Whenever I tell people they should only buy a business that's big and profitable enough so they, as the owner, can be "hands-off" -- where they don't deal with the day-to-day operations of the company and rarely even show up -- the first question they ask me is, That sounds wonderful. But how do you find a good manager or director to run the business for you?

Listen, if you buy an existing company thats been around five, ten, 15 years (and its doing very well)...realize most of them are already being well managed. And all you do is take over, stay out of their way and keep things as they were. Of course, there are some businesses out there where the owners still running the company. And if that's the case, and hes hands-on, what youre going to find is there will be other employees you can move up and promote from within.

Fortunately, at least with the good businesses (the only ones you want to buy anyway), you'll usually find somebody within the company already running it besides the owner. And that's what you should ideally be looking for. That's why the best business to buy is the one where the owner plays golf full-time and never shows up. You dont want to go after a business where the guys there 80 hours a week. Why would you want to?

And on the off chance there is nobody already running the business, or if the managers all quit when you take over, then all you need to do is offer to pay a good salary and benefits and you'll attract good people. But keep in mind this doesnt happen very often. In fact, in the past 20-25 years, I cant remember the last time we had to go out and hire a manager. Simply pay the current management a better salary and treat them well, and they'll have no reason to leave.