The Million Dollar Opportunity No One Is Talking About

Welcome back to Proof It's Possible! In this episode, Dayle and Jamie explore the lucrative opportunities in buying existing small businesses, especially those owned by retiring baby boomers. It discusses how to identify, acquire, and manage these businesses without needing specialized skills, emphasizing the resilience of certain industries against AI disruption. Tune in to discover:

• Why the market for buying businesses is a gold mine right now
• How to identify stable, low-tech businesses that won't be taken over by AI
• How to evaluate business health and profitability before purchase
• The benefits of cold-calling or door-knocking to express your interest in a business

Would you buy a retiring baby boomer's business? Share your thoughts with us — we’d love to hear! DM us on Instagram @dayle_sheehan_designs & @jamiedfrancis! See you next time!

This episode is sponsored by our Ultimate Girls Trip! Be sure to go to www.proofitspossible.com for more info.

For More Information:
• Proof It's Possible Website
• The Ultimate Girls Trip Instagram

Dayle:
• Instagram
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Website
• Interior Design

Jamie:
• Instagram
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Website 

Transcript

Dayle Sheehan (00:01.794)
Hi, welcome back. Thank you guys so much for joining us. We are talking about something that I think is like going under the radar, especially for women. think men are more likely to jump into this, but with the baby boomers, the last of them are going into retirement officially. What has happened is we feel like AI is taking over and

There's going to be no, you know, if you're not some sort of like computer genius, you're not going to have a chance at success. Yeah. But there are a lot, a lot, a lot of businesses that no matter what, an AI computer will probably not come over and unclog your toilet or rewire the light in your bedroom so that you can have the light fixture that you want.

Jamie (00:34.264)
Yeah, you don't have a tech company, you're going to be left in the dust.

Dayle Sheehan (00:58.262)
So it's these boring businesses that the baby boomers started, had huge success, have client bases for that they don't have kids that necessarily want them and they need to either sell them off or shut them down. And buying those businesses might be the secret to immediately having a million dollar business. Thought.

Jamie (01:05.796)
Mm-hmm.

Jamie (01:25.166)
Yeah. So I pulled up some stats and it's saying that in North America, 10,000 baby boomers retire a day. A day! That is insane. And over a trillion dollars in business. Like they own collectively over a trillion baby boomers, a trillion dollars in businesses that have to either

Dayle Sheehan (01:37.166)
That's crazy.

Dayle Sheehan (01:47.214)
Mm-hmm.

Dayle Sheehan (01:51.778)
Yeah.

Jamie (01:54.618)
hold up shop because the operator doesn't want to do it anymore, the owner doesn't want to do it anymore, or sell them off. So this is the gold mine that nobody is talking about.

Dayle Sheehan (01:59.726)
Yeah. I know.

Dayle Sheehan (02:07.808)
Absolutely. And having more than one boring business, I think that if you buy one business, it depends on the businesses, obviously, but I don't know if anybody like listens to Cody Sanchez, but she talks about this a lot. And basically she owns things like laundromats in the right areas, obviously. But like where you guys go in the summer, where Ray is from in Ontario, it's a remote island. There is traffic from boats coming back and forth on the Great Lake.

Jamie (02:28.419)
Yeah.

Dayle Sheehan (02:37.782)
to this beautiful little town that sort of is tourist spot. And so a lot of people are either camping or they're on a boat. And when they get to town or they're on a yacht and when they get to a town, they need to do their laundry. So although most people do not do their laundry at the laundromat anymore, we all have laundry for the most part, there are places where laundromats are still gold mines. And they are still an in-person business that

Jamie (02:47.225)
They're in a yacht. Yep.

Dayle Sheehan (03:07.146)
AI will never take over and people still need and they make great money and are such low. You don't have to staff, you know, with a whole bunch of people. You don't have to have a special skill set to be able to do it. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. You literally just need to buy it and continue running it. And having more than one of those simple businesses is where I think the like

Jamie (03:29.464)
Yeah.

Dayle Sheehan (03:36.62)
the secret is. Yeah.

Jamie (03:38.213)
the real secret sauce. This is the, I know there's people listening that are gonna be like, but listen, I'm not an electrician and I'm not a plumber and I'm like, I would never buy that business cause I have no experience in it. This is the thing. A lot of these businesses have operators. They have somebody who's been running it for the owner for years. You don't actually have to know how to unclog a toilet. You don't have to know how to install a new light fixture. You.

Dayle Sheehan (03:44.716)
Yeah, exactly.

Dayle Sheehan (03:55.064)
course.

Dayle Sheehan (04:05.378)
Yes.

Jamie (04:06.67)
just need to become the owner of it, assume the debt, manage it, manage the employees, manage the cashflow. Like you just become the business expert of it and let the people do the work that were already in place.

Dayle Sheehan (04:21.026)
Absolutely. Well, like that's just it. The original Baby Boomer owner may have been a plumber or an electrician, but they maybe were not either. And I'll guarantee you just because of the demographic of their age, they haven't been the hands on service provider for many years. So they definitely, if they still own the business, they have the people in place to make it run. They have an office staff.

