Long story short, I’ve been a customer of this local appliance store for the last five years. It sells mostly ovens/stovetops, washer and dryers, fridges, etc. I buy mainly for my rentals and I imagine a portion of his customers are RE investors, new home owners, and people who need updated or used appliances.
It’s ran by a solo-owner in his late 60’s and recently expressed interest in selling and moving to Florida (the business is in STL). He wants $50K for the whole building plus inventory.
I know nothing about the appliance industry or how this would scale but I am open to keeping my investment options open. The owner is older and not privy to new age marketing, website optimization, etc. so maybe that’s an avenue to explore as well.
Does anyone have experience in this field? Also, I’m interested in diversifying and having hard assets on a balance sheet.
There is a always a demand for appliances. Married with offers, marketing and promotion you can turnnit around. What you need to focus on extracting value in the business, and NOT just run it the way it is.
The issue here is that you do not have an idea of the business, or how to run it. But that can be changed provided you are willing to put in time, effort and creativity…
A pice of wood or a canvas is just that. Butbin hands of a skilled artist, both of these can sell 100x the cost.
The ideal way is to show ypur interest, ask the owner for a month or two for you to work and get to know and understand the business, and then takeover…
That said, understand the lease terms, inventory value, customer profile and get yourself upto date on digital marketing and business operations.