One of the more "controversial" tactics for buying businesses I teach people is that when you buy a business, the last thing you should be doing is hanging around there and getting in everyone's way.

And when I say this, it almost always begs the question of, "Okay, then what kind of involvement should you have?"

My answer: It depends.

Here's what going to happen: If you don't have any management skills, the investors (and all of this is assuming you are using investor financing) are going to dictate a lot of what happens at the beginning. Reason why is simple: it's their money on the line...and not yours. So you just have to accept that. (If this bothers you, you can pout all the way to the bank, I guess).

If you do happen to have good management experience and are going to be able to run things at first -- and again, it doesn't mean you're going to be running this thing on a day-to-day basis...you can and should still be an "absentee" owner -- you may have a little more say in this part, but again, you want to leave the management in anyway. Trust me, you don't want to get stuck in this thing of being there every day. That's crazy.

So as you can see, either way you cut it, you shouldn't really be in the picture. I know it sounds opposite of wh

at they teach in business school, but I've been doing this for 50 plus years and the only reason why I've been able to last this long with my health intact and most of my hair still on my head is because I don't try to run everything. I leave it to the people who are already taking care of the business. And you should seriously consider doing the same thing.

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