My wife owns a veterinarian practice. She wonders if anyone will ever buy it when she is ready to retire.
2 local vet practices near us were not sold and just closed up after not finding a buyer.
The issue is young folks only want to work 9-5. They do not want the hassles of meeting payroll, long hours, employee issues, paying bills etc. They want their 9-5, no nights or weekends and their $140k per year.
This is also why family doctor offices are dying out. No one wants to be an owner anymore and the hassles it entails.
That’s happening everywhere. I know a dentist, paid a lot of money to buy his practice decades ago. Doesn’t believe he can sell it. Many more dentists out there who don’t need to buy a practice and patient attrition is high.
Hair salons used to be owner-managed. They trained their staff and had pride of ownership in getting happy clients. Now, they just rent the booths out and turned into landlords. No payroll, no payroll taxes, no scheduling staff and minimal insurance.
It’s a free for all. Look at the “gig economy”. Lots of easy money for conglomerates. Hard work for everyone else.
how much do you expect to get paid
for business-goodwill?
This isn't just a case of young folks not wanting to work long hours. One huge issue is that when these businesses began, the startup costs were significantly less. Many were new, not rollovers, and did not have a seller's note attached.
Now, a new buyer would have to pay off the note to the seller on top of all their operating costs. Too often, it's just not possible.
$140k per year for a 9-5 job?
Where? Doing what?
The wages of “family doctors” have fallen quite a bit; one explained it was due to low amounts they were allowed to charge. Why put in the time and money, and deal with the debt, to end up in the same place as someone who doesn’t have to go through that?