LinkedIn – It Could Change Your Life, Really

LinkedIn is the business professional’s favorite social media platform. Most use it to connect themselves to opportunities that exist within their profession and new work opportunities. If you don’t think that’s true, talk to a headhunter. I recently had opportunity to speak to an executive IT placement firm owner who said that LinkedIn had all but destroyed his business. LinkedIn makes it easy for job seekers to connect with target companies. However, some are using LinkedIn for an entirely different purpose. They are taking advantage of it in a way that is guaranteeing a better financial future and retirement for themselves. Not everyone has the nerve to do what they’re doing. It takes courage, leadership skills, self-discipline and faith in your abilities. It can be a risky proposition, but like anything else, the reward is commensurate with the risk. These people are daring to do what their contemporaries and colleagues are too scared to do and thereby securing their future by virtue of their courage.

What Kind Of Buyers Are On LinkedIn

These people come from different backgrounds, but in many ways their profiles are similar. They are typically in their early 50’s and they’ve held executive positions in big business for years. They understand what it takes to manage people and build a company. They’ve been instrumental in their company’s growth and many feel unappreciated and have an underlying feeling that their efforts have made other people rich. If one sentence could be used to describe how they feel, it might be, “Now it’s my turn!”

What Are Young Entrepreneurs Looking For on LinkedIn

These captains of business aren’t looking for their next job on LinkedIn, they’re looking for the company that they are going to invest in and take the reigns of. They are looking for and finding companies to acquire, run, build, double in size and then sell 15 years down the line when THEY are ready to retire. These brilliant 50-Somethings know enough about business to know that building organically can take decades. They buy something with a good track record and cash flow. They don’t seek perfection. In fact, imperfect is better. Companies who lack a great website and need a serious upgrade in their sales and marketing provide opportunity for instant equity building. A few small tweaks, things that the current ownership is resistant to, will grow visibility, market share and position, as well as sales. Acquisition is the accelerator of financial growth. It’s the “easy button” for a new breed of entrepreneurs.

Searching For Business Acquisition Opportunities on LinkedIn

This category of buyer is increasingly using tools like LinkedIn to find appropriate acquisition targets to launch their entrepreneurial endeavors, rather than simply seeking the next corporate job. They are sick and tired of making other people rich. Is their endeavor risky? There is risk in everything. These folks many times are skilled at evaluating the risk from their corporate experience. They also see people within their current organizations being laid off, downsized and outsourced. They know they could be next. They accurately assess that relying on themselves over the course of the next 10-15 years will provide a better retirement than hanging around in corporate over that same period of time. Business ownership will also provide the autonomy that they lack and crave in their current positions.

Conclusion

What are these people buying? Increasingly they are turning to the manufacturing sector to provide the margins, security and longevity that they seek. Manufacturing provides security that can be lacking in other sectors. With the exception of a few months, manufacturing in the USA has been expanding in the last few years. What are you looking for on LinkedIn? For a real change and a secure future, perhaps you should consider looking for a business to acquire rather than your next job. It really could change your life!