4 ms·

I'm surprised at some of the numbers from early on in their history. The brothers bought the business with a $900 loan (maybe they had some of their own money)

• jacquesm 8y ago
  The number of businesses with potential that you can buy for $900 is relatively small.
• dsfyu404ed 8y ago
  Spend $500 on some old machine that does something, sell your service as a side business, go full time, scale to be dominant player locally, acquire competition, scale regionally, become national brand, don't screw up along the way. In most states you'll probably have to skirt the rules in the beginning until some point at which you can afford to play by the rules. Someone with a tire mounter bought at a liquidation sale, and a whole lot of luck could start a business that eventually competes with Jiffylube. Someone who starts off with a clapped out old engine welder could eventually wind up owning a company that winds up being the dominant regional player for bridges, steel buildings or something. No, those kinds of businesses don't have the kind of growth models that SillyValley VCs want but scaling in that manner is quite possible (with lots of luck, obviously).