Jamie (04:40.483)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Dayle Sheehan (04:50.914)
They have, you know, all of the service providers and the technicians and all the people that are required to make the business work. And obviously you might lose some of those people because they might only want to work for that particular person or whatever it looks like. But that's why you hire people. That's part of being an entrepreneur is looking for the right people in your business to make it run the way you want it to.

Jamie (05:19.066)
Absolutely. And it's interesting because I'm always on the hunt for tradespeople. I don't work in a business that necessarily requires that. Like I'm not in the home renovation business. I'm not in the design business. I'm not in any businesses related to that, but just in my own home. Like we live in an older home. It was built in the eighties and it's...

Dayle Sheehan (05:31.16)
No.

Jamie (05:46.533)
dated and you know, like we wanted to replace the toilet that was like ebony color, you know, or like the, it's not a white, it's not like a clean white. And it's like, well, you do have to hire, yeah, almond or bone. Like I think it's called bone actually, toilet. And it's like, yeah, it's a beigey brown toilet. It's hideous. It needs to go. And I need to hire a plumber for that.

Dayle Sheehan (05:58.798)
It's almond. It's usually called almond. Yeah. Yeah, it be.

Jamie (06:15.736)
We have a plumber that is like on a first name basis with us, not because we have clogged toilets or anything, but he's done so much work for us. He fixed our irrigation. He did an extra outdoor water line for us. He's replaced all the toilets for us. did a, we did a reno on the primary bathroom. Like you'd be shocked. You'd be shocked at how often you are required to call.

Dayle Sheehan (06:31.884)
Exactly.

Dayle Sheehan (06:36.576)
It's forever and ongoing. Yeah. It's forever and ongoing.

Jamie (06:42.714)
that you thought, well no, I would never need that. Like I know I'm not really interested in that. Actually, you probably will need them. You know, and I know that... Yeah, go ahead.

Dayle Sheehan (06:47.33)
Yep, for sure.

Dayle Sheehan (06:52.686)
Well, and it's funny to me. Go ahead. Well, I was going to say it's funny to me because when we were looking for our house, we wanted to live in an older neighborhood and like older than yours, like our the neighborhood of our houses is like 50 1950s to 1970 builds. So they're even older. And a lot of the people that lived in the neighborhood that we wanted to live in, they were original owners. So

Jamie (07:19.844)
Mm-hmm.

Dayle Sheehan (07:21.678)
really, really old people owned the homes. And what ended up happening is you could tell that sometimes the person would pass away because they'd have an estate sale and the house would be for sale kind of thing. Plus it still had the green carpet and the pink balances and all the original stuff that they originally picked when they built it in 1970. And what's funny is by the end after a year of looking, we were like, should we just start door knocking? Like,

Should we just see, and we're open as people to do that for our home, to be like, hey, are you thinking of selling your house? We're a nice couple that is wanting to live in this neighborhood. We love your house and we think it might be a great fit for us. Let us know if you're interested, but nobody thinks to do that for a business. And if you know of somebody that looks like they might be at retirement age in your town or city, and you're thinking like,

Jamie (07:58.491)
Yeah.

Jamie (08:09.796)
Mm-hmm.

Dayle Sheehan (08:18.114)
I wonder what they're doing next. You know, I...

Jamie (08:20.826)
and you know that you can take their business to the next level or you would enjoy running that business. Totally. And you know how, as the business owner, you know how nice it would be if you're like, I'm retiring this year, no matter what. And someone just all of sudden knocked on your door or cold called you and was like, hey, I'm interested in buying your business. What would you be willing to sell it for? What a like amazing opportunity for the seller and for the buyer.

Dayle Sheehan (08:26.296)
Yeah.

Dayle Sheehan (08:34.364)
Dayle Sheehan (08:46.478)
Mm-hmm.

Jamie (08:50.83)
Like, I can't think of a more... If someone from my room was like, I'd like to buy your business tomorrow and they were willing to give me like a fair price, I'd be like, well, that came easily. Like the universe really wanted that hair.

Dayle Sheehan (08:51.502)
Exactly. Well, to tell a story about this and...

Dayle Sheehan (09:01.804)
Yeah, fun. For sure. Well, and like a story of this happening in our own world. Our mom owned the first Curves for Women in Calgary. And she is not, doesn't, didn't love being an entrepreneur and didn't love the hours of owning a gym and quickly found that out that it wasn't necessarily her dream job. And yes, it has a very low risk tolerance. So it like really required people to like,

Jamie (09:25.308)
very low risk tolerance.

Dayle Sheehan (09:31.522)
come in, sign up, show up, not cancel their membership. Just a lot of paperwork and hours there and you had to be open late into the evening and really early in the morning and follow all of the franchise rules. So it just had a lot going on. And one day a lady was like, I wanna get into direct competition with my ex-husband. I wanna buy this and I wanna buy your whole territory. I wanna grow, I wanna expand. All things that mom did not wanna do. None of the which did she wanna do.

Jamie (09:58.971)
You're welcome.

