It’s Okay to Walk Away

My wife and I, after our misstep with the clothing boutique, continued to look for the right place to buy. We widened our search into other states, the warm ones, the ones where we wouldn’t be miserable. And, as you know, that narrows things down to California or… California.

Eventually, we came across a posting for a boutique in Del Mar that looked promising. I inquired about the store through the broker, a woman who was a real estate agent acting as a broker. Just like the last adventure that went awry, I went over the finances with my wife and we traveled to set eyes on the store.

It was love at first sight. It was a magical place and, not surprisingly, we loved the city. There were a few challenges that we would need to figure out before we could put in an offer.

The Predicament

To purchase the business and the business, there were two big obstacles to overcome.

 First, we had to deal with the broker who was a complete novice and who had no idea how to negotiate the sale of a business. She was an awful person who snuck around our backs to get a better deal with a smile on her face. You know the kind of person I’m talking about, don’t you? Even though we couldn’t trust her, I felt that if we could play her game, we could get the deal done.

 Second, the business had been run for 15 years by one owner. So, we knew that it was going to be tough for her to transition the business over to us. And we expected it to be challenging to build a team around a mission and vision instead of a single person. After all, that’s how the place operated for years. The truth was that I was confident in my past successes. Every business I had been apart of succeeded because of my employees and I wanted to develop a healthy, focused culture in my next business.

 All that is to say, we negotiated a 1-year transition plan through which the owner could transfer the store to us, we would get to know clients, and my wife and I could learn about the buying process.

 The next challenge was to maneuver through an inexperienced and untrustworthy broker. Remember her? The deal almost fell through a dozen times. There were problems with the lease, issues with the non-compete, confusion with the inventory valuation, and more that I cannot legally tell you about.

 Needless to say, the broker was someone I will never do business with again.

“Every business I had been apart of succeeded because of my employees and I wanted to develop a healthy, focused culture in my next business. “

The Lesson

I tell you all of this because you’re going to encounter someone like that. You’re going to run into a person who smiles to your face but does shady stuff behind your back.

How should you handle it? Differently than me! The best way to handle a situation like this is to be willing to walk away from the deal. Be flexible, keep an open mind, but keep your fingers crossed knowing that things might not work out. If we were to do it again, my wife and I would have probably walked away and searched for a better opportunity.