How to Build $7.5m in Net Worth by Buying a B&B

Today's story is a fun and unusual one. Christine Traylor had built a successful career in international development, but wanted a change. Impeccable timing. This was actually before Doge took aim at her entire industry.

Christine had always had a flair for hospitality, so she set her sights on buying a bed and breakfast. The very first one on her list was Swann House in the tony Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington D.C. family had stayed there a few times when Christine called around.

It turned out the owners were looking to sell. Today, Christine and her husband own the gorgeous $6 million plus property and the bed and breakfast business that operates out of it. Our conversation has three main themes.

First, the numbers and operations of a high end bnb. Second, the lifestyle of a BNB owner, operator or innkeeper. In industry jargon, as you already know, buying a small business is a lifestyle choice if ever there was one.

But doubly so here. Christine, her husband and two kids moved into the innkeeper apartment, a 500 square foot two bedroom in the basement of the property. Christine works 11 hour days, seven days a week and pays herself only 60,000 doll a year. That doesn't go very far in the heart of dc.

On the other hand, she's in the early days of an entrepreneurial venture, so of course she's working hard and it's work that suits her. This story is one of business buyer fit and her family uses the whole house. The small Innkeeper apartment is mostly just where they sleep as opposed to their primary living quarters.

She can legitimately run a ton of the family's expenses through the business, so her effective salary is much higher than $60,000. If nothing else, the family has no rent or mortgage, which in that neighborhood would otherwise cost them easily six grand a month. And finally, she's building equity, not just in a small business, but in real estate worth millions of dollars.

Which brings me to the final theme, the property. Even if Christine doesn't grow the BNB business, which currently generates only about $100,000 in EBITDA after paying down her SBA loan at the end of 10 years, she will own outright an exquisite one of a kind building in a blue chip neighborhood worth well over $6 million. So we spend time on how to think about this venture.

Is this a real estate acquisition with a business attached or vice versa? Either way, it is a path to building real wealth over 10 years, all while controlling her own destiny, which, lest the money blind us to the fact, is really the main thing. Please enjoy this conversation with Christine Traylor, owner of Swann House.

There's a reason that entrepreneurship through acquisition is sometimes referred to as simply search because the search itself is one of the most difficult parts of buying a business. Now, one path that isn't talked about very much, including on Acquiring minds, is outsourcing your search or buy side advising, as it's sometimes called.

Well, today, Thursday, June 5, Athena Simpson of AquaMatch will lead a webinar to help you evaluate this alternative path to finding and acquiring the right business. Athena will cover what buy side advising means, what different models and fee structures look like, the hidden cost of a slow search and full time searching versus keeping your W2, and how the right outsourced support for your…

Here, you'll leave this webinar with Athena with a clearer understanding of your options and how to speed up your path to ownership without quitting your job or going it alone. That is today, Thursday, June 5th, noon Eastern. The webinar is how to outsource your search understanding Buy side Advisory.