for your second question
"Maybe it could be neat to have a collection of small businesses as investments?"
i know few people that do it, including in the e-commerce business but few disclaimers apply
- it is usually connected to their primary expertise area (hosting services, website and traffic optimizations ,etc)
- they know their areas really well (SEO expertise ,etc)
- they have industry connections and do not pay rack rates for most/all of the services
- they off-load all non-essential services (book keeping, compliance ,etc) and focus on what they do well
- they have many side projects at the same time.
- they only work in areas there they believe they have specific insight or competitive advantage.
in short, people I know run small businesses as any other business. this is definitely not passive investment. it takes time, sweat, and at time tears to grow any of it.
if you are not willing to at minimum do the above, and hope to get passive investment out of purchasing small business, in my opinion you will be walking into area of high risk and soon be parted with your money. any business practices being advertised for sell is also a huge warning sign to me unless it is industry specific marketspace, valuations are based on time proven models , and the advertisement is usually an invitation to negotiations. i.e. financial services/investment management practices sell when owner wants to retire, but that is a multi year process, with independent evaluations, books review, earn out schedule, commitments for continuing involvement for former owner(s) to transition clients, revenue projects, payouts linked to future results ,etc. in short, it is buying an established book of business, understanding how much of it is predicted to walk away, understanding well the revenue composition and profit margins, knowing the industry well, and having a plan on what exactly your competitive advantage is. again, not a passive investment, and definitely not for 5k (thousand times that, may be).