“Can you find me a nice absentee business I can buy?” Below are some points on why you don’t see many absentee businesses for sale. 
- While it sounds good in theory, businesses generally sell due to burnout when owners are tired of the responsibility of running a business. This burnout does not usually exist with an absentee owned business
- If a business is completely absentee and profitable, why would anyone sell it? Many baby boomers aren’t looking to sell their absentee owner business to retire, but rather want or need to keep it into retirement.
- In the case of a death, divorce, or emergency, most absentee businesses are sold quickly to a family member, employee or vendor so the odds are it will never make it to the market.
The truth is most businesses need owner engagement and involvement to be successful. However, there are always exceptions. Currently we have two businesses that are absentee owners. One of our absentee ownership businesses is a massage business in Wisconsin and the other is a staffing business in southeastern Wisconsin.
