The Midlife Crisis That Paid Off
Codie Sanchez faced a “midlife crisis,” a sharp turning point that called for action.
She’d done everything right. Award-winning journalist covering human trafficking in Mexico. Then the pivot to finance—climbing through Vanguard, Goldman Sachs, First Trust. Making serious money. Building a serious career.
And burning out. Completely.
Most people in her position buy a sports car. Or a boat. Or book a “finding yourself” trip to Bali.
Sanchez bought a laundromat.
She bought it seriously. She was standing in a coin-operated laundry in Texas, handed over a cheque, and saw it as her way out.
The Trap Nobody Talks About
Here’s the thing about high-income careers: the better they get, the worse the trap becomes.
At £50k, you’re surviving.
At £100k, you’re comfortable.
At £250k, you’re addicted.
At £500k, you’re imprisoned.
The more you earn, the harder it is to leave. Your lifestyle grows, your job title becomes part of your identity, and your skills become so specific that changing paths feels out of reach.
And the whole time, you’re building someone else’s machine.
A high-earning career can look impressive, but if you stop working, the income stops too.
This approach does not build lasting wealth. It just keeps you working to maintain your income. To better illustrate, consider a cash-flow comparison: the average UK worker earns £38,224 annually, and when you take a vacation or fall ill, that income may temporarily stop. In contrast, a small business like a laundromat can deliver steady monthly earnings with minimal oversight—even if you are away on holiday, according to PocketWise. For a concrete grasp, think of your job as a tap that stops flowing when turned off, whereas a laundromat is more like a river steadily feeding into your wealth pool.
Codie Sanchez looked at that treadmill and asked a different question: What if I owned freight trains instead?
Why “Boring” Beats “Sexy”
Here’s what Wall Street doesn’t tell you: startups are terrible investments.
Many people believe in the idea of startups and big exits, but the reality is different.
90% of startups fail within ten years. While the story of Juicero, a high-profile juicer startup that raised over $120 million in funding before collapsing, is well known, it overshadows countless lesser-known failures. Most startups fail, but we only hear about the rare successes. Many founders lose money by following the same path.
Now compare that to buying an existing small business:
The difference is that buying an existing business means the difficult work is already done. The business has customers, working operations, and a proven product. You are improving something that already works, not taking a big risk on a new idea.
Sanchez calls this “Main Street” investing. While Wall Street types chase the next unicorn, Main Street buyers acquire boring, profitable businesses that nobody brags about at dinner parties.
Laundromats. Car washes. HVAC companies. Plumbing businesses. Landscaping. Window cleaning.
These businesses are not glamorous.
But they are practical, generate steady cash flow, and are realistic for most people to buy.
The “Buy Box” for Busy Professionals
Not every business is worth buying. Sanchez has specific criteria—what she calls her “buy box”—designed for people who already have challenging professions. To apply these criteria effectively, readers should commence by analyzing businesses on essential factors such as profitability, operational simplicity, and resilience to recessions.
Consider focusing on enterprises that meet a minimum profit level to ensure managerial affordability. Evaluate whether the business model is simple enough to run with minimal involvement. Finally, focus on those supplying necessary services with reliable demand, even in economic slumps. This method helps narrow viable options, enabling clearer, implementable measures toward acquisition.
1. Pick the right business:
In the UK, companies run by owner-managers had a median turnover of between £250,000 and £500,000 during the 2022 to 2023 financial year. This suggests that businesses falling below this range may struggle to generate enough profit to support hiring a manager, potentially requiring the owner to handle day-to-day operations, which can undermine the goal of achieving financial independence.
2. Simplicity: Avoid complexity
Tech businesses need constant innovation. Service businesses often need you to be present. The best option is a simple business with steady, repeat income.
Think: Laundromats (machines wash clothes whether you’re there or not). Car washes (same principle). Property maintenance contracts (predictable, repeating work).
3. Recession-resistance: Basic services
When the economy crashes, people stop buying luxury goods. They don’t stop fixing broken toilets, washing clothes, or maintaining their HVAC systems.
The best businesses sell things people need, not things they want.
The “Double Life” Strategy
Here’s where Sanchez’s approach gets interesting: she didn’t quit her Wall Street job to buy businesses. Instead, she pursued two paths simultaneously, treating them as two rails of the same track. While working at Goldman Sachs, she was acquiring laundromats on the side. Instead of letting these efforts compete with each other, she created a system that supported them, laying a solid foundation for future success. While collecting an income, she was building a portfolio of cash-flowing assets.
This is a planned approach, not a risky one.
Your high salary isn’t just income—it’s leverage. Banks love lending to employed professionals. Your credit profile, your stable income, your professional qualifications—these make acquisition financing dramatically easier.
Your job can help you qualify for loans and make it easier to buy a business.
The playbook:
- Don’t quit yet. The “leap and the net will appear” advice is dangerous nonsense for people with families and mortgages.
- Maximize your income. Negotiate aggressively. Every pound of salary increase is a pound that can be used to fund acquisitions.
- Live below your means. The goal is to direct surplus income toward assets, not lifestyle inflation.
- Treat employment as paid education. Every skill you learn—management, negotiation, systems thinking, financial analysis—transfers to running your own businesses.
