Corporate refugee

Definition

A mid-career employee who leaves a salaried job to buy a business instead.

Also written corporate refugees, corporate escapee.

Why It Matters

It is the commonest buyer this site describes: an operations director, a sales manager or an engineer in their forties who has run a budget and a team inside a company and would rather own a small one. The word carries affection and a warning. The refugee arrives with savings, a resume and habits built for a place with a payroll department, and the businesses that fit are the ones where a manager's skills transfer and the owner's trade license does not. The decide-stage pages here are written for exactly this person.

In numbers: A 44-year-old operations director with $180,000 saved and a $210,000 401(k) buys a $4,200,000 HVAC company. The retirement account funds the equity injection through a ROBS, a 7(a) loan and a seller note carry the rest, and the first year pays a salary below the old one.