Need some advice on a recent event that has flipped my world around a bit:
TL/DR: Father died, family needs to decide what to do with business he owned that is far away from everyone but holds great memories for all of us.
My father recently passed away very suddenly. He owns/owned a business in a very rural area of the country. He has owned the business for 20 years. All of my siblings and I have (as well as many of my cousins and friends) have all worked there for at least a couple of summers during school (high school and college). There has been some development and expansion of the business that has been in process for the last two years and will likely continue for at least another 18 months. Once that is complete and the business is back to ticking along and producing cash flow we will have two decisions to make:
Do we sell the business or keep it? If we keep it, who will run it? Right now my mother is stepping in to help get everything stabilized, but she has been retired for 10 years and while she feels a personal responsibility to the employees there she does not want to take it over long term. My siblings and I all live in major urban centers on the coasts and are all advancing our chosen career paths. I had always had in the back of my head that taking on partial management of the business would be part of my FIRE plan, but that would not be for at least another decade or more. My brother has expressed interest but he readily admits that he doesn’t have the business or financial sense to really operate it (he's more of a creative). My sister has no interest in taking over management responsibilities, but my BIL (her husband) has also expressed some interest in the business, and has been helping out a bit on certain projects already.
I don’t have a great picture of the financial workings of the business (although that will hopefully change in the next week or so) but on paper it should be able to produce a significant amount of free cash flow once all the development is complete. The largest revenue stream is a very high margin business as long as capacity is utilized appropriately. Overall once stabilized the business might be able to throw off enough cash that my share would be enough to cover our annual spending entirely.
One the other hand, based on appraisals done for the development financing, if we sold the business the amount I would receive (plus some life insurance money) would put us very close to our FIRE number. But then we lose the place that holds so many memories for us, and I would lose my potential FIRE project.
I am very well compensated in my current position and have been increasing my income rapidly in the last few years (tripled my income in the last 4 years with the chance to double it again in the next few). My spouse also makes a good income, although I make significantly more. The business cannot pay me what I currently make, but my current position is quite demanding (both in terms of hours and travel). If I quit to take over the business I worry that I am giving up a lot to take a gamble on a business that could be very susceptible to the ebbs and flows of the business cycle. My spouse also worries that I would be traveling as much if not more than I do currently to make sure everything runs smoothly, which is especially pressing right now because we have very young children at home.
We live in a HCOL on the fringes of an ULTRA-HCOL and this business is in a LCOL area, but we have no desire to move there. Bottom line is that we want to raise our children in a place where not everyone looks like them. My siblings feel similarly, although my sister and BIL live the closest (about 7 hour’s drive away).
What does the MMM hive mind think? What information am I leaving out that could help clarify people’s thinking? Anything I’m not considering? Thanks in advance.
