Small Business Boomers

Even smart people make dumb moves

by jim on March 5th, 2008

I don’t care how smart or successful you are when it comes to family all of us make dumb moves.  An acquaintance of mine did very, very well for himself and his family in the automobile dealership business.  He cashed out and decided that he should buy a fast food franchise for his kids to run.

You can see this coming, can’t you?

Successful guy retires with a pot load of money.  He decides to get into a business that he knows nothing about for his kids.  Successful means that he won’t listen to others who’ve been in the fast food business and know what a grind it is.  He was president of a small group of auto dealerships.  Very different from being a franchisee.  Buying anything so much as a T-shirt for a child of yours is loaded with pitfalls, but a business.

Long story short, the kids aren’t that interested in being in fast food and have stopped coming to work.  They may just not be interested in working that hard.  He’s stuck working his butt off 12 to 16 hours a day to save his investment.  Unless he sells out at a big loss, he’s looking at four years before he breaks even, not counting his time.

The number of lessons are amazing.  Here goes.  Success in one field does not guarantee success in another.  Never attempt to make financial and career decisions for your children.  Realize that any start-up will require lots of long hours to be successful.  Just because you were smart today does not mean you will be smart tomorrow.  Every decision has its own risk.

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POSTED IN: Boomer Talk, Business Plan