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Boomer Business Owners Expected to Hold on Tight

The Philadelphia Business Journal, 4/7/08

Abstract:

For 15 years, Carol Magner owned and operated a successful clothing store in Middletown.

But when she got married six years ago, she decided to sell the business to spend more time with her husband, a physician who now owns an acupuncture practice.

In selling her company, Magner, 62 joined the millions of baby boomer entrepreneurs who are expected to sell their businesses over the next decade.

Boomers—the oldest turn 62 this year—own an estimated 12 million businesses nationwide that are worth a combined $10 trillion. Over the next 15 years, eight million businesses are expected to sell - twice as many as have sold in each of the past 15 years studies show.

"It's going to be the biggest transfer of wealth in the history of the United States," said Michael Lefkowitz. He's a founding member of the Benjamin Ross Group, and Upper Southampton mergers and acquisitions firm, and author of the upcoming book, "Where is the Exit?"

Susan Rosner, a managing partner of Calder Associates in Newtown Township, called retiring boomers - people born between 1946 and 1964 — a "silent tidal wave" in the business world.

Historically, only three percent of businesses are passed down to family members, Rosner said, and boomers are expected to be even more reluctant to hand their businesses down to the next generation.

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