As I write this on April 21, the stock market indexes are all down about 3%.
My skepticism wonders if the market being driven down so government friends and family can do what all investors want to do, buy low and sell high?
But what’s it doing to our world, the small business market? Here are a few impressions:
- A client who sold his business in Q3 2024 and stayed on wrote me, “We’re nose deep in tariffs.” It’s a big-time sucking issue as they figure out what it means to their imported products.
- Sellers appear to be cautious, especially if in manufacturing and consumer products. Or, as per the above point, are they devoting so much time to tariff minutia they don’t have time to think about exiting? This too will pass.
- There are still a lot of buyers (especially want-to-be buyers) and what’s going on is a good excuse to back out. Not a bad thing as so many individual buyers aren’t going to by anyway (90-95% by all metrics). This is not affecting professional buyers like PE and Family Offices.
We are still optimistic, and we’ll move at the pace at which our clients want to move.
“I can dodge those raindrops without getting wet.” Raymond Redington