Lance Hood:               Richard, if a business is so good then why would anyone sell it?

Richard Parker:           There are lots of reasons. Let me give some examples. You have all the morbid reasons like death, divorce, and illness which are generally as a buyer the ones that I like. Then you have other ones such as retirement. You have people that are just plain bored of doing what it is that they've been doing, or they've decided that they want to move onto something else.

It does generate the question that well "If you're bored but the business is really good why don't you just hire someone to run the business?" And that's a good a question but it's not always possible.

                                    But there really are a host of very valid reasons why someone would sell a good business including just wanting to take some money off the table. And whether again, that be for retirement or divorce or illness or whatever the case may be, the fact that it happens to be a good business does not rule it out by any stretch of the imagination that someone would not want to sell it. I mean, I see good businesses being sold every single day.

Lance Hood:               Then why aren't they going to get a premium price?

Richard Parker:           Oftentimes people own a good business that's not yet great and they have not implemented some of the policies, procedure systems that will allow it to make that leap. And thus when they go to sell the business the transition to a new owner, or rather what sometimes the new owner may have to do it just does not appeal to a broad pool of buyers, or it could be a more specialized business for example. Again, you have some the reasons - the level of motivation of a seller to want to sell and get out of the business also impacts or influences the price and a lack premium in many cases.

                                    Now one of the other things to also consider is there's certain established parameters if you will for what a business is going to sell for which certainly we should touch upon. However there's always an element of risk that there is with any major decision although done right you can drastically reduce any of the potential risks involved in buying an existing business. But there are certain again, parameters of what a business is going to sell for and is certainly at the level of the profit that it's throwing off, how much that business can fare compared to other investments that people can make.

                                    And interestingly enough the prices or the alleged premiums are far less than most people would think they are. That's the beauty of buying existing businesses is they're nowhere near as expensive or involved as most people think. For the vast majority of people who want to get into their business it's well within their reach.