Absentee owner

An owner who holds the business but no longer works in it.

Absentee owner in practice

Picture an owner who moved away five years ago and now checks in by phone once a month while a hired manager runs the shop. Hanil has no figure for this, since Mr.

Baek is still active in the business.

Shayne Fitz-Coy’s definition of Absentee owner

Every seller at the lower end says the owner is absentee. I have never actually seen one.

It is loudest below about five million of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), at the lower end of the lower middle market, and it is usually said by someone trying to sell.

The better-run small businesses have an owner leaned all the way in. That is key-person risk wearing a friendlier label, and the two are hard to pull apart.

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