What are the best businesses for absentee ownership?

You basically want to be a silent investor in a business, if you want to be an absentee owner. Any business can work if all you want to be is a silent investor, assuming you want nothing to do with day-to-day operations. It’s more important to make sure the people who are going to run the business day-to-day have a proven track record in whatever venture your involved in and you trust them.

Good Luck!
R

I agree that as simply an investor, any business can be profitable. It is key to have good people doing the actual work.

However, Im looking for smaller business which one could get into for around 100k or less, i.e . bar, tanning salon, vending route w/ truck. I would be the sole investor/owner and would hire people to manage day to day ops.

Just looking for comments from people who may have experience with different scenarios that they found easier/harder to manage successfully in an absentee capacity.

I know a couple folks that bought a Subway franchise. They call in few times a week and handle the money I think about once a week, but the store manager pretty much handles all the day to day. They just make sure everything is running smoothly. I think they’ve only been out to the store itself a few times to check in.

speaking from experience, it’s tough to do absentee ownership with an apartment complex.
the managers might be slumlords and/or embezell. you can get insurance for that, though.
the buildings have to be in good shape, or the tenants will hound the manager.

it is Definately best to operate a very upscale business as an absentee owner. what i mean is to be like donald trump- arrange a managers schedule to clean twice as often as ‘standard protocol’ and have an excellent assistance team to quickly reply to fix stuff.

the most important thing he taught me is that if the customers or tenants have respect for the business and buildings, you will have a less stress and way more pride.
good luck!

Real Estate. Hire a property manager who is a CPM (Certified Property Manager) Through IREM (The Institute of Real Estate Management) They have a strict code of ethics and they tend to know what their doing better than any joe schmo with a real estate license.
Buy commercial property as it is much easier to manage and monitor than residential.
If you have a LOT of cash, you might be able to buy a fast food location from a chain and lease the property back to them on a triple net lease. That means you just get a check and they take care of ALL the expenses, even the taxes. The benefit to them is that they now have the cash to go out and buy another restaurant. The leases are usually long term.

I agree with Judi on Real Estate, but didn’t mention it because I was unsure of how much money you wanted to invest.

R

A mobile grooming service is a good one to start with. You just answer the phone and make appointments for the groomers, then collect the money at the end of the day. It has low overhead, and needs minimal involvement from you. I started one for 20 bucks a very long time ago, and if I had a better head for business at the time, I’d be happily retired by now.

scamp – care to elaborate? You did not actually do the grooming or own the equipment, you just made appointments?

Laundromat.