{"id":565250,"date":"2026-07-02T13:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T13:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/565250\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T13:51:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T13:51:12","slug":"millennials-are-now-buying-blue-collar-ai-proof-small-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/565250\/","title":{"rendered":"Millennials Are Now Buying Blue Collar, AI-Proof Small Businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"

When<\/strong> Andrew Kurzrok\u2019s wife, Michelle, became pregnant with their first son in 2023, he decided it was time for his life spending over 200 days a year on the road as a mid-level executive of Amphenol Sensors to end. He wanted a career that would keep him closer to their suburban Washington, D.C. home, while utilizing his manufacturing experience. And with a background in mergers and acquisitions, he thought about buying. So the Kurzroks evaluated hundreds of local companies for sale. Finally, last September, he closed on the purchase of 45-year-old family-owned Hopewell Sheet Metal Manufacturing, which operates out of a 30,000 square foot facility in Hagerstown, Maryland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a classic baby boomer-run business that was time for transition,\u201d with no third generation member of the family ready to run it, observes Kurzrok, who holds Yale MBA and bachelor degrees. But it suited his goals just fine. \u201cI am home with my family every single night. I am proud to say that I no longer have any frequent flyer status with the airlines,\u201d he laughs. \u201cIt\u2019s great. I\u2019m 30 pounds lighter because I\u2019m not eating food in airports all day long. Blood pressure is lower. That doesn\u2019t mean business ownership is easy; it\u2019s got its own stress, but I\u2019m really happy with the tradeoff I\u2019ve made.\u201d <\/p>\n

Kurzrok, 37, is part of a wave that small business experts long predicted would turn into a \u201csilver tsunami\u201d as millions of retiring small business owners sold out to younger entrepreneurs. Turns out, the number of baby boomer-run businesses that are actually salable may have been vastly overestimated. Small business consultant Alan Pentz explains most boomer companies \u201caren\u2019t really salable\u201d because they are one-man-bands without any real assets or a continuing book of business that will outlive the founder. <\/p>\n

But those that are purchase-worthy are finding a growing crowd of younger entrepreneurs eager to buy at the right price. As business brokers tell it, Hopewell is a perfect example of the type of companies that millennials like Kurzrok are now eagerly snapping up: smaller firms with recurring revenue, a solid customer base, expertise in a niche market, and books that are in order. Most in demand, they say, are businesses in blue collar trades, such as plumbing, electrical work, pest control, and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning). They\u2019re not sexy, but they generate revenue and, crucially, will continue to do well in the age of artificial intelligence. <\/p>\n

Last year, Andrew Kurzrok (right), bought Hopewell Sheet Metal from David Horn (left), whose family founded the business and ran it for 45 years.<\/p>\n

Andrew Kurzrok<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of buyers, younger buyers, who do want to buy these sleepy older businesses,\u201d says Chelsea Mandel, founder and managing director of Ascension Advisory, which specializes in both M&A and sale-leaseback deals<\/a>. \u201cThey want to buy a business that\u2019s a machine that can run itself. They don\u2019t want to buy a job,\u201d Mandel says of young entrepreneurs. She notes that manufacturing companies, if they run like \u201cwell-oiled machines,\u2019\u2019 are particularly hot at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like riches in the niches,\u201d quips Eric Pacifici, a partner at SMB Law Group, which has helped ink plenty of acquisitions of boomer businesses. What he means by that is that millennials, Gen Zers and even Gen Xers are looking to buy niche companies that serve a specific need, often in construction trades or other industrial-type work. \u201cThere is an acceleration in people who are interested in acquiring these businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hopewell Manufacturing is a perfect example: It does custom fabrication of ducts for HVAC systems in new buildings. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those little things nobody thinks about, but in its own little way makes the world go round,\u201d Kurzrok says of Hopewell, adding that business has remained steady since he took over last year. He\u2019s got small investments planned, but notes \u201cthe prior owners invested in the right equipment for the job. That was one of the things that attracted me to the business.” <\/p>\n

