An old acquaintance called me up a few weeks ago with a business proposition. He wanted me to come in as an investor in his business. I said I might be interested and agreed to meet with him to discuss it.

Since that time we've met on a few occasions. Our last meeting was just a few days ago. In each of these meetings the pitch has remained the same: I should buy in, because when this business takes off again in a few month's time it'll be a lot more expensive.

Now, when I'm presented with an "urgent" opportunity, the first thing I usually do is toss it into the round file. I couldn't exactly do that here. My fallback action is to ask questions.

It turned out he either didn't want to answer many of the questions I asked. I'd get non-answers or answers only in general terms. Specifics were hard to come by. Most of the answers I got were excuses. Most of the excuses had to do with being too busy to keep good enough records to have a specific answer to the question at hand.

With every successive mushy answer I knew better that I would not be investing in this gentleman's business. From what I could tell he was either barely breaking even, or losing money. His business is seasonal, so I could see why he'd be out selling this time of year.

If he's really interested in selling the business he should be doing it during the busy time. That's when he could be showing prospects a full parking lot and bustling customer activity inside.

If he's really interested in selling the business he might also want to come up with some hard data to show how receipts are growing and expenses staying under control. Profitable business ventures sell.

Unprofitable business ventures are taken over. And that's how our conversation ended, just a few days ago. The last question I asked him was one I knew he'd have problems answering in round about terms. After what I had learned about his business, I knew that if we were going to conclude our discussions on amicable terms, seller had to become unwilling buyer.

I asked him whether he though he would be comfortable working for me.