The Late 40s Pivot Into Business Buying

Today's guest was in his late 30s when he started feeling the entrepreneurial itch. Successful in his corporate career, moving up the ladder, earning good money, Jarom Wren was mostly enjoying his work. But he wanted more freedom.

For years he explored options that would allow him to step off that ladder. But it wasn't until nine years later that entrepreneurship through acquisition entered the picture. A friend of Jarom's who had also been successful in corporate shared that he'd bought a business.

I was mesmerized, says Jarom. And down the rabbit hole he went. Today, Jarom owns VanLife Outfitters, an online store serving the community of folks who convert vans into homes on wheels.

Fittingly, that trend is all about finding freedom. Jarom had to overcome a few challenges to make his deal happen, including resistance from a lending community that wasn't keen on e commerce as well as restated earnings by the business. Listen for how Jarom negotiated all that and how his expectation that deals die and need to be resurrected steadied him when his deal looked like it was dying.

Also listen for Jarom's thoughts on pursuing this path at a later stage in his career than the typical Acquiring Minds guest. While most guests range from late 20s to early 40s, there are great reasons to buy a business later than that. Okay, here he is. Jarom Wren, owner of Van Life Outfitters.

Welcome to Acquiring Minds, a podcast about buying businesses. My name is Will Smith. Acquiring an existing business is an awesome.

Opportunity for many entrepreneurs, and on this podcast I talk to the people who do it. Running payroll, paying your bills, closing your books, and producing financials. These are critical tasks every business owner must do or oversee, but spending time on them distracts you from the leadership in growth work you want to do.

So let system 6 do it for you. Owned and led by a former Searcher, Chris Williams, System 6 is a leading outsourced finance team for hundreds of SMBs, including over 50 searcher acquired businesses. Chris, Tim and the System 6 team understand firsthand the challenges, the opportunities of jumping into a business as its new owner.

So whether you own your business already or have one under LOI, talk to System 6 about how they can give you time back and improve your financial operations. Mention Acquiring Minds and they'll provide a free review of your books and financial ops. A $500 value. Check out system6.com, link in the show notes or email helloystems6.com. Jarom Wren welcome to Acquiring Minds.

I'm thrilled to be here.

Thank you Jarom. You left a very successful corporate career to buy a business and have more freedom. You ended up with an E commerce business whose very products celebrate freedom. We're going to hear all about that, but let's start with some background on you, please. Jaromiah.

Great. Thank you. So I, I come from working class family. My, my grandpa was a. Grew up on an Indian reservation in northern Montana and my dad was the first person to go to college and we moved a ton and never had any money.