How to Become a Main Street Millionaire

It started when I bought one little laundromat. Now I have a whole portfolio of small local businesses that bring in tens of millions in revenue a year. Here's why following my playbook could be your ticket to financial freedom-and saving America's local small businesses.

- CODIE SANCHEZ

I'll never forget the day I bought a laundromat, nearly a decade ago. It was my first real step toward financial freedom.

As I turned the key and shoved my shoulder into the jammed door, I paused to breathe it all in. That sweet smell of detergent...and mold. Aah! Then the doubts flashed through my mind: Codie, WTF have you gotten yourself into? You know nothing about washing machines. You barely do your own laundry! I batted the thoughts away. For better or worse, everything was about to change-because I had a theory, and I was putting my own money down to test it.

Here's the big idea: Buying Main Street businesses is the most underrated path to wealth. If you do it right and are willing to put in the work, it can not only pay you enough money to quit your job, but also allow you to pay someone else to run it with you. By Main Street businesses, I'm talking about small, local businesses that involve minimal intellectual property and provide a needed product or service-like car washes, laundromats, vending machines, storage centers, repair shops, pack-and-ship centers, and more.

Why are these so valuable? Consider this: Thirty-five percent of boomer-owned businesses have been in operation for more than a decade. Nearly 80% are profitable, with steady, loyal customers. And most of these businesses will end up permanently shutting down. They are too big for their competitors to buy out, yet too small for Wall Street to acquire. So when their owners retire, nobody else will take over. Their children don't want these businesses. Instead, the owners will simply turn off the lights and put the "closed" sign up one last time. Game over...

Unless you buy them.