Buying into a company or going it alone?

[Danm54]

I'm looking for a little guidance here as I'm having a hard time deciding the best/safest way to progress in my career.

Some background info.
I've been in the plumbing trade since leaving school 14 years ago, worked for my Dad for 11 years and I've been with my current employer for 3 years.
Plenty of experience in the trade and have full confidence in my work and abilities.

Lately I've been feeling like I'm coasting through the working week without much thinking or enthusiasm, nothing is really interesting me that much and the jobs are standard run of the mill stuff.

Now I don't know exactly where I want to go or what I want to do, but I know I've reached a limit with my current role and its time to settle in or move on, I want to move on.

Initially I was set on setting up my own company, lets assume finding work isn't an issue.

Either way I need to move on so I handed my notice in, its only a small company so its a chat with the boss to explain my reasons and formally hand my notice in.

Out of the blue the offer came to buy into the company and become a partner.
Now its not an option I considered previously and there's nothing wrong with working here as such, its just my current role isn't that interesting.

So before I carry on too much what are the benefits of buying into a small established company but only having say a 20% share vs starting on my own?

If you've read this far, thanks, any opinion is greatly appreciated.

 

[The_Abyss]

Well, the obvious benefits are a share in future profits and hopefully capital growth. However, you'd need to do a significant amount of due diligence before considering this, to establish what exactly you are buying and how much you should pay. Where's the value in this business - with the key people or key contracts, or both? Why are they looking to sell and bring in a new partner?

 

[Danm54]

The main value lies with contracts and the customer base.
However, good employees are valuable in this trade and they're hard to come by.

As for a reason to sell, apparently its something thats been talked about for a while, the company is busy and its limiting factor at the minute is that only one person is doing the pricing and organising of our bigger jobs.
Someone else needs to take some of the workload and I guess the best person for that is me. There's been an offer of a pay rise and a more managerial role but I wouldn't stay for that to be honest.

Its a family company currently joint owned by a couple who are looking to slow down over the next few years so if I was to buy in I'd need the option to increase my share over time.