ben Kelly