If they have high revenue but low margin that card processing fees for sure. Second best reason is no paper trail so Uncle Sam remains in the dark.

Day trading is not a business. You are just gambling.

Primarily cafe or plant shop? What is local competition like?

Cafes are about good coffee/food but also how cool the venue is. It has to be somewhere people want to go and hang out. Compare the “feel” of the cafe to your competitors. What do the most successful cafes have that you don’t?

If they refuse to change with the vision of new ownership they should be gone. He did the right thing letting them go.

Admin, nurses, dental hygienists, and auxiliary staff are a dime a dozen. They are very easy to replace. I would never keep staff that were in any way “against me.” Hand pick your own staff. Make sure your expectations are clear. Choose people you would happily be around 40h/wk.

Take this from one business owner to another. Ignore comments from people that are clearly not business owners and haven’t a clue what it entails.

I own a clinic I built from the ground up. It runs exactly as I want it to. Staff are excellent. I intend to buy another clinic in the next couple years, owner is retiring and looking for me to buy. I already see what I would consider “problems” with the way it is run from a business sense. I am open to inheriting their staff but will make my expectations clear from the start. Any inkling of people with the mindset of “but that’s the way we’ve always done things” are gone.