- Start acquiring. Use evenings and weekends to find, analyze, and purchase your first business.
The aim is not to work two jobs long-term. The goal is to build enough income from your business so that your job becomes optional.
How to Buy Without Millions
“But I don’t have the cash to buy a business.”
Neither did Sanchez. Neither do most successful acquirers.
Here’s the secret: 60% of small businesses sell with some form of seller financing. It’s similar to a mortgage, where the homeowner doesn’t pay the entire purchase price upfront. Instead, they make a down payment and pay the remaining amount in installments. In the same way, with seller financing, you might pay a portion upfront and settle the rest over several years using the business’s cash flow.
What does that mean? The owner acts as the bank. Instead of paying £500k upfront, you might pay £100k down and the remaining £400k over five years from the business’s own cash flow.
Why would sellers do this? Because:
- They get a higher total price.
- They receive income over time (useful for retirement)
- They have confidence that the business will succeed (since their payout depends on it)
The Financing Stack:
- Seller financing: 30-60% of purchase price, paid over 3-7 years
- SBA loans: Government-backed loans with attractive terms for small business acquisitions
- Equipment financing: Loans secured by the business’s physical assets
- Your down payment: Often only 10-20% of the total price
A £500k business might require only £50-100k of your own capital. The rest is structured financing that the business itself pays off.
Don’t Buy a Job
Here’s the biggest mistake busy professionals make: they buy a business and accidentally buy themselves a second full-time job.
The laundromat is now “their” laundromat. They’re there on Saturdays fixing machines. They’re managing employees. They’re handling customer complaints.
They end up working even more than before.
Sanchez’s approach is different. When she bought her first laundromat, she immediately hired an experienced manager.
She hired a manager from the start, not later on.
Yes, this cuts into margins. A manager might cost £30-50k per year. But the alternative—spending 20 hours weekly on operations—costs something more valuable: your time and sanity.
The modernization opportunity:
Here’s where your professional skills become valuable. Most small businesses are “sleepy”—they haven’t been updated in years or decades.
You can:
- Install modern sales processing systems.
- Add multiple income streams (laundromat → add wash-and-fold service)
- Improve customer experience
- Implement proper accounting and KPIs
- Professionalize marketing
These upgrades are trivial for someone with corporate experience. For the retiring owner who’s run the business the same way since 1985, they’re transformative.
Your competitive advantage isn’t your capital. It’s your skills.
The Reality Check: Due Diligence
This process is not easy or automatic.
Buying a business is hard work. The business complexities are real. Anyone who tells you it’s “passive income from day one” is selling you something.
The RICH Framework:
- Research: Define exactly what type of business fits your skills, interests, and constraints. Don’t buy a restaurant if you’ve never worked in hospitality.
- Invest: Get skin in the game, but never risk bankruptcy. A failed acquisition shouldn’t destroy your family’s financial security.
- Command: Build systems and metrics that let you monitor the business without daily involvement. If you can’t see the numbers remotely, you don’t own a business—you own a mystery.
- Harness: Use early acquisitions as stepping stones. The first business teaches you how to buy and operate. The second one is easier. The third is easier still. Scale toward bigger goals.
Due Diligence is mandatory:
Before signing anything:
- Audit three years of tax returns
- Review monthly profit and loss statements.
- Verify customer concentration (is 80% of revenue from one client?)
- Inspect physical assets
- Understand legal obligations (leases, contracts, employees)
- Talk to customers and suppliers.
If you do not do this, you may end up with serious problems.
The Hierarchy of Freedom
Sanchez talks about something she calls “ideological freedom.”
Most people stop at financial freedom—earning enough to cover expenses without working. That’s level one.
Ideological freedom is level two: the ability to say what you think, do what you believe is right, and make decisions based on values rather than fear of losing a paycheck.
This is the real benefit of owning a simple, steady business.
Not Instagram clout. Not dinner party stories. Not impressive titles.
Freedom. The real kind.
The Action Plan
Step 1: Calculate your “stop working” number
How many months could your family survive if your income stopped tomorrow? If the answer is less than 12, you’re more trapped than you think.
Step 2: Redirect 20% of income toward freedom
Not “savings.” Not “retirement accounts.” A dedicated fund for acquiring income-producing assets.
Step 3: Browse one business marketplace this week
BizBuySell. Flippa. Local business brokers. Just look. See what’s for sale in your area. Notice the laundromats, the HVAC companies, the cleaning businesses.
The unsexy stuff you’ve walked. The businesses you usually ignore could be your way out. Your neighbourhood.
The window washing van. The pest control truck. The landscaping crew. The laundromat on the corner.
Most busy professionals overlook these businesses. They are not flashy or likely to become huge companies, and they do not get media attention.
But they do not require long hours, can run without you, and keep earning even if you take time off.
You may have spent your career working hard and improving your performance.
The goal now is different.
You are not just working in the system. You are building a system that works for you.
Focus on building something steady and reliable, even if it is not exciting.
Codie Sanchez figured this out standing in a coin-op laundry in Texas.
Where will you figure it out?
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This post is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Always do your own research and, if needed, obtain advice from a qualified financial adviser regulated by the FCA.
Good luck on your journey!
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