For the next few weeks I spent time investigating a variety of options. I first thought that perhaps buying a company was the best way to go so I started looking at the companies for sale locally. I wasn't quite sure where to start so, of course, began with a google search on the web. What I found was a bit of a mess. There are a number of brokers on the web and a few in Portland but the listings are not organized very well. The websites are poorly designed for the most part and of course they are cryptic at times. I suppose it has to be that way to protect the identity of the company that is being listed. It could be quite unfortunate if employees and competitors know a company is for sale.

Eventually I contacted a broker and started looking at companies. At first it was quite exciting but I then I realized that few of the companies were suitable. For one thing with many of them you can't be a generalist or a marketing person like me. For example, take a wood manufacturing company or an electronics component company. In both of these, the owner was also the production manager. No owner -- no production. And these are not trades you can learn in a few weeks. Interestingly, in the electronics company the owner had not been able to take a holiday in years. If he took vacation, the company would come to a halt.

The only way around this problem would be to hire a production manager -- except that these companies could not really afford to do so. They would have to grow their sales quite substantially to create enough income to be able to hire the right people. A catch 22 for a potential buyer unless already skilled in those specific professions.

The other companies available were in sectors I wasn't too interested in. For example, part of me would love a restaurant, I like my weekends and that is not very practical with a restaurant or a store for that matter. There seemed to be an oddly high number of spray-on liner companies for sale too. Not interested in that really.

Anyway, after a number of months of looking I have pretty much come to the conclusion that buying a business is not going to be a very rapid process and my need for cash flow is going to increase in importance over the next few months.

The next option is to start my own business.