<aside>
<img src="/icons/reorder_green.svg" alt="/icons/reorder_green.svg" width="40px" /> **Home • Posts • About Me • Contact Me • Pages**
</aside>
I've been on this wild journey to buy a business, and let me tell you, it's been quite the ride!
Already, I've encountered some unexpected twists and surprises along the way. One of the biggest shocks for me is that I've found myself moving away from e-commerce, focusing more on offline service offerings.
That might come as a shock to my former e-comrades, but hear me out. Here is my latest thinking.
- Stability: I'm thinking about the next 10 years, the term of an SBA loan. Nothing quite focuses the mind like 10 years of debt payments and a personal guarantee. I want some stability, like it's my morning cup of joe. I think offline offers more of that.
- Tech Speed: Tech's moving fast with AI leading the charge. It's set to shake up the world, but likely more the way people shop online.
- COVID Conundrum: Knowing what's here to stay and what's a passing phase is hard to know, particularly for online which spiked during the pandemic.
- Competition online: Everything is competitive; offline businesses as well. However, online is like the Hunger Games, with less opportunity to differentiate in low-cost ways.
- Customer acquisition and unit economics: Offline has more opportunity for building genuine customer relationships through face-to-face interactions. This can translate into higher customer loyalty, and word of mouth acquisition, benefiting unit economics for offline businesses.
Don't get me wrong – I'm not saying e-commerce's days are numbered.
But with all that in mind, I shifted gears towards Main Street offline businesses.