Before I go any further I want to take a moment to post about my partner in this project, Richard Parker. I’ve known and worked with Richard for going on 6 years now, and there is no one I can think of who is more qualified to write as an expert about buying and selling businesses, and entrepreneurship in general. Richard has built a multi-million dollar business through helping people achieve their dreams of business ownership. I am fairly certain he would do it even for free if he had to, because he so thoroughly enjoys helping people and seeing them pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. (Though eventually I’m sure he would still find a way to make money at it; he is an entrepreneur after all!)
Before I bought BizQuest in September of 2003, I bought and read Richard’s How To Buy A Good Business At A Great Price© course cover to cover. Some of it I already knew, and some of it didn’t apply to my situation, but overall I found it to be an immensely helpful overview of the process of buying a business.
It always amazes me how an aspiring business owner can contemplate spending many thousands of dollars on a business, but balk at spending a few bucks on a book or an educational course. In my opinion the return on investment (ROI) on money spent on education has always been very high. I never hesitate to spend money on books, online courses, eBooks, magazines, or anything else I think will contribute to my entrepreneurial education and help me to run my business better.
I currently subscribe to about 6 business magazines, and in addition to reading most of those cover to cover I have probably read about 50 business-related books over the last few years since becoming a business owner. I’ve read books about marketing, management, web design and programming, and numerous other topics including general entrepreneurship books that give me ideas and, often more importantly, inspiration for my own business.
Perhaps in this blog I will post about some of these in a “book review” format, but the point I wanted to make here is to add one more trait to our growing list of qualities that a successful entrepreneur must possess, and that is: resourcefulness. It’s not about knowing everything; it’s about knowing how to be resourceful enough to get the information you need to make effective decisions. Our modern, wired world is flooded with information. Oftentimes the resourcefulness lies not in finding the information you need, but sifting out the best or most relevant information from the vast amount of clutter and junk. Either way – whether your challenge is locating an obscure piece of information you need, or sifting a needle of information from a haystack of junk, it is the degree of resourcefulness you possess that will ultimately determine your success.
Every piece of information you could ever possibly need to know to be a successful, multi-millionaire business owner is already out there. The question is not are you smart enough, but will you be resourceful enough to tap into that vast information stream and use it to your advantage? (The fact that you have found your way to this blog is a good sign.)
My thanks again to Richard for joining me in this project, and for his vast contributions to the available information stream on buying and selling businesses. He has certainly made it much easier for all of us aspiring entrepreneurs to be resourceful.