Most people trying to build serious wealth reach for the same two levers: stocks and real estate. Codie Sanchez, a former Wall Street investor who now runs an investment and advisory firm, Contrarian Thinking, says both are outmatched by a third option.
Her case rests on two numbers she cites often: 60% of all millionaires own a business, and among individuals with a net worth above $30 million, that figure climbs to 88%.
Sanchez laid out the broader argument in the third annual State of Main Street report, published by Contrarian Thinking on May 11, 2026. This is a 40-page study covering all 50 states and more than 50 metropolitan areas, drawing on Small Business Administration data, U.S. Census Bureau records, Google Trends, and proprietary buyer surveys.
Sanchez says buying a business beats starting one by a wide margin
Startups get the headlines, but Sanchez argues the math favors acquisition.
“Data tells you that the fastest way to become wealthy is to own a business,” she said in an interview with MoneyLion. “Most startups fail, 90% of them do.”
Buying an existing operation, by contrast, means inheriting customers, cash flow, trained employees, and supplier relationships that took years to build.
Sanchez said most people overlook the wealth-building opportunity in local business ownership.
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“Small businesses are the backbone of this country, and most people have no idea how much opportunity is sitting on Main Street right now … This report exists to put real data behind what we’ve been seeing on the ground, and to help buyers, lenders, and operators make smarter decisions,” she said.
The State of Main Street report frames acquisition as an overlooked entry point for ordinary earners who assume ownership requires millions of dollars in personal capital.
Sanchez has described the strategy as one of the most accessible paths to real wealth, available to anyone willing to learn deal structure.
That accessibility argument only holds, however, because of a specific demographic window that is opening right now.
Baby Boomer retirements are creating a historic window for buyers
Roughly half of all small businesses in the United States are currently owned by Baby Boomers approaching retirement.
About 2.3 million businesses were owned by Boomers preparing to exit as of Project Equity’s 2017 analysis of the 2012 US Census Survey of Business Owners, generating $5.1 trillion in annual sales and $949 billion in payroll.
Project Equity’s updated figures put U.S. businesses owned by people 55 and older at 2.9 million, supporting 32.1 million workers, $1.3 trillion in annual payroll, and $6.5 trillion in revenue.
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About 6 million small and midsize businesses will face ownership transitions by 2035, with more than 1 million viable candidates for sale representing up to $5 trillion in enterprise value, the McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility estimated.
Fewer than 15% of those businesses will pass to family members, and one-third of owners over 50 report difficulty finding buyers, Project Equity noted.
Alison Lingane, co-founder of Project Equity, has warned that without succession plans, many boomer-owned businesses will close down rather than transfer to new local ownership.
2 entry paths for first-time business buyers
Sanchez argues that buyers do not need to acquire a business outright to benefit from the wealth creation that ownership generates. The State of Main Street report highlights two entry paths that lower the capital barrier.
The first is skill-for-equity. Sanchez’s recommended starting point is to approach a friend, neighbor, or local operator who already runs a profitable small business.
Contributing specific skills marketing, bookkeeping, operations management, or sales can earn a prospective partner an equity stake without a large financial commitment upfront.
“It is intimidating buying a business, because of the costs, but also the responsibility,” Sanchez said. “That’s how I started buying businesses,” she added, describing how her own path began with partial stakes before scaling into full acquisitions over time.
The second path is federal lending. SBA 7(a) loan approvals exceeded $10 billion in a single quarter of fiscal year 2025, the second-highest quarterly total in program history, AmPac Business Capital reported.
For buyers with strong credit and a viable target, the loan program can cover the majority of an acquisition without requiring millions in personal savings.
Where the deal flow sits for first-time acquirers
The State of Main Street report identifies service-based businesses as the primary target for first-time acquirers seeking cash flow with manageable operational complexity. Laundromats, car washes, landscaping companies, pest control operators, and storage facilities rank among the most commonly acquired categories in the buyer network.
None of this eliminates the risk that acquired businesses still face closure, loan defaults, and industry-specific pressures that Sanchez’s framing does not dwell on.
What her data does establish is that the buyer pool sitting across from millions of retiring Boomers is small, and the window Project Equity and McKinsey have defined runs on demographic time, not market time.
For readers weighing where to put the next dollar, Sanchez’s argument is not that a laundromat beats an index fund. It is that the people who reach the top of the wealth curve tend to own something and that between now and 2035, the country will produce more chances to buy in than at any point in recent memory.
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