Patrick O\u2019Connell, founder of O\u2019Connell Advisory Group, says he\u2019s seeing small firms with government contracts, blue collar recruiting companies, construction companies, HVAC businesses and anything that seems to be more insulated from the rise of artificial intelligence becoming more attractive to younger would-be business owners. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s overall consensus that AI is not going to eliminate them, not yet at least,\u201d says O\u2019Connell, who worked with Kurzrok to close the acquisition of Hopewell. \u201cThere\u2019s a little bit of a moat in some of the home services if they require licensure,\u201d the way plumbing and electrical work does, he adds. <\/p>\n

Demand for HVAC businesses and the like isn\u2019t just being driven by individual millennial buyers, points out Chris Ward, the head of small business banking at TD Bank U.S. Private equity firms have latched onto the value of such basic services. \u201cMy brother is a general manager for a large HVAC company, and private equity firms are buying up HVAC because it\u2019s such a technical need we all have,\u2019\u2019 Ward says. \u201cWe need them in good times and bad.\u201d <\/p>\n

Part of what\u2019s generating demand for companies founded by boomers, says small business consultant Pentz, is the so-called \u201csearcher\u201d movement. Over the past decade-plus, young business students and MBA holders have increasingly latched on to the appeal of searching for and buying a small business, rather than building one from the ground up. This is also known as entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA). \u201cIt kind of became this joke, that you\u2019d go to Harvard Business School so that you could own a plumbing company in Sandusky, Ohio. That was sort of their dream,\u201d Pentz says. \u201cIt was like, what\u2019s going on here? Why don\u2019t you just go become a plumber?… You don\u2019t need to go to Harvard Business School.\u201d <\/p>\n

The searchers have been able to take advantage of SBA 7(a) loans of up to $5 million as a tool to buy up boomer companies. But in some cases, that has meant buyers have taken on loans for businesses they really weren\u2019t qualified to run. Some of these long-term loans (up to 25 years for real estate and 10 years for equipment) are made with adjustable interest rates, and when interest rates shot up in 2021, some loans failed, and fewer new ones were made, as criteria for obtaining the loans began to tighten up. <\/p>\n

So how many businesses are now changing hands? Heather Endresen, founder and owner of Viso Business Capital used a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain SBA loan data from 2019 through the first quarter of 2026. It shows a record 6,915 SBA-backed business acquisition loans worth $8.17 billion were closed in 2025, up considerably from just over $5 billion in 2023 and well above the last peak, in 2021. \u201cIt\u2019s much slower than a tsunami,\u2019\u2019 says Endresen, but boomer sellers \u201care slowly learning, they\u2019re being taught – by the buy side and the banks – what it takes to have a business that is salable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Endresen estimates that 85% of the boomer businesses that go on the market never end up selling. (See tips below for both sellers and buyers.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Those businesses that go unsold don\u2019t reflect a lack of demand, Pacifici stresses. They just don\u2019t pass muster. \u201cI can introduce you to some broker friends of mine who sell businesses. They\u2019ll list a good business, and they\u2019ll have 60 non-disclosure agreements [from prospective buyers] signed within 24 hours.\u201d In addition to blue collar businesses, Pacifici sees demand for bookkeeping and accounting services. \u201cThe reality is, if you have a decent business, you can get it sold,\u201d he concludes.<\/p>\n

Kurzrok, for his part, was specifically looking for a manufacturing company because that fit his experience. He advises other prospective buyers not to think too narrowly. \u201cIt has to be a business that you\u2019re interested in, but I wouldn\u2019t limit folks to, \u2018Well, I did connectors before, so I can only do a connector business,\u2019\u201d Kurzrok says. \u201cIt\u2019s much more about, what are the skills and activities you\u2019re doing every day? But fundamentally, if you don\u2019t like dogs, then you probably shouldn\u2019t own a dog grooming business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to look at somewhere between 100 businesses and 1,000 businesses to close one deal,\u201d Kurzrok says. \u201cIs this a business that not just historically has been good, but will it remain good and stable under you? \u2026 The most important thing I was looking for was transferability of the revenue. Could I actually step into the role and the business would continue?\u201d <\/p>\n

So far for Kurzrok, the answer has proven to be a resounding \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

4 Tips for Boomer Sellers <\/strong><\/p>\n