The van pulled away figuratively carrying away my last chance and LITERALLY driving away with the potential buyer of my business.

Let’s go back.

Actually. Let’s not. It’s a long, painful story and I don’t have it in me today.

Here’s the punchline. After years of hustling to keep the doors open I decided it was time to move on from our business and close it down. My only chance to recover the 6-figures I had personally sunk into it along with the money of friends and family who had taken a chance on us, was to sell it.

And it wasn’t without value. Opening a food and beverage establishment in LA is hard. It takes often years and hundreds of thousands to get open. I had done all that work and someone could step into a space with a below market lease and full certifications. Turn on the lights tomorrow and you have a fully functioning cafe, trained staff, and established regular customers.

We just had one issue.

We weren’t profitable.

We were close. Another couple months on our trend and it would be. Another year and the bridge would open that had been under construction throttling the main street traffic by our shop. Another few months and the new developments next door bringing hundreds of new residential units and office spaces would open bringing new customers and clearing the scaffolding blocked sidewalks to foot traffic.

But we couldn’t carry it across that finish line. We were done.

It would hurt, but someone else could take it from here and get the benefit of our work and better timing.

So we put it up for sale.

The hardest part wasn’t finding potential buyers or selling the opportunity. That was clear. And it wasn’t the financial due diligence or anything like that.

It was the emotional gut punch of having people circle what had been lives for 3 years and pick it apart. A thing we had invested all of our time, all of our money, all of our selves into and it was being inspected dismissively like it was market fish potentially past its sell by date.

I wanted to tell them all to fuck off. They didn’t deserve it.

I wanted to tell them, nope, changed our mind, we’re keeping it and we’ll show you.

I wanted to just walk away and pretend it was someone else’s problem and forget about it.

But I wanted to get my investors whole. So here I was putting on a brave face talking to a potential buyer and showing them around as they critiqued every decision we had made, every aesthetic choice we had painstakingly selected, and detailing every change they’d made to gut the business of any evidence we had been there.

And to be honest. It felt like garbage but. They weren’t vultures. They weren’t being insensitive. They were investigating a potential major purchase. I get it. But it’s my story, this was my experience, and you need to understand the low that I was in.

Because it got worse.

I’m talking to him upstairs outside our office among the busy “everything must go” sale chaos that had packed our shop with customers grabbing armfuls of product.

And he’s asking me questions and scanning the shop thoughtfully.

When he let’s out this scream.

His head SNAPS sideways with his jaw slack and his eyes roll back into his head. Screaming.

The coffee I had gotten him upon his arrival hits the floor and goes everywhere.

I shit you not.

For a split second my brain can’t process what is happening and I just stare as my mind flips through a mental catalogue of scenarios trying to make sense of what I’m seeing.

Then he hits the ground and starts convulsing. And I realize.

He’s having a seizure.

Right here. Right now.

I shout to one of my employees to call 911 and drop to my knees to hold him as he shakes. A customer, a cyclist in full racing kit plus clippy shoes, waddles over careful not to slip on the coffee clacking across the wood floor. They also have a phone out and are dialing.

I honestly have no idea what happened next.

EMTs showed up, I don’t know how quickly. They wheeled him off, I don’t know when. They drove away, I don’t know where.

It was just a blur of muffled noises, shapes, and colors until I found myself standing in the parking lot as the ambulance drove away.

To tell you JUST how chaotic that day was with the sale and everything going on to close it down, all of this happened and my wife, who was in the store the whole time helping customers, HAD NO IDEA ANY OF THIS HAPPENED. She noticed the ambulance driving away and came out thinking it was one of the neighbors.

Now. Before I go further I have to say the guy ended up being fine. I never found out exactly what happened but eventually one of his partners responded and let me know he was ok although that was the end of our acquisition discussions.

I don’t meant to trivialize the experience for the sake of content. Health stuff like this isn’t anywhere on par with anything that happens in business. Let’s be clear about that.

But after that scare lifted, I was still left with the dire circumstances of my business.

I now had to close it. For good. And I wouldn’t see any value from the business beyond the fire sale floor value of anything physical I could sell.

And I tell the story in all its graphic detail because at the time I couldn’t help but feel cursed. Like BIBLICALLY cursed.

I mean, the business had value, I still think someone might have made it work. But once again seemingly cosmic forces intercepted whatever last Hail Mary I could throw. The thought crossed my mind, maybe I was the cause of the seizure. This guy’s only health issue was coming into contact with ME. Which is ridiculous but at this stage of the process rational thought wasn’t in surplus.

I mean, that is some all time WTF stuff after years of all time WTF stuff happening.

I’d eventually realize, though… it was never going to sell. It wasn’t the seizure that sunk the deal. It wasn’t bad luck, poor timing, or the divine winds of misfortune.

It was simpler. It was basic business stuff. It didn’t have the things needed for a sale.

It’s easy to point to things beyond our control - and I definitely had really good things to point to in order to shift the blame somewhere other than my abilities as a business person.

But I hadn’t built a business capable of selling.

The thing is. Had we had those 3 things, there’s no way I would’ve sold it. And without it, there was no way I could sell it.

I ask potential clients “what is the goal - what do you want to get out of this?”

They often respond they’re not sure, maybe sell it, maybe if they’re enjoying it keep running it or turn it over to an operator.

And truth is, the advice is the same. The work is the same.

To build the business you can sell, we need to build a business you won’t want to.

Because it’s profitable. It’s cash flowing. And it runs without you.

We’ve seen enough businesses that worked, that didn’t, that sold, that closed, and everything in between and we can help get your business on track for whichever option you choose: sell for life-changing money or run for consistent cash flow.

We do 6 week sprints that go end to end on your business and identify opportunities and priorities as you head into 2026.

Talk to us about a sprint to get your business into financial shape.

Keep it cash flowin’

Chase “at least I learned to make a great espresso” Spenst

Check out some things we made. If you’re familiar with these ads then it’s a fun IYKYK. If not, I think you get the picture for what we’re trying to say.