Aaron  Muller  is  the  founder  of  Lifestyle  Business  Owner  Academy  and  a  serial  entrepreneur  who currently  owns  eight  multi-million  dollar  companies  that  run  without  him,  including  an  eco-friendly truck  washing  company,  a  search  engine  optimization  company,  three  auto  repair  shops, an  auto glass  franchise,  a  green  pressure  washing  company,  a  matchmaking  service,  and  an  online  business selling  eco-friendly  pet  hair  removers.  He  is  the  bestselling  author  of  The  Lifestyle  Business  Owner: How  to  Buy  a  Business,  Grow  Your  Profits,  and  Make  It  Run  Without  You.  Aaron  spends  his  time helping  entrepreneurs  succeed  because  it  is  what  he  enjoys  doing.  Over  the  last  15  years,  Aaron  has mentored  thousands  of  small  business  owners  as  a  business  broker,  consultant,  and  coach.  His specialty?  How  to  make  a  business  run  without  you.     Podcast Highlights Who is Aaron Muller? Aaron’s story starts in the fifth grade where he started up a little shrimp business. He sold shrimp to tourists and saved every penny he had. He didn’t come from a wealthy family and got his first job cleaning trucks at the age of 15, that’s where he learned to become so valuable at his job that he created his own opportunities. Aaron became an owner of that cleaning company and grew the business right out of highschool. Aaron went on to buy an auto mechanic business and has been an absentee owner ever since. Making Mistakes When getting his first SBA loan, Aaron was told that he was going to fail and the only reason they were giving him the money was because he had a business that could guarantee the repayment. You don’t need to invent original things to make money. Entrepreneurs are great at taking what other people are doing and improving and implementing. How does someone buy a new lifestyle business and not get trapped? A business broker is essential to the process. People buy a lifestyle business because they want to be an absentee owner. Aaron doesn’t recommend buying a franchise, the fees and rules involved make it more difficult and your money and effort can be better spent elsewhere. Look at the financials of the lifestyle business and make sure it is feasible to hire a manager to take care of the day to day activities of running the business. Contact a broker and if the financial info doesn’t make sense, walk away from the deal. Your broker should be able to make it very easy to understand the financial picture. There is no exact science to business valuation, it’s going to be selling for between 2 and 5 times the owner’s discretionary income. Keeping the owner on board after buying their business can create some conflict when you start changing things. It may be better to just hire a manager or promote one of the team members to a management position. You don’t need a special ability to hire the right people, you just have to keep at it. Why did you feel the need to write the Lifestyle Business book? Aaron had been buying and selling businesses for 17 years and saw many entrepreneurs essentially buying themselves a job. He wants to empower small businesses to be better and compete with the big box stores. What are the barriers to entry? Even if you don’t have the 10% to put down against a new business, you can still put in time becoming so valuable to the business as an alternative way in. There is always a way to structure a deal. Reference: The  Lifestyle  Business  Owner: How  to  Buy  a  Business,  Grow  Your  Profits,  and  Make  It  Run  Without  You, Aaron Muller Aaron’s Takeaway   Go to businessbroker.net and start looking at businesses. Figure out what you have to make to survive and that’s where you start narrowing down the search. Consider what kind of background you have and try to fit the business to your personality.   Links: businessbroker.net lifestylebusinessowner.com The  Lifestyle  Business  Owner: How  to  Buy  a