Own an independent trophy and engraving shop in New Jersey. Bought it about two years ago and it's tracking right about where I expected.

A competitor a few towns over is 80, ready to retire, and has been trying to sell for a while. They've been sitting on the market.

background, because the numbers are the whole story here:

They do more revenue than I do.
Still very owner-dependent, same as mine.
A few employees, including a manager who's out on maternity leave and due back soon.
Used to own their building, sold it, now lease it, and the rent is brutal.
That rent is a big part of why nobody's biting.
They want to close at the end of October unless they sign another six months, which would be a serious cash drain.
Business model is low-margin, high-volume. Mine goes the other way: higher margin, way less dependent on sheer volume.

Met with the owner recently. He started at 150 and it's down to 100 after seven months on the market. He straight up admits he wouldn't get that either. No idea if he's had real offers or just tire-kickers.

so I floated buying their top 50 customers: order history, contact info, referral info, basically the relationships I could fold into my shop.

That could be genuinely valuable. Hire another person, absorb the best accounts, skip the rest of the operation.

But he wants the whole thing gone. Inventory, equipment, machinery, customer list, employees, all of it. Not just the customer relationships.

That's where it falls apart for me.

No physical space to merge the two. Their location is bigger, but the rent is way too high to take over. For the acquisition to actually work, everything would have to move to a cheaper spot, equipment, inventory, staff, the works.

Meanwhile things are already near capacity with one full-time employee and myself. Someone needs to be hired soon regardless, but running a second operation would put my existing business and customers at risk.

Then there's the third option, which is the interesting one.

Their manager comes back from maternity leave soon and could probably run the place. She wants to buy it but doesn't have the capital. i have capital but zero desire to run a second trophy shop.

So the question keeps circling: is there a structure where the money or the assets come from me, she operates it, and we work out equity or repayment or profit sharing?

Timing matters. They either close or sign another six months by end of October.

My thinking:

Option 1: Do nothing. They close and I naturally pick up some slice of their customers as they shop around. Maybe 20 to 30%, maybe more, maybe less.

Option 2: Pay for the customer data and history, then go hard after the best accounts and fold them into my shop.

Option 3: Buy the whole business and assets, move it somewhere cheaper, keep the manager to run it, structure it so I'm not personally running two businesses.

option 4: Hybrid with the manager. I fund and acquire, she operates, we set up ownership or profit share or a buyout path.

The thing is, their whole revenue stream isn't what I want. Their best customers are probably worth more to me than the entire low-margin operation. But letting a competitor's customer base land in someone else's lap when I could have captured it feels like a mistake I'd kick myself over.

What would you do? Specifically, how would you value and structure it? Buy the whole business, buy the list, finance the manager, earn-out, asset purchase, seller financing, something else?

Two replies in the original thread stuck with me. one person said let it fold, then hire the manager and capture the base that way. another said don't write a check for the top 50 names. A list only means something if he assigns the data in writing and stops contacting those accounts, and even then you pay as they actually order over the next 60 to 90 days, not on a spreadsheet. skip the lease and the low-margin shop entirely. If funding the manager, know whose name is on the bank account and get the lease in writing before wiring anything. Closing in October is still a real option, since nobody else is paying that price either.

A third take: offer a referral fee tied to work actually landed from his old clients, nothing up front, and start digging on their client relationships myself. Industry knowledge, hunches, their social presence (probably not much if he's 80). Figure out who actually decides on the services you sell and get your name in front of them. low response rate, but at least you're targeting accounts from active businesses. If a competitor is closing, you go in head first.