Dayle Sheehan (10:00.236)
She did not have the vision for it. This lady absolutely did. And she said, this is the price I'll give you. they, mom and dad thought it was very fair, you know, and they sold it and it was the best day ever because it fell into her lap. Had she been desperately looking for somebody to buy it, who knows how long it would have taken. And would that person have ever found her and how would she have put it out there that she wanted to sell it? You know, there was just, it's a lot harder. And

Jamie (10:19.407)
Yeah.

Jamie (10:25.305)
Yeah.

Dayle Sheehan (10:29.354)
Obviously, when we're talking about this, I'm envisioning small or businesses like local, still run by the owner type businesses. If you think you're going to go into like, Arpey's furnace company, that's a multi multi million dollar huge nationwide, and you're gonna be like, Hey, here's 90 grand. I'd like to take over. I know you're old, you know, probably not going to happen. You're going to need to look for like the mom and pop.

Jamie (10:47.29)
Yeah.

Dayle Sheehan (10:57.122)
businesses that are still run by their owners and a few staff.

Jamie (11:01.988)
I also think though that there is, like if you are looking for big business and you have a bigger budget, there are brokers that just deal in big business. like if your dream is to own a huge company and you have the risk tolerance for it and you have the budget for it, there are people to get in touch with that will connect the business with the potential buyer and

Dayle Sheehan (11:06.734)
Mm-hmm. Budget, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Dayle Sheehan (11:19.906)
You're willing to get the loan? Yeah. Yep. Absolutely.

Thank

Jamie (11:30.597)
Do that. So like that's an option too. If you're like, yeah, you know what? I've done this small business and I've been successful at it and I want to get onto the next big thing. Go for it. Also, if you have a, you're listening and you're like, well I already own a plumbing business, let's say. It's not, you don't have to be like, well, I've already done that. You also can just start purchasing your competition, your competitors and start growing your business that way too.

Dayle Sheehan (11:55.406)
Mm-hmm, exactly.

Jamie (12:00.315)
You don't have to get into a completely new business that you know nothing about. If you're already very comfortable in an industry and you already own a business, you can just start acquiring other businesses to become that big giant that you want to.

Dayle Sheehan (12:10.016)
Exactly. Absolutely. And like we're using plumbing as an example, because it's the most obvious that, you know, AI can't come and clog the toilet, but it could be a hair salon. It could be a convenience store. It could be a laundromat. It could be, you know, there's many, many real life businesses that AI doesn't cut our hair yet. You know, AI does. And maybe, and like, you don't have to be a hairdresser. You can be just

Jamie (12:20.334)
Yeah.

Jamie (12:26.786)
New Growth Historic Health.

Dayle Sheehan (12:38.38)
the person that owns the salon and rents chairs or you choose your business model and you you go from there. And obviously do do your own due diligence on what does the business make and all of that.

Jamie (12:48.25)
And I see you

Jamie (12:53.206)
of course. And like, what's the debt and how is the debt service currently and what's the income like and you know, what are the salaries like? Like, you do have to do your due diligence. can't just, you know, throw caution to the wind and be like, well, they said to buy a business.

Dayle Sheehan (13:00.813)
Yes.

Dayle Sheehan (13:10.326)
Yeah, don't do the easy math where you're like, haircuts 200 if we had 20 people a day, it'd this much money and then I'd be rich, you know, the thing is, you do have to look at everything very deeply.

Jamie (13:18.883)
What?

Jamie (13:23.178)
One, also think that if you're new to business or your numbers are not your jam and you get kind of overwhelmed when you look at someone's financials, you gotta bring in somebody who is an expert with numbers or who had that experience who can be like, the debt ratio is too high or the income's not high enough, salaries are way out of touch.

Dayle Sheehan (13:38.487)
Yes.

Jamie (13:49.275)
If you don't know what you're looking at, then you need to hire that out. There's tons of people that will, like accounting services, accounting businesses, individual accountants who will help guide you on whether it's a profitable business or not. And also just like a word of caution, make sure you're looking back far enough. Don't just say like, well in the last 12 months, they've done all this business. Cause what did the year before that look like?

Was there some kind of extenuating circumstance where they had a really good year? Cause I don't know. It was COVID and they're a mask company and all of sudden everybody in the whole wide world needed masks for a hot second there. But things are going to return back to normal and then it isn't going to look like that in the future. And so you do have to look at all of the considerations and know what the risk is before you get involved in a business. But I'm telling you, these businesses are what are either it's going to

Dayle Sheehan (14:24.94)
Yes.

Dayle Sheehan (14:31.938)
Mm-hmm.

Jamie (14:48.622)
we're gonna have a real shortage of services, like real life services, because nobody's picking this up and no one's carrying on, or some people are gonna start buying them up and are gonna get very wealthy in the meantime.

Dayle Sheehan (14:50.978)
Yes, real life service providers.

Dayle Sheehan (15:07.31)
Absolutely. All right. Have a great week. Thank you so much for joining us and we'll see you next week.

Jamie (15:13.614)
Bye guys.

Dayle Sheehan (15:17.902)
Okay.