Codie Sanchez explains how to find opportunities to buy profitable businesses at a discount by identifying moments when owners want to exit for personal or external reasons. She introduces a "7D" framework (Departure, Divorce, Disease, Distress, Death, Dullness — and one omitted in the chunk) that lists seven typical triggers that make otherwise-profitable businesses negotiable or available at a discount.
What if the biggest opportunities of your life don't come from luck, but from someone else? Hitting a breaking point. Assets change hands when somebody else's life changes. Not because a business or an asset is bad, but because the owner hit a moment they can't push through. So there are seven reasons why people will sell a business that makes money even though it's been making money for years. We call it the 7D's number one departure. This is like retirement divorce. The assets get split up. Usually this means businesses need to be sold publicly. Three is disease. Unfortunately, lots of business owners are old. Most of them are over 65 agreement long standing business partners and they want out. That's your opportunity. Distress. This is strain or change in the industry. Doesn't mean failure. But it could mean the owner's like, I don't want to deal with another Covid issue. Then we've got death. Especially when it's unexpected. Families usually want to liquidate fast to keep things simple. Finally, dullness. It happens with all entrepreneurs. They're bored, want to move on to the next thing. Whenever one of these seven shows up, a business becomes available, negotiable and maybe even discounted. So start watching, start noticing. Because when an owner looks to move on for any of these seven reasons, that's when you can buy a business at a discount.
