There's an even older way to take over a business without buying it.

Open your own, using guerilla tactics, and out-compete the people who already have that business.

That's how I started over 22 years ago. If you build a better mousetrap, provide better service, or satisfy any of your customer's complaints about the competition, you can gain their business.

In retail, that may mean having to gain a lot of accounts, for all the onesies and twosies orders.

But, if you do the same in B2B sales, you can earn a decent income, just by picking a couple dozen customers.

As a matter of fact, my Dad did the same over 40 years ago, back in San Antonio. He looked at the picture frame business there and saw only one primary competitor, with a couple very small competitors. He went to work for one of them for two weeks, learned what he needed to know first hand about the business, and made his plans.

He went to one of the smaller competitors and offered to buy them out. Once that was done, he acquired his location, moved their equipment and inventory, and opened his shop.

Within 18 months or less, he had the lion's share of all custom framing business in a city with over 600K population. Later he relocated to a larger building, added an art gallery, and started selling quality artwork on commission. He didn't do it as a "society, snobby, artsy-fartsy" gallery, but as a "We have some wonderful art and prints that would look great in your home or office", that appealed to a larger percentage of the population.

I guess I followed Dad's example when I got into promotional advertising - except that I never went to work for the competition. But, I also picked up a lot of competitor's accounts, without having to buy anyone else's business.

I could sell for any number of local companies, but opted to create my own sales position.

Dennis